How comms pros can prevent ‘organizational gaslighting’

Picture this: Employee A is hired by Manager A to work at a well-known tech company. During the recruiting process, Manager A touts the company’s values and ideals to Employee A, telling them all about how workers are encouraged to be self-motivated and look into new projects themselves.

Once Employee A begins work with the company, they continue to hear from managers and the company’s C-suite about how independence is encouraged. However, Employee A soon realizes that workers should be self-motivated in name only, as Employee A can’t get through a single step of a project without having it checked by Manager A.

Employee A might think to themselves, “This isn’t the job I signed up for. Why is everyone talking about independence while, in practice, we’re subjected to tons of oversight?” Employee A might consider looking for another job.

This is an example of what Melissa Boggs calls “organizational gaslighting.”

Boggs, a corporate leadership coach and employee experience designer, coined the term to describe what happens when organizations sell themselves on their company culture but fail to live up to those promises — and do so knowingly, to some degree.