Workplace Bullying, Burnout & Difficult Work Experiences
Explore how workplace bullying, difficult working relationships and ongoing pressure can affect confidence, emotional wellbeing and your sense of safety at work. Reassure visitors that their experiences deserve to be taken seriously.
Coping With Workplace Bullying, Stress And Emotional Exhaustion
Work can affect far more than the hours we spend there.
When you feel repeatedly criticised, undermined, excluded, intimidated or treated unfairly at work, the impact can gradually follow you beyond the workplace. You might replay conversations when you get home, dread going in the next day, lose sleep thinking about what might happen or begin questioning abilities you previously trusted.
Sometimes the difficulty involves one person. At other times, you may feel excluded or targeted by a group. The term workplace mobbing is sometimes used to describe experiences where a number of people become involved in repeated exclusion, undermining or hostile behaviour towards one person.
When difficult workplace experiences continue over time, it can become increasingly hard to trust your own judgement. You may wonder whether you're overreacting, whether you've misunderstood what is happening or whether you're somehow responsible for the way you're being treated.
You might find yourself becoming increasingly careful about what you say, checking emails repeatedly, documenting conversations, avoiding particular people or constantly anticipating what might happen next.
Taking the first step
When work has affected your confidence, you may find yourself questioning whether you're overreacting or whether what happened was serious enough to talk about. You don't need to have decided what to call your experience or what you're going to do next. We can begin with what has been happening, how it has affected you and what you need now. I offer a free 15–20 minute introductory call where we can briefly talk about what you're looking for, answer any questions you may have and see whether working together feels like a good fit.
Workplace Bullying And Burnout Therapy In Glasgow
Difficult experiences at work can also affect how you see yourself. Someone who previously felt capable and confident may begin questioning their competence, becoming highly self-critical or feeling anxious about making even small mistakes.
For others, the main difficulty may be the sheer amount they have been carrying. High workloads, staffing pressures, responsibility, long hours, emotionally demanding work or continually trying to meet unrealistic expectations can gradually lead to exhaustion and burnout.
You may continue functioning for a long time before recognising how depleted you've become.
Sometimes the impact continues even after you've left the workplace. Starting another job doesn't automatically restore confidence or remove the anxiety, self-doubt or memories associated with what happened.
Moving Forward After Difficult Work Experiences
Therapy can provide a confidential space to talk openly about your experience without needing to minimise it or immediately decide what you are going to do about your job.
Together, we can slow things down and understand what has been happening, how it has affected you and what you need now.
If you've experienced behaviour at work that has felt undermining, excluding, intimidating or repeatedly critical, our work might involve exploring the impact this has had on your confidence and trust in your own judgement.
We can look at the thoughts and beliefs that have developed around the experience and begin separating how you have been treated from what you have come to believe about yourself.
If you're experiencing burnout, we can explore the demands you've been carrying, the expectations you place on yourself and the patterns that may make it difficult to recognise or respond to your own limits.
There may also be difficult decisions ahead. You might be considering raising concerns, taking time away from work, returning after an absence, changing roles or leaving altogether.
Frequently Asked Questions About Difficult Work Experiences Therapy
It isn't always easy to know how to describe a difficult experience at work. You may have experienced repeated criticism, exclusion, undermining, intimidating behaviour or conflict and be unsure what to call it. Therapy isn't an HR or employment process, and my role isn't to determine whether someone's behaviour meets a particular organisational or legal definition of workplace bullying. We can focus instead on your experience — what has been happening, how it has affected you emotionally and psychologically, how you have been responding and what support you may need. If you're involved in a formal workplace process, you may also choose to seek appropriate advice from your employer, HR, trade union or an independent employment advice service alongside therapy.
Workplace mobbing is a term sometimes used to describe situations where a person experiences repeated exclusion, undermining or hostile behaviour involving a number of people within a workplace. You may feel isolated, singled out or notice that the behaviour of colleagues towards you has changed. Therapy isn't about determining whether a workplace meets a particular definition of mobbing. It can provide confidential space to explore what you've experienced and the emotional and psychological impact it has had on you.
When something at work feels unresolved or concerning, your mind may continue trying to work it out long after you've left for the day. You might replay conversations, prepare for what you'll say next time, repeatedly check emails or imagine different scenarios. Therapy can help us understand what is keeping your mind caught in work and explore ways of creating greater separation between what happens there and the rest of your life.
Yes. Repeated criticism, exclusion, undermining or having your abilities questioned can gradually influence how you see yourself. You may begin doubting decisions you would previously have made confidently, become anxious about making mistakes or question whether you're actually good at your job. Therapy can help you explore what has happened to your confidence and begin separating your sense of yourself from your workplace experiences.
Burnout can develop gradually. You may feel emotionally or physically exhausted, increasingly detached from work, irritable, unable to switch off or find that tasks you previously managed now feel overwhelming. Sometimes people continue functioning for a long time while feeling increasingly depleted underneath. Therapy can help you explore what has been contributing to your exhaustion, the demands and expectations you're carrying and what may need to be supported differently.
Leaving a workplace changes the environment, but it doesn't necessarily immediately change how the experience has affected you. You may still doubt yourself, feel anxious around managers or colleagues, worry that similar difficulties will happen again or find yourself particularly sensitive to criticism. Therapy can provide space to make sense of what happened and gradually rebuild confidence and trust in yourself as you move forward.
Therapy won't make that decision for you. It can give you space away from workplace pressures to explore what is happening, how it is affecting you, what matters to you and what choices you believe are available. Sometimes having somewhere to think without being told what you ought to do can make it easier to understand what you want. Where you need advice about your employment rights or a workplace process, this can be sought separately through an appropriate employment or workplace advice service.
Yes. Work-related stress can affect sleep, mood, relationships, confidence and your ability to switch off outside work. Therapy can help you understand what is contributing to the pressure and explore patterns around responsibility, boundaries, expectations and how you respond when demands begin to exceed what you can reasonably carry. We can also consider what might support your psychological wellbeing both within and outside work.