Covert Abuse and Work Theft

Ever had your work stolen? You are not alone.

I have been writing about the 10 stages of covert workplace abuse.

This post is about the creative ways that thieves steal your work. This can come in varying forms, from taking ideas to outright theft of everything you have worked for. Here are a few examples; all of these are stories I have heard or experienced:

• You share an idea with a colleague privately, and they repeat it at the next team meeting, getting all the credit. (Similar to, but not quite the same as when a woman suggests an idea in a meeting, gets ignored; then later a man says the exact same thing and gets praised; often called “hepeating”; see also “bropriating”.)

• You share your knowledge with a colleague and later realize they are representing your ideas as his behind your back without mentioning you.

• You are asked by your supervisor to create a presentation, and they show the entire thing to higher-ups, presenting it all as their own, not giving you any credit.

• You build up a sales department with your own contacts and goodwill, only to have someone else take over all the accounts and box you out.

• You are part of a start-up company, putting in a ton of sweat equity, expecting to be compensated in the future, only to have others swoop in and remove you once the company is successful.

• You start *your own* company from scratch, only to be stripped of all power and shoved aside by investors who pretended to have your back. (As I was drafting this, I saw this news story about the IP from defunct plant-based seafood company New Wave Foods being taken over by a new investor-led start-up.)

• You start a non-profit organization, building it from scratch, placing trust in the board members you hand-picked, the staff you hired, and the network you created, only to have it hijacked from you by outsiders who engaged in a vicious smear campaign behind your back to get you removed.

That last one happened to me. I have written about the deep betrayal that I still feel years later. So many people are still benefiting from what I built, while I have been completely erased, like none of the work I did matters. So if you have ever had your work stolen from you, I get it. I have been there and it sucks.

Covert abuse at work can come in many other subtle forms, including:

• Withholding information that you need to do your job effectively

• Not providing proper resources to do your job effectively

• Assigning tasks that are not within the scope of your job

• Overworking you to the point that you cannot function

• Not inviting you to meetings or leaving you off emails and other communications

• Various forms of gaslighting questions, such as: “did you send me that document”? when they know you did

• Weaponizing online tools to embarrass you in front of others

• Placing you on an impossible “performance improvement plan” or PIP

• Sabotaging performance reviews

• Witch hunts designed to “catch” you in some alleged wrongdoing

• Gossip or outright smear campaigns.

I have seen or experienced all of these. If you are experiencing covert abuse at work, you are not “crazy”, which I hear a lot. It is very real. I can help. Contact me here.