Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Abuse

The thought has crept into my mind a few times the past couple of weeks: Why is it we tolerate being treated sub-par at work or in social settings in ways that would be considered abusive in a relationship?
As much as we build each other up and work as teams at work or elsewhere, there is an awful lot of battering that happens. People yell, throw swear words your direction, refer to each other as "stupid" or "incompetent," give the silent treatment, degrade one another to the point of feeling totally worthless, the list goes on.
Why do we tolerate this?
If someone in a romantic relationship treated you that way, it would definitely be considered verbal/emotional abuse. Do people stay in that type of situation because they are made to feel they are not valuable to that person/organization, let alone valuable to anyone else? What makes it ok with work? Is it because they pay us?
For the record, I am not currently experiencing this, but it has happened in the past.
Think about it though...how often do you let yourself be "abused" because it is your job? So not cool.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Because sometimes you get pressure from outside sources or covenants that you are supposed to live up to...

Mena said...

I think you can just get used to it so that you don't realize it's wrong.