Why Should We Be Talking About Psychological Safety At Work?

In one of my first jobs, I learned a lot of valuable lessons from a coworker of mine. This person was not my manager, but I worked directly with them. We started working together out of necessity – I needed to work more hours to live and to grow my career, and they needed the support from someone who knew what they were doing. I had a great track record and a good level of experience to be a strong contributor. I was excited at the prospect of everything I could learn from this person who had such a mature and decorated career.

My excitement was quickly deflated. This person was quite senior in their role and acted as though their tenure gave them license to order people around. When things didn't go exactly their way, they stomped around in a rampage without a care for who they pummeled in their path. The lack of repercussions for their actions only encouraged them to carry on with invincibility.

I remember a time they dismissed me early by 15 minutes on the condition that I would return their overdue videos. It turned out that was not at all a condition but a demand. More orders of the like followed and I joked with my friends that I would draw the line at the task of retrieving their laundry.

For the time we worked together, I often left our interactions feeling looked down on and not worthy of being on their team, let alone in the same room. Though our work directly impacted one another and we were on the same team, we reported to different managers who had different ideas of how to take charge of the situation. Their manager knew that this person had a history of interpersonal challenges, and so did my manager. And unfortunately, these managers often felt that what I was going through with wasn’t a ‘big deal’ and it was up to me to figure out a way to keep this person happy. It was clear that my problem was not their problem. As it turned out, everyone at every level was terrorized by this person, but no one took action.

At the time, I was living through my own personal version of Hell (let’s not go through that part of the story right now, I need to leave something compelling for you in my memoir). I tried so hard each day to show up doing my best work and being my best self. When I made a mistake, which I did (turns out I’m a human, oops!), I tried to own the mistake and quickly learn from it. Forgiveness was nearly impossible, and I was marked as useless and incompetent. No matter what I did or how hard I tried, nothing was as good as my predecessor (who ultimately left the role because they could no longer subject themselves to the abuse). Everything was picked apart and criticized – not constructively – and they took every opportunity to openly humiliate and berate me in front of colleagues and clients.

To say this experience took a toll on me, would really be an understatement. I can't begin to comprehend how I managed to survive. The closest I can come to understanding it is that I was managing through so much emotionally and physically in my personal life, that I was completely numb to the damaging environment I was working through.

Even today, so many years later, it’s painful to reflect on how much stress I had and how awful it all felt.

I believe too many people have their own version of this story. And while I can’t change the past, I can learn from it and do my best to change the future of work, helping to put an end toxic cultures and situations like this. I’m learning everyday, and trying my best to bring out the better in myself as well as others.

In Canada, February is Psychology Month. In learning about this, I went down a rabbit hole and started researching about Psychological Safety in the workplace.

According to the University of Alberta, a psychologically safe workplace is one where every reasonable effort is made to prevent harm to mental health through negligent, reckless, or deliberate conduct. And, a psychologically healthy workplace is one where every reasonable effort is made to promote mental health through awareness, resources and education.

Psychological safety is critical for team performance and function, as much as it is for the benefit of a healthy organization. When I try to relate this back to my early experience, I wonder how different things could have been if psychological safety would have been more clearly recognized, celebrated, and actioned. I wonder how many other young professionals could have used a stronger set of leaders to make a reasonable effort and prevent the kind of harm I endured? How many others could have benefitted from someone stepping up and changing the environment to be welcoming, inviting, and accepting for each person to be a human?

I’m not a manger of people (yet), and luckily, I’m reminded of this nearly daily. But I’m not trying to be a manager, even when I do get the title. My goal is to be a strong leader, and an excellent one at that. One of the most important things I do for my team, is trying to create an environment where they feel supported and respected, and where they have the space to make mistakes and learn from them. We celebrate our differences, our strengths, and our shortfalls through openness and honesty. We recognize how each other feels, and how we can contribute to improving the environment for each other. Forgive the past, learn from the mistakes, and leave out the judgement. We can do better each day, but we need to work together.

As I said, I’m still learning and making mistakes, and learning from them. I bet you are too. What do you do to create a psychologically safe workplace? My inbox is open if you’re not ready to be bold in the comments. Let’s learn from each other!