Office notebook. “Nothing is opposable to dignity at work. There are limits not to be crossed ”, explains Caroline Pailloux, Managing Director of Ignition Program, a recruitment and management training company for high potentials specializing in start-ups. Toxic management can take root insidiously and permanently in a company, regardless of its size.
The recent coming out of Michelin on harassment is, in this respect, revealing. Florent Menegaux, the president of the tire group, acknowledging that “Questionable behavior persisted without being reported either by the victims or by colleagues who were informed”, addressed all employees in mid-April to launch a call for “Zero tolerance against harassment” : 157 cases of toxic management were reported in 2020.
On the subject, start-ups are easily carried away by the dynamic of exponential growth which makes them confuse toxic management and total commitment. Despite good intentions, burnout is never far from overinvestment. And the lack of emotional intelligence can blind people to the risks run by employees. So much so that the leaders of start-ups, often also founders, are numerous to be surprised or to pretend to be surprised by the comments of the victims. And, despite the avalanche of reports of abuse or burn-out, they remain in denial for a long time and struggle to come out of it.
The origin of the masked evil
In start-ups, most often, CEOs do not want to talk about toxic management. “The subject is not easy to broach, because that’s never what you set up a business for. Most think their employees are very happy like this, because they themselves are entrepreneurs. They want to have a positive impact on society, without realizing the pressure exerted on employees ”, Caroline Pailloux notes. They quickly see the importance of excessive turnover without really reacting. Because the team spirit masks the origin of the evil: practices worthy of hazing, with this same acceptance well known to the students of the grandes écoles, which makes take a crime of mistreatment for a sacrificial effort.
“The leaders are convinced that the people who join them first want to satisfy their ambition, to respond to a challenge. We must explain to them that the feeling of belonging does not necessarily involve operational violence, continues Caroline Pailloux. And it is not because employees agree to hurt themselves that we must tolerate all behavior. “ The employer endangers the health of the employee and his company insofar as humiliation leads to professional error.
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