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Ruthless Corporate Chicanery Slowly Strangles Worker Self-Esteem

Dr. Patricia Farrell
4 min readAug 29, 2021

Anything goes in a world worshiping at the altar of profits, including workers who gave loyalty and years of hard work for naught. How they leave is the saddest story of all.

Photo by Mag Pole on Unsplash

Work makes us whole. In other words, we primarily determine our self-esteem and our relevance in the corporate world by our jobs, professions, skills, and value to the bottom line. Constantly working to maintain our positions in a seemingly shifting landscape in a world many of us no longer recognize, we work and sleep hoping that we will be retained. Retention means value, and value means a job. Then, one day, it suddenly ends, and a series of calculated moves terminate us.

The moves are subtle and intended to erode the worker's will to the point that they will leave willingly. Leaving willingly means the corporation doesn’t have to “separate” them and pay unemployment benefits. Is any employee safe, and what subtle moves will be viewed as edging toward willful termination?

It isn’t always in the long-range best interests of the corporation to dismiss employees. “No company survives without profits, of course. But if the bottom line or some other performance becomes the only priority, the consequences can be damaging over time, with the stage set for everything from internal resistance to lying and other

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Dr. Patricia Farrell
Dr. Patricia Farrell

Written by Dr. Patricia Farrell

Dr. Farrell is a psychologist, consultant, author, and member of SAG/AFTRA, interested in flash fiction writing (http://bitly.ws/S94e) and health.

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