Moral Injury at Work: Reclaiming our Agency through Bettering.

Sometimes our jobs can make us tired - nothing shocking about that. But what if your job does not just make you tired... It makes you angry, guilty, poisoned, or dirty on the inside?

What if your "leaders" make you feel ashamed? Like when you are told to lie to your customers, or “edit” the data as to not “stress” the public, overcharge the marginalized, or use inferior and unsafe materials in constructing a condo project?

What if you and your team were betrayed - took on a major project on the promise of resources, only to have those resources diverted elsewhere, while you were still held responsible for the project?

You might be experiencing a workplace moral injury. After I published my Fast Company article which defined it?as "a trauma response to witnessing or participating in workplace behaviors that contradict one’s moral beliefs in high-stakes situations with the potential of physical, psychological, social, or economic harm to others," I received many questions. In this newsletter, I will answer three of the most common – and please, keep those questions coming!

Q. 1. Is the “injury” or “trauma” perspective disempowering? Does it mean embracing the “bad things happened to me/poor me/victim mentality?”?Does it take away our agency?

Absolutely not. Understanding and naming the problem does not take away our agency. It directs our agency in a way that our efforts are most effective.

Acknowledging the reality can be painful, but it is also empowering. We know that the world impacts us, sometimes negatively - but that does not mean we don't have free will or can't choose how we respond to events or what situations we seek in the future.

Q. 2. What if my job is injurious but I really need the income, and it is hard to find jobs where I live/at my age/with my education, etc.

Those limitations are very real. Because they are real and painful, sometimes we come to see improvement as impossible. We tell ourselves that obstacles to leaving bad situations are unsurmountable. But are they? Where do those beliefs come from? Does your organization imply that nobody else will hire you? Have people compared you to others, always unfavorably, and now you automatically do the same?

What is really stopping you? Can you take small daily actions toward overcoming it? Apply for one job? Make one connection? Save one dollar? Perhaps start learning one skill? Explore a potential move? Ask for help?

Often, the change must start within. Catch yourself on one dysfunctional thought. Let a trusted friend challenge your thinking and your excuses (yes, we all have excuses). Is it true that you are not good at anything?

Again, don't do everything at once; just commit to doing one thing, mental or physical, that can move you toward being and doing better, every day. I call this “bettering” – a process of taking small steps, consistently, to be and do better. When I forget to do this, I get sucked into the catastrophic, all-or-nothing thinking that tells me that I failed – or that the world failed me – and that I might as well give up.

But then, I remind myself that I don’t have to be perfect to be doing better, and life does not have to be perfect to be improvable.

My mother was laid off, in a terrible economy, 2 months before she would be eligible for full retirement benefits. Without those 2 months, her almost 35 years of work be counted as 25 years, with much lower pay-out. She has been with that organization for 20 years, and this was a terrible way to thank someone for their service. I don't know how many jobs she applied for...many. Nothing worked - nobody wanted older workers. So she started asking for volunteer positions ... I am sure it was not fun to ask for volunteer positions with all that experience. But she got one - and after they saw just how good she was, 2 months of volunteering turned into15 years of highly fulfilling work. Her commute was 10 minutes instead of an hour. She had a wonderful boss and caring colleagues. Getting that initial volunteer position was bettering - a small step of agency, not toward the ideal or perfect, but toward something better.

Q.3. What is the ultimate, best possible hope for those who experienced moral injury?

Experiencing injurious events is not the same as becoming injured. But even if you have been injured, it is possible to turn the experience into significant growth.

In 1990s, Richard Tedeschi and Lawrence Calhoun developed the idea of post-traumatic growth. They observed that some military veterans or people who experienced hardships such as natural disasters could develop a new appreciation of life, find personal strengths they did not know they had, develop better relationships, explore new possibilities in life, and grow spiritually. In my case, multiple and repeated experiences with discrimination and dehumanization at work propelled me toward exploring new ways of helping create more inclusive and human-centric workplaces. I am bettering myself while working toward a better world.

Please remember that our value systems, our beliefs, our psychological make-up are all very different. There is not “one proven approach” that will work for everyone. When moral injury had occurred, most of us benefit from leaving or actively changing the situation, and making amends, whenever possible. Beyond that, some may thrive with self-care or journaling. Others particularly benefit from spiritual guidance, group work, coaching, or professional therapy. Exploring what works best for you is a part of bettering.

And of course, we should never forget gratitude. I would be amiss if I did not thank my amazing friend, learning engineer Julia Phelan, founder of To Eleven for making a short and informative video about moral injury. Perhaps you could greatly help someone just by sharing it.

If you would like to share your experience with moral injury by participating in my research, please sign up here.

Please let me know what you would like to discuss in the next newsletter!