IT is a norm in our society to insult your workplace juniors verbally, and things only get serious when there is even a remote hint of things getting physical. Although verbal abuse is a common practice at workplace, I am unable to find any law to stop such practices.

Labour laws usually protect non-executive employees as they have a law to form a union and their human rights get an umbrella protection. I was myself abused by a person; he continued using abusive language, which was a mental agony.

How come ill-mannered people manage to get to the top of an organisation? Some organisations have in place a fitness and evaluation test for all departmental heads. I was unable to find any question in the test relating to mental fitness. When someone faces a psychologically ill person at workplace, the person starts spreading this ‘disease’ faster than any virus or bacteria. The workplace becomes toxic.

What about anger management and emotional intelligence? Top executives should learn how to control these. They have complete command over their emotions when it comes to their own interests, but tend to lose temper when they interact with their subordinates, knowing that they would not be questioned by their superiors.

There should be clear laws for the safety of whistleblowers regarding workplace abuse, as top managements may have been harassing their subordinates and committing other such acts without anything ever being reported.

Baqar Rizvi
Karachi

Published in Dawn, November 23rd, 2020