Evil and the Modern Workplace: From coping to caring

There’s a lie we tell ourselves in workplaces today: that bad behavior is extraordinary, that it's the result of a few personality-disordered individuals, who will eventually be found out and face justice: the Mike Jeffries and Harvey Weinsteins of our otherwise commercially tough but essentially benign corporate cultures.

What if evil in our workplaces is more insidious: stitched into our daily routines so tightly that we can not see where it begins or ends? What if, rather than facing flagrant atrocities, we’re complicit in a quieter, subtler form of evil every day, all the while telling ourselves we’re just "doing our jobs"?

For the people who turned the gas on at Belsen, it was simply business as usual.

This idea, as Hannah Arendt expounded decades ago in "Eichmann in Jerusalem", her study of the trial of a concentration camp guard, speaks to the very heart of evil’s quiet, persistent nature: it lives not in grand gestures but in the unthinking acceptance of harmful norms.

The term “banality of evil”, coined by Arendt, encourages us to consider the dull, procedural elements of systems that encourage harm or overlook human worth. It happens in small ways: when a manager disregards a subordinate's ideas or when profit becomes a justification for exploitation.

Workers in far away countries face injury in factories with inadequate safety measures, to meet the cost price targets we agreed with management. Call centre employees in India face daily racial verbal assault, so we can show our investors "growth".

Evil in the workplace thrives on the tacit agreement that the individual does not matter, so long as the communal goal is achieved. And we are asked not to examine the validity or moral worth of the communal goal. Under this model, toxic culture isn’t born from a single villain but from a collective complacency. The shift from coping to caring starts here: by choosing to see.

Recognising Evil in Everyday Operations

In many companies, will to power hides behind “necessary evils” or “business as usual.” The formalities of budget cuts or mass layoffs, the rebranding of humans as “resources,” and the proliferation of metrics that reduce performance to numbers all reveal a workplace culture that depersonalises, alienates and ultimately harms.

Knowingly causing harm to others is as good a definition of evil as I need. It is one I have worked with for several decades. And I have seen it in leadership team meetings where HR talk clearly of "wanting people to feel the pressure", with CEOs who have intentionally scheduled meetings on the birthdays of the children of high-fliers who have got a little too comfortable, and on countless more personal and horrifying cases, including a sexual assaut at work covered up by telling the victim to resign "for reasons they well knew but which we won't go over with you to save your own embarrassment". Broken, shamed, they did, as the HR Director stood over them, and took away the laptop with vital evidence of correspondence with the perpertrator that could have supported a legal, nevermind HR, process. The perpetrator quietly moved on a few months later. That HR Director is still in post.

Surviving Evil

When we do encounter evil in the workplace, the horror and fear we feel can overwhelmingly drive us to focus on survival. We want to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe.

Whilst relatable, this leads us often into becoming standbyers, silent witnesses and apologists for the intentional harm being done to others.

We are reminded of the quote, misattributed to Edmund Burke, that "“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” 

And all we really hope is...they won't come for us next.

The imperative of removing yourself from the influence of evil

Evil in the context of the modern workplace is often subtle and insidious, weaving itself into the fabric of day-to-day interactions in ways that are easy to dismiss. Toxic colleagues impact on our wellbeing is insidious and most are all too aware of email chains or screenshots that can be used as evidence: they operate more subtly.

As Bruno Bettelheim argued in The Uses of Enchantment, the value of fairy tales lies in their depiction of evil as something real and recognisable, often something that children can identify long before adults. Fairy tales present a stark truth: evil exists, and survival often hinges on the ability to recognize it and escape. In a modern workplace, the imperative to remove yourself from the influence of evil can feel just as vital.

To stay in such an environment is to endure constant psychological warfare, where cognitive dissonance becomes a coping mechanism. You try to rationalise mistreatment, minimizing the harm done by others, convincing yourself that the gaslighting, manipulation, and exploitation are normal, perhaps even deserved. This, as Bettelheim suggests, is how evil exerts its power: by seducing the mind into complicity. Toxic environments force you to internalize what should be externalized: anger, frustration, and the desire for justice. You become conditioned to believe that your suffering is either inevitable or insignificant.

Neurobiological research supports the high cost of staying in environments filled with such toxicity. Prolonged exposure to stressors, especially from interactions with individuals who embody manipulative and harmful behaviors, triggers chronic activation of the sympathetic nervous system. This “fight or flight” response, when continually engaged, begins to erode physical and mental health. The release of stress hormones like cortisol can impair cognition, compromise immune function, and even rewire your brain’s stress-response mechanisms. It’s as though the body, like the mind, becomes ensnared by the presence of evil. There is no refuge as long as you remain in its orbit.

The ultimate power lies in recognizing the evil around you and refusing to become its subject. Fairy tales often culminate in a simple but profound realization: survival requires escape. Whether it’s Hansel and Gretel fleeing from the witch’s lair or Red Riding Hood outwitting the wolf, these stories echo the wisdom that liberation lies in leaving the dangerous space. The same applies to the modern workplace. You cannot transform a system steeped in exploitation and manipulation by staying within it; you must leave to reclaim your values, your sanity, and your sense of self.

In the end, removing yourself from the influence of evil is not just an act of survival but one of profound self-respect. It is the recognition that your life, your mental clarity, and your emotional well-being are worth more than any professional title or paycheck. Just as myths and fairy tales teach us, the greatest power sometimes lies in walking away, in choosing safety and escape over endurance, and in refusing to be complicit in the erosion of your own soul.

From Coping to Caring

But much as I urge you all, time and again to leave, so I hear back from you: I can't!

Then I must ask of you something much braver. The move from coping to caring starts with naming what we see. When we identify disrespect, dishonesty, discrimination we’re facing a moment of choice. A team member is ignored in meetings; a promotion goes to the flashy worker over the diligent one; an entire team is laid off in the name of progress: these aren’t incidental. They’re signposts that we need to bring moral agency into our workplace decisions.

I can do little better here than share a LI post from Priyanka Peeramsetty this week.

She writes:

I find it funny when people say 'just forgive, forget and move on'. that's what a person who has nothing to lose would say. ultra privileged pro max stance.you gotta be the bigger voice when something's not right. you gotta write the bigger pitch if the one on the table is not inclusive.you gotta craft the bigger project if the one approved is impractical.you gotta curate a bigger case to call out a bully.if you mask under the 'bigger person' pretence, the status quo is what gets approved.if you forgive with no action and change of behaviour, uncool people will continue to thrive.being a bigger person is actually standing in the middle and calling out the lapses. do it respectfully and gracefully, but DO IT.

Moral Leadership in Action: Small Steps, Deep Roots

The answer isn’t a revolutionary overhaul but a series of conscientious choices. Campaigning loudly and publicly for a particular worthy cause, be that working mothers, paternity leave or (ahem) working from home is one thing. We would have more impact in the areas that matter if we responded to and countered the specific issues of intentional harm-causing before us.

That takes a lot more courage.

Each of us, regardless of our position, holds the potential for moral leadership by actively choosing principles over passive complicity.

Moral leadership begins in small acts: the choice to recognize a colleague’s effort, to speak up when an idea (or entire human) is sidelined, or to advocate for a policy that prioritizes well-being. These actions might feel insignificant against the vastness of workplace culture, yet they’re anything but. Moral leadership lies in doing the right thing consistently, especially when no one is looking. It requires the courage to question practices that prioritise profit over people, even if this questioning comes at the risk of discomfort or conflict.

Building Alternatives Through Kindness and Accountability

Change happens not just in avoiding harm but in actively cultivating kindness. Kindness isn’t an afterthought; it’s an essential corrective in an often uncaring system. Leaders, managers and employees alike can create micro-cultures of compassion and accountability. When we take ownership of our actions and influence, we move beyond simply “coping” with toxicity. We create spaces that value humanity over profit.

Accountability, on the other hand, involves having the hard conversations. It means setting standards that reflect integrity, transparency, and respect, even when uncomfortable. Holding oneself and others accountable fosters a collective agreement to maintain a workplace where power is handled with care.

From Bystanders to Builders: Reclaiming Agency

We are each agents of the culture around us. By choosing to care, we subvert the quiet, banal forms of evil that breed disconnection and disillusionment. Moral leadership isn’t loud or attention-seeking; it’s persistent, grounded, and often invisible. It’s a slow but powerful catalyst for change, built on the conscious choice to lead through care and courage.

In a world that often prizes coping with the status quo over challenging it, caring becomes a revolutionary act. And each small, moral choice we make is a step in that direction: a step from coping to caring.