Paranoia In Today's Work Place

With the ever looming clouds of layoffs being present in 98% of US companies these days, workplace paranoia is a silent deadly killer of American employees today.

Do you work for one of those bosses who takes his/her power to the 10th level? Making you feel like they are scheming or plotting your demise. Your boss may walk by your workstation, never acknowledging you, but they stare and take inventory of everything on your workstation.

Maybe your office or cubicle is positioned within earshot of his/her office and every time someone goes into their office your boss gives you a glance then slowly closes the door only to leave you with the feeling they are having a secretive conversation about you.

It may be speculation and 80% of all paranoia is self-afflicted, however with the economy being where it is and if you work for a company that has done layoffs recently you may have a reason for being a little paranoid.


What really chaps my ass is the people in power at these corporations know what power they possess, know that paranoia is running rampant and they get off on it. They love the fear mongering. Believing the result of fear is production. On the contrary, in short fear hinders production. It's that old saying "A happy employee is a productive employee". Invoking or breeding fear in hopes production will go up is bad business.

Allow me to let the cat out of the bag. Layoffs are never done solely on the financial standings of a company. When layoffs are inevitable your boss is given a number or percentage he or she must eliminate from their individual payroll budget. Your boss makes the recommendations to whom they will eliminate to meet the new budgetary constraints. Trust me, if your boss is a discarded glory hole then the decision is personal with the intent of malice covered in the trappings of budgetary restrictions.

When companies turn a blind eye or a deaf ear to paranoia breeding, they run a higher probability of the recent New York shootings happening again and again. That sick and twisted animal was already screwed in the head, but add on workplace paranoia and you have those results.

Until corporations start to realize that people are people and not just numbers out to make them richer we can expect more workplace violence. It's a harsh reality and it's not the way things should be handled but hell, the American working people are at the end of their ropes with being taken advantage of, abused and manipulated.

You're maybe asking yourself what do you do when you experience workplace paranoia. Depending on the strength of your human resources team, seek their help. If not try the Equal Employer Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in your state. If nothing else, they'll help you realize if something serious is going on or if its nothing more than workplace paranoia.