CPTSD in the Workplace: Powerless

Empowering the Powerless in the Workplace

One of the most challenging things for trauma survivors to overcome is a sense of powerlessness. Powerless is defined as “devoid of strength or resources, or lacking the authority or capacity to act.” Like a baby elephant chained to a stake when young, the lessons we learned during childhood keep us chained to the belief that we are powerless. This belief permeates every inch of our being, even in the workplace. In this article, I want us to explore the workplace situations that trigger this powerlessness and discover solutions to help us overcome them.

Level Setting on Power

Before we explore feeling powerless, we need to discuss power. In our culture today, the concept of power has been villainized, but power is not the problem; it is the abuse of power that is the problem. As we approach this election season, I am reminded of the protests and riots of previous elections when people felt threatened by the elected leader. The demonstrations and riots were statements against the feeling of powerlessness.

Elizabeth Natter wrote an article about the five types of power commonly seen in businesses. These types of power can be used positively or negatively to influence people. Again, power is not the problem, but rather how that power is used.

The “power over” scenario is as old as mankind. We have an overabundance of historical examples that demonstrate the abuse of power. We’ve seen this in kings, kingdoms, empires, slavery, and even in business. We’ve seen this in leaders like Hitler, who sought to dominate the world and eliminate those he considered “Untermenschen” or sub-human.

In the workplace, this can look like an overbearing, perfectionistic boss or power-hungry business leaders who are hell-bent on dominating the market regardless of who they have to step on to get there.

Responses to Abuse of Power

We were created with the ability to survive by employing our fight, flight, freeze, or fawn responses when we feel threatened. It is part of our autonomic nervous system. Those of us that have been traumatized as children by those in power over us employed one of these strategies to survive. Because we genuinely were powerless as children, many of us used either the freeze or fawn survival strategy because that was the safest option.

One of the challenges we face as adults is when our unprocessed childhood trauma is triggered by an “authority” in the workplace. Our responses to this triggering may vary. Sometimes it triggers us to fight because we weren’t able to fight as children. I don’t know if you have experienced this, but when I was a child growing up in an abusive home, I fantasized about fighting back, all while I was fawning.

What I see most often, however, is that we tend to repeat the same survival strategy we practiced so often as a child. For me, it was fawning. When I was a child, I was powerless to escape the abuse, so now, as an adult, when I am triggered by an “authority” in the workplace, I fall back on that same mindset…powerless. I am like the baby elephant.

Powerless Triggers in the Workplace

Certain things in the workplace trigger this powerless mindset in me. We all need to be aware of what triggers this mindset so we can manage our responses better.

Inflexibility. The first thing that comes to mind is inflexibility. I am immediately triggered when I am “forced” to do something that violates a personal boundary, and there is no room or appetite for an appeal. My father’s favorite motto was “it’s my way or the highway.”

Company policies can trigger this for me, such as the requirement to come back into the office after COVID and face inflexible protocols. I understand that the pandemic was traumatizing for many people, and their threat response was triggered daily by the media and false information; however, when you create a requirement as a leader that removes voice and choice, that, too, can be triggering.

Overwhelm. My last blog article was on overwhelm, so I will not go into much detail except to say that when I become overwhelmed, I feel powerless to do anything about it.

Feeling Stuck. There are times when you are dependent on other people to accomplish your work, and when they are unable to meet their commitments (for whatever reason), you might feel stuck. You can’t move forward, and you can’t move backward. Or if you feel stuck in a job because you need this job or don’t think there are other options.

Cornered. I have experienced this during times of reorganization or managerial changes. Even though I am very competent in my job, when a new manager comes in and they don’t know or understand what I do, they tend to question or criticize everything. I often feel like I have to defend every step of the process I have been managing for years.

These are just a few scenarios that cause me to feel powerless, but I’m sure you have your own list. I highly recommend you take a few minutes to figure out what triggers your sense of powerlessness.

Empowering the Powerless

The good news is that we are not doomed to perpetual powerlessness. We can do something about it.

Promote a Present Perception

You will hear me preach this point continuously if you are around me much. When we are triggered as trauma survivors, we are transported back to an earlier version of ourselves that does not have the coping skills we have gained as adults. It is so crucial for us to practice being present. The Beauty After Bruises organization has an excellent resource for this: Grounding 101: with 101 Grounding Techniques.

Practice Voice & Choice

As children, we did not have a voice & choice in what happened to us, but we do now. We have to remind ourselves of this often. We have practiced perceived powerlessness for a long time. It’s a habit, but it is NOT true. We have the power to choose how we will respond to a given situation.

Pursue Personal Empowerment

The definition of empowerment is “the process of becoming stronger and more confident, especially in controlling one’s life and claiming one’s rights.” Remember, you get to decide what is best for you. You can take control of your life and make positive decisions based on what you want.

The Journey Forward

As trauma survivors, it is important for us to take back our power. We are no longer powerless. We need to remind ourselves every day and in every situation that we have a voice and choice. Our choices may be between the best of two evils, but we still get to choose.

Feeling powerless is not a good feeling, but it happens occasionally. We can’t control what other people do or things in our environment, but we can choose how we respond to them.

One of my favorite quotes is from Viktor Frankl, who was a holocaust survivor. He said, “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” We don’t have to be like that baby elephant anymore.

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