Every company and organization has an innate power structure, whether acknowledged or not. The structures mentioned have an impact on how work is done, who carries it out, and how they feel about the final results. Integrative Inquiry Consulting offers a great definition of what power is:
Power is defined as the ability to choose our response to situations, as well as our ability to direct or influence the behavior of others. This can include the right to be seen, heard, and valued for our perspectives and opinions when discussing power in equity. Viktor Frankl, a well-known psychologist, recognized the importance of self-determination and choosing our own attitudes about our lives, stating that everything can be taken away from a person except for the ability to choose one's own response to a situation.
Power imbalance can lead to an inequitable environment that disadvantages certain groups of people leaving them to feel unheard, undervalued, and invisible. What follows is a lack of engagement, loss of agency, and oftentimes, fear. Inequitable power dynamics almost always create a negative culture leading to bullying, abuse, and toxicity.
Can you picture this in the workplace where you earn your living now? Maybe this is the reality you are experiencing every day. If you're feeling powerless at work, you're not alone. It's frustrating to feel like your voice isn't being heard, and the hierarchical structures in place can make it difficult to speak up.
It's essential to examine the systems that enable power imbalances to persist. We can't allow these structures to continue to silence and undervalue employees. By working together, we can create a more equitable and supportive workplace where valuing an employee is not just an empty PR statement, but rather an embodied cultural practice at both the systemic and individual levels. .
Remember, feeling powerless at work can take a toll on your mental health and overall job satisfaction. It's crucial to take steps towards change, whether that's speaking up, advocating for yourself, or working towards reforming the systems in place. But ultimately, shifting these kinds of workplace dynamics are not the sole responsibility of workers, especially if there is a culture of punishment or discouragement of critique. Shifting power dynamics requires participation at all levels, with particular buy-in and support from those who do actually hold institutional and positional power. This work requires collaboration, honesty, transparency, and openness. But as a starting point, it’s vital to remember that you deserve to feel empowered and valued in your workplace, and that this kind of culture of value is not only worth working for… it’s also possible to achieve.
You might have heard the phrase: "This is not a democracy," about how an organization carries out its mission. People who hold power within an organization often utter these words. They believe this utterance will remind employees that they should remain compliant with the orders thrust upon them. Whatever the case, many employees state that these attitudes prevent them from putting in their best efforts for an employer. Instead, it only reinforces the notion that they hold little power and don't have agency within the organization. Another way that this dynamic shows up is when organizations claim to value democracy, gather feedback from employees to make them feel as though their voice and opinions matter, only to never take meaningful action on that input. This can feel not only undemocratic, but also like a deep betrayal of trust.
A host of other behaviors and attitudes exemplify the unstable power dynamics of many organizations. When the leaders of an organization are the only ones who have respect and are listened to, this often leads to disgruntled employees or worse. Hrzone.com notes that some of the following problems may emerge if they do not address power imbalances:
Most leaders certainly don’t want to foster this type of hostile environment within their organization, but they must open their eyes to these harsh realities if they want to make a change. This might mean restructuring the organization from the ground up. Ultimately, leadership is responsible for modeling an ethic of equity and democratic decision-making that honors individual agency and positive workplace dynamics. But this type of leadership requires a level of transparency and willingness to share power that often contradicts or resists traditional hierarchical decision-making models that most leaders are used to. When you add into this equation things like unconscious bias, identity privilege(s), and histories of systemic harm, we are often left with a complicated web to untangle in the pursuit of a way of working that gets us closer to our visions of liberation and equity. But as civic and cultural institutions that are committing to becoming more equitable, this work of awareness building, unlearning, and untangling is often where organizations need to start before every beginning to figure out what equitable partnerships with external communities can look like.
Knowing how to identify power abuses within a workplace or any other organization is helpful. When you know what to be on the lookout for, it is easier to speak up when you see it occurring. Here are some examples that are all too common.
Many workplaces have some expectations that workers will pull overtime now and then. It may be perceived as necessary to complete a specific project or to fulfill some of the needs and requests of members or clients. Being asked to work overtime is not necessarily an abuse of power. However, abuse may be present when forced overtime explicitly targets an individual or team of employees. The circumstances are even worse if they do not correctly compensate for overtime.
Many nonprofit organizations have a culture that romanticizes overwork and burnout, making it seem like a badge of honor to work long hours and sacrifice personal time for the cause. Leaders may manipulate employees into thinking that working extra hours shows their commitment to the organization's mission and that their rest and work-life balance aren't as important as what the organization is trying to accomplish in the world. This can lead to a work environment where employees feel resentful, powerless and undervalued, and their health and well-being are compromised for the sake of the organization's goals. It also perpetuates an ethic of struggle when workers are undercompensated for their labor, and which also may exacerbate the oppressive conditions of systemically and historically underpaid people, such as women and people of color.
Psychology Today explains just how powerful of an emotion embarrassment is:
Embarrassment is a painful but essential emotional state. Most researchers believe that embarrassment makes people feel bad about their social or personal mistakes as a form of internal (or societal) feedback so that they learn not to repeat the error.
One does not have to be a psychologist to understand that embarrassment can be weaponized against someone, and make them feel forced to change a specific behavior. However, using humiliation against an employee is not only an abuse of power — it is dehumanizing. These sorts of tactics of control are also very often used against people of marginalized identities to reinforce the oppressive social order or status quo. This can be both conscious and unconscious. There are far better ways to get employees to change their behavior while in the office. A superior who uses embarrassment against their employees is abusing their control and may ultimately drive talented and passionate people away. Have you experienced or witnessed embarrassment or humiliation in the workplace? How did it make you feel about your workplace?
Do you ever feel like some of your bosses believe they are above the rules? Do they expect you to follow every organizational policy to the letter, but don't bother doing so themselves? How does it make you feel when your supervisors ignore the same organizational policies and regulations they lay out for everyone else? It's not just a slip-up or mistake, it's a routine habit. This is an abuse of power, and supervisors who engage in this behavior should be held accountable for their actions. It’s also important to consider whether or not organizational policies and rules actually align with and reinforce the organization’s stated values. If they do not, it may be worth having conversations with HR or other leadership staff to consider updating or changing policies to better reflect evolving commitments to equity and inclusion from the inside out. Curious about what that could look like? Read about some of the policy changes former Change Network member St. Joseph County Library implemented through their collaboration with Latinx youth in South Bend, Indiana.
Employees can only perform their job effectively if they have access to the information necessary to do it well. If someone within the company intentionally withholds information from employees, there is a problem and an abuse of power is present. There is no legitimate reason to restrict "need-to-know" information from those who require it. If you experience this, report it to someone who can intervene and take action on your behalf. What is considered “need to know” information may vary from place to place and role to role. Some examples might include:
People who have experienced abuses of power in the workplace can often feel a pervasive sense of powerlessness that affects their professional and personal lives. This feeling can be especially intense if the abuse has gone unchecked for an extended period of time. In some cases, it may seem as though there is no way to regain a sense of agency or control, leading to feelings of hopelessness and despair.
Nevertheless, it's important to remember that powerlessness is not a permanent state. While the road to regaining a sense of power and control may be difficult and require significant effort, it is always possible to take steps towards reclaiming your power. By seeking support, developing concrete strategies to combat the problem, and advocating for yourself and others, you can begin to shift the power dynamic in your workplace and create a more equitable and democratic environment.Ultimately, the goal is to shift the balance of power away from a small group of individuals and towards a more collective and collaborative approach.
Feeling powerless at work can be overwhelming and demoralizing, but you're not alone. It's time to take action and address the inequitable and abusive systems that are making you feel this way. You can start making changes today to reduce these feelings of powerlessness. By taking steps to address power imbalances, speaking up about abuses of power, and advocating for yourself and others, you can begin to shift the power dynamic in your workplace and create a more equitable and democratic environment. Remember, you deserve to feel empowered and valued in your workplace. Don't let these toxic power dynamics continue to hold you back.
It’s important to acknowledge that most of us live in a society where inequity and oppressive hierarchical power structures are the norm. Therefore, even the most well-intentioned and even revolutionary workplaces can and do find themselves with issues related to power dynamics that must be looked at and addressed honestly. The real level-up is having systems in place that allow for honest critiques of how we are operating, how we are caring for ourselves and each other, and how we are living into our stated values. Through ongoing checks for accountability and integrity, organizations can continue to shift, evolve, and change toward more equitable workplaces from the inside out.