Arriving on your first day at your new job was more than exciting. It was going to be a change in your life, both helping you personally and professionally. Things seemed fine at first because you were the new kid on the block. You were slowly taken through the ropes of your role and how you are expected to work. Getting used to new programs, procedures and all the different people working with you was fun. Then one day something a little out of the blue happened. Feeling like you were pressured into taking on a little extra than you thought you would, you performed a task that wasn’t in your job description. You got home late exhausted and thought it was a bit rich to be doing something that seemed like wasn’t your responsibility. But it’s a new job; you’re bound to get dumped on and used as the new mule right? Wrong, this kind of behavior isn’t something that you have to put up with.
Taking one for the team?
Since you’re new, you don’t want to step on anybody’s toes. A voice in your mind tells you to think of your family, the bills and your career prospects and shutting up and getting on with it would be best. You convince yourself that maybe if you take one for the team, they’ll like you more and treat you as part of their work friends. Social media is a big part of professional life now, and if you overhear colleagues talking about a workgroup on Facebook or Twitter, you want to be invited to join it. But are you sure that you are taking one for the team and not just being taken advantage of? Even if you’re not new at your job and you find yourself doing tasks that don’t seem part of your forte, you need to break out of a submissive cycle. If you work in marketing but keep getting told to write a proposal for another department that has nothing to do with yours, surely this is some form of extortion.
When it gets too much
Let’s be clear here, being forced to do jobs that aren’t in your pay grade and or expertise and to the point that hurt your ability to work normally and go home at the same time as everybody else, is a form of bullying. It can impact your emotional state adversely and make going in to work a chore rather than a joy. As time goes on your mental capacity begins to show signs of wear and tear, and you can sink into depression and hyperstress. It’s a short way away to popping headache pills and being unable to get a good night sleep. A fear of being fired and being pushed to work more and harder than you should be can lead to a mental breakdown. But your boss will position themselves for maximum deniability. A personal injury attorney doesn’t just take on cases that involve physical harm, but emotional and psychiatric cases too. Taking a company to court over mental abuse is a tough job as in order to attain a successful judgment, you need to convince jurors. So having a lawyer that knows their way around this type of case building and expressing is utterly paramount.
Remember, you’re not a servant you’re an employee. A company has no right to make you feel as if you are their property. Fight for your rights and if need be, make them pay for the hurt they cause you mental or otherwise.
