Joyce activated, issue 54
This short post collates and puts in front of the paywall my previous writing about victimhood culture and toxic underlings, and solicits suggestions on how organisations can protect themselves from both. Comments welcome!
A very short and somewhat late post this week; it turns out having a child of the age to be looking around universities he might apply to is the proverbial straw that makes a busy schedule unmanageable. Add to that the horrific state of the country’s railways, which mean that most trips I’ve taken in the past couple of months have been delayed by several hours on at least one leg, and I’m knackered.
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Enough complaining; I’ve been intending for ages to return to a topic I’ve previously written about three times here, and once in my column in the Critic, but on which there is much more to say. That’s the shift from the older honour-based and dignity-based cultures to victimhood culture, which is upending workplaces and society at large, not least through the phenomenon I’m calling the “toxic underling”.
Gender-identity ideology is an overlapping concern, since trans identities are pure self-identification, making them particularly appealing for people wishing to identify into victimhood and thus gain higher status. But it is not the whole story, and I’m particularly interested in writing more about how to fight back.
And so I thought that for this issue I’d reshare my previous articles, put them in front of the paywall and ask for thoughts. General observations on and stories about victimhood culture are welcome, but I’m particularly interested in responses concerning how organisations can protect themselves from toxic underlings.
Please do comment below or, if you prefer you can email me directly.
Back catalogue, all in front of paywall
Previous issues of this newsletter on victimhood culture and toxic underlings: issue 13, issue 16 and issue 17; plus issue 49, where I share some practical suggestions on a related matter, namely how to push for change in captured institutions.
Plus my column on victimhood culture in the Critic, April 2023.
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I’ll be writing much more on this in the future, and really appreciate readers’ thoughts.