Companies: Easy to be sidelined, hard to get back.
16 October 2014
Read by 4543 persons
In the private or public sector, sidelining can be experienced as a social death. One solution: make noise.
Mathilde and Fabienne [first names have been changed, editor's note] experienced the ordeal of sidelining. Their difficult experiences remind us that this ordeal can happen when you least expect it, and that it is often difficult to find a solution. In the private and public sectors.
These two women have one thing in common: one day, their superior removed their duties without valid reason. They were sidelined, gradually, insidiously.
Mathilde: "I felt under-utilized"
For Mathilde, a studies engineer in the public sector, it all started after a nine-month sick leave, vital after metastatic breast cancer. She recounts:
"The treatment was effective and I'm a miracle, in remission today. When I returned to work, I opted for part-time, because I needed to rebuild myself physically. Mentally, too."
The computer scientist, in her thirties, sees this therapeutic part-time as a chance, especially since she has seen death up close. So the return goes rather well, even if her deputy appropriated, without her consent, most of her former tasks. Initially, her joy of returning to work outweighs the disappointment related to her colleague's behavior.
After a year part-time, Mathilde feels she can once again handle a high workload, "like before the cancer." She then tries to regain her initial position, and decides to talk to her director, who is clearly aware of the situation.
"Our meeting didn't change anything. Worse, he gave me a large file to complete, a task as uninteresting as possible and which did not correspond to my place in the hierarchy. I felt under-utilized."
For a year and a half, from October 2008 to March 2010, she sees her office days go by, divided between reduced tasks and very long, tedious internet sessions.
Mathilde patiently endures, because time is on her side: her superior is due to retire at the end of 2010. Her wait will finally be shortened by a recent job offer from another department head. Much more fulfilled at work, she has found a position that suits her ambitions.
"Being sidelined is being disconnected from the company"
Others are not so lucky and wait until the end of their career, somehow. Should we envy these employees, under-utilized but well-paid?
For Dominique Lhuilier, author in 2002 of "Sidelined, the excluded in the company" and lecturer at the University of Paris VII, sidelining is a prison from which it is difficult to escape:
"Being sidelined is being disconnected from the company, like being forgotten. You watch your colleagues work but can't participate in collective projects.
It's also a social death, which in some cases can lead to serious psychological problems and psychosomatic illnesses."
According to her, there is no miracle solution. To begin with, you shouldn't deny being sidelined.
"The first reflex of the sidelined is denial. Sometimes, they pretend they are very busy to hide their professional situation.
Sidelined employees feel better after contacting occupational health, when they learn they are not the only ones in this situation."
Dominique Lhuilier therefore advises against the sidelined person closing themselves off, even if cases obviously vary depending on the person's psychological resources:
"When you have a full social life, in the associative world or within a community, you can prove to yourself that you are worth something, despite being sidelined."
Above all, the most important thing would be not to lose self-esteem.
"Limit your enemies and enrich your allies" rather than pursue
However, according to some specialists in human resources or management, there is an effective strategy: make noise. "For the sidelined person to emerge victorious, it is recommended that they limit their enemies and enrich their allies.
The latter will be a force of attack, protection and support. But also their eyes and ears," says Nabil Gharib, HR director at the Maroc Soir group, who also insists on "the importance of a mentor," both a confidant and a professional network.
But according to him, the address book doesn't do everything and the employee must remain competitive, even turning sidelining into a springboard by following "technical, managerial, psychological and linguistic training." From an external point of view, professional networks like LinkedIn or Viadeo can also facilitate the search for relationships and employment.
Legal action is also possible: breach of contract, discrimination, via the Halde (High Authority for the fight against discrimination and for equality), or even wrongful dismissal and/or moral harassment before the courts. Dominique Lhuilier advises against this approach. Financially costly, it would also be detrimental to recovery.
"Sidelining is particularly destructive. The employee may become entrenched in a victim stance and demand compensation that will never live up to their expectations.
By engaging in legal proceedings, which are necessarily lengthy, the risk is to adopt an anthropological stance, often lucid, but emotionally costly."
Fabienne, kept "out of pity," cannot afford to resign
Resignation remains as a last resort, especially if it is not possible to join another department. There, everything becomes a question of pride, also of self-esteem and above all of professional opportunity: it is not easy to find a job immediately, especially during a crisis.
Some are then content with being sidelined, for lack of choice. This is the case of Fabienne, a versatile secretary in a design office. She recounts:
"I've been working there for ten years. My schedule was very busy, I did administration, mail, layout of client reports, plan drawings, printing and sending, invoicing, personnel management, calls for tenders... The work was hard, but I liked it because it was varied."
She senses her superior's preference for the "profitable, business developers and engineers," but she still tries her luck and asks for a raise. Refused. Her employer then replies that he keeps her "out of pity," and that she could go part-time given "what she does." Her situation worsens after the 2009 year-end holidays.
"I want to get to work, and there, I no longer have a password for the bank file. My boss tells me he'll give me the new one but doesn't. I can no longer do the accounting, I no longer have access to anything. A young apprentice has been hired to do the accounting, VAT, invoices..."
Gradually, her duties are reduced. Thus, for a few weeks, she no longer manages the mail and is no longer invited to meetings.
Does she intend to fight or resign? The question haunts her, but she doesn't really have a choice: her husband is retired due to health problems, and she doesn't have enough savings to afford unemployment... So she will endure. Against all odds.
THE LAW AND MORAL HARASSMENT
The law assumes that there is no peaceful sidelining or ordinary harassment.
Indeed, Article L. 1152-1 of the Labor Code states that "no employee shall be subjected to repeated acts of moral harassment that have the object or effect of degrading their working conditions likely to infringe their rights and dignity, to impair their physical or mental health or to jeopardize their professional future."
In short, a single hostile act will not characterize harassment, even if it is reprehensible in itself. It must be recurring or repeated.
On the other hand, the mere attempt is reprehensible, regardless of whether or not the harasser achieved their goal.
According to the 2003 Sumer ministerial report (soon to be updated), less qualified employees are more exposed than others to harassment, particularly in companies with fewer than ten people.
Dominique Lhuilier, holder of a chair in work psychology at Cnam, has met hundreds of sidelined employees.
Her observation: the phenomenon can occur at any time, and concern anyone, young people, seniors, women, men, executives, employees...
Pierre Laurent.
Rue89.nouvelobs.com
Posted online October 16, 2014.
Mathilde and Fabienne [first names have been changed, editor's note] experienced the ordeal of sidelining. Their difficult experiences remind us that this ordeal can happen when you least expect it, and that it is often difficult to find a solution. In the private and public sectors.
These two women have one thing in common: one day, their superior removed their duties without valid reason. They were sidelined, gradually, insidiously.
Mathilde: "I felt under-utilized"
For Mathilde, a studies engineer in the public sector, it all started after a nine-month sick leave, vital after metastatic breast cancer. She recounts:
"The treatment was effective and I'm a miracle, in remission today. When I returned to work, I opted for part-time, because I needed to rebuild myself physically. Mentally, too."
The computer scientist, in her thirties, sees this therapeutic part-time as a chance, especially since she has seen death up close. So the return goes rather well, even if her deputy appropriated, without her consent, most of her former tasks. Initially, her joy of returning to work outweighs the disappointment related to her colleague's behavior.
After a year part-time, Mathilde feels she can once again handle a high workload, "like before the cancer." She then tries to regain her initial position, and decides to talk to her director, who is clearly aware of the situation.
"Our meeting didn't change anything. Worse, he gave me a large file to complete, a task as uninteresting as possible and which did not correspond to my place in the hierarchy. I felt under-utilized."
For a year and a half, from October 2008 to March 2010, she sees her office days go by, divided between reduced tasks and very long, tedious internet sessions.
Mathilde patiently endures, because time is on her side: her superior is due to retire at the end of 2010. Her wait will finally be shortened by a recent job offer from another department head. Much more fulfilled at work, she has found a position that suits her ambitions.
"Being sidelined is being disconnected from the company"
Others are not so lucky and wait until the end of their career, somehow. Should we envy these employees, under-utilized but well-paid?
For Dominique Lhuilier, author in 2002 of "Sidelined, the excluded in the company" and lecturer at the University of Paris VII, sidelining is a prison from which it is difficult to escape:
"Being sidelined is being disconnected from the company, like being forgotten. You watch your colleagues work but can't participate in collective projects.
It's also a social death, which in some cases can lead to serious psychological problems and psychosomatic illnesses."
According to her, there is no miracle solution. To begin with, you shouldn't deny being sidelined.
"The first reflex of the sidelined is denial. Sometimes, they pretend they are very busy to hide their professional situation.
Sidelined employees feel better after contacting occupational health, when they learn they are not the only ones in this situation."
Dominique Lhuilier therefore advises against the sidelined person closing themselves off, even if cases obviously vary depending on the person's psychological resources:
"When you have a full social life, in the associative world or within a community, you can prove to yourself that you are worth something, despite being sidelined."
Above all, the most important thing would be not to lose self-esteem.
"Limit your enemies and enrich your allies" rather than pursue
However, according to some specialists in human resources or management, there is an effective strategy: make noise. "For the sidelined person to emerge victorious, it is recommended that they limit their enemies and enrich their allies.
The latter will be a force of attack, protection and support. But also their eyes and ears," says Nabil Gharib, HR director at the Maroc Soir group, who also insists on "the importance of a mentor," both a confidant and a professional network.
But according to him, the address book doesn't do everything and the employee must remain competitive, even turning sidelining into a springboard by following "technical, managerial, psychological and linguistic training." From an external point of view, professional networks like LinkedIn or Viadeo can also facilitate the search for relationships and employment.
Legal action is also possible: breach of contract, discrimination, via the Halde (High Authority for the fight against discrimination and for equality), or even wrongful dismissal and/or moral harassment before the courts. Dominique Lhuilier advises against this approach. Financially costly, it would also be detrimental to recovery.
"Sidelining is particularly destructive. The employee may become entrenched in a victim stance and demand compensation that will never live up to their expectations.
By engaging in legal proceedings, which are necessarily lengthy, the risk is to adopt an anthropological stance, often lucid, but emotionally costly."
Fabienne, kept "out of pity," cannot afford to resign
Resignation remains as a last resort, especially if it is not possible to join another department. There, everything becomes a question of pride, also of self-esteem and above all of professional opportunity: it is not easy to find a job immediately, especially during a crisis.
Some are then content with being sidelined, for lack of choice. This is the case of Fabienne, a versatile secretary in a design office. She recounts:
"I've been working there for ten years. My schedule was very busy, I did administration, mail, layout of client reports, plan drawings, printing and sending, invoicing, personnel management, calls for tenders... The work was hard, but I liked it because it was varied."
She senses her superior's preference for the "profitable, business developers and engineers," but she still tries her luck and asks for a raise. Refused. Her employer then replies that he keeps her "out of pity," and that she could go part-time given "what she does." Her situation worsens after the 2009 year-end holidays.
"I want to get to work, and there, I no longer have a password for the bank file. My boss tells me he'll give me the new one but doesn't. I can no longer do the accounting, I no longer have access to anything. A young apprentice has been hired to do the accounting, VAT, invoices..."
Gradually, her duties are reduced. Thus, for a few weeks, she no longer manages the mail and is no longer invited to meetings.
Does she intend to fight or resign? The question haunts her, but she doesn't really have a choice: her husband is retired due to health problems, and she doesn't have enough savings to afford unemployment... So she will endure. Against all odds.
THE LAW AND MORAL HARASSMENT
The law assumes that there is no peaceful sidelining or ordinary harassment.
Indeed, Article L. 1152-1 of the Labor Code states that "no employee shall be subjected to repeated acts of moral harassment that have the object or effect of degrading their working conditions likely to infringe their rights and dignity, to impair their physical or mental health or to jeopardize their professional future."
In short, a single hostile act will not characterize harassment, even if it is reprehensible in itself. It must be recurring or repeated.
On the other hand, the mere attempt is reprehensible, regardless of whether or not the harasser achieved their goal.
According to the 2003 Sumer ministerial report (soon to be updated), less qualified employees are more exposed than others to harassment, particularly in companies with fewer than ten people.
Dominique Lhuilier, holder of a chair in work psychology at Cnam, has met hundreds of sidelined employees.
Her observation: the phenomenon can occur at any time, and concern anyone, young people, seniors, women, men, executives, employees...
Pierre Laurent.
Rue89.nouvelobs.com
Posted online October 16, 2014.
