Your boss talks down to you, falsely accuses you, isolates you, or sabotages you. You try to please the abuser, but nothing works. The bully is threatened by your competence, social skills, or both. They either keep you immobilized under their thumb or do everything in their power to get rid of you. 

You report the problem to management, expecting them to intervene. Delay after delay. Nothing is ever done about the bully. The psychological abuse doesn’t stop until you leave.

In toxic work environments, higher-ups prioritize avoiding liability over employee well-being. Employers aren’t liable for the psychological safety of their employees, so they further abuse employees — what we call mobbing. They choose to ignore the problem and make reporting employees go away to avoid the threat of liability. Their mission is to break you psychologically, leaving no fingerprints.

These inhumane workplace practices violate basic human rights without consequence. In the aftermath, employees' realization of the health harm and job loss leads to further traumatic psychological injury.

But workers shouldn't have to choose between their mental health and a paycheck. We need a law.

Pressure lawmakers to pass the much-needed Workplace Psychological Safety Act, backed by hundreds of advocates including Gretchen Carlson, who went up against Roger Ailes of Fox News, and Rowena Chiu, a #MeToo silence breaker who worked for Harvey Weinstein.

Psychological abuse at work is an epidemic that affects an estimated 48.6 million Americans according to the Workplace Bullying Institute.

The mistreatment often leads to serious, long-term physical, psychological, emotional health harm and economic injury, as many employees suffer severe financial loss after losing their jobs and careers, too ill to return to work. PTSD and stress-induced illnesses are common consequences as is suicide and suicide ideation. Employees die.

We have regulations at work for environmental safety. We have regulations at work for physical safety. It has been the historic practice in the United States to legislate issues of employee exploitation. The psychological safety of employees is of no less importance.