Betrayals are unfortunately a common thing people face in the office or their workplace. It’s a heartbreaking thing to face betrayal from your co-workers and from your boss. If you’re wondering how to handle betrayal at work, this article is the perfect guide for you.
The way you are going to handle the betrayal at work mostly depends on how devastated you are by the betrayal. Always remember, your mental and emotional condition is going to make an impact on the solutions you’re thinking about. So, try to be as logical as you can while dealing with betrayal at work.
With enough time and logical thinking, you’ll manage to get out of this situation properly. If you are struggling to figure out how to handle betrayal at work, read the full article for the most convenient solution.
How To Handle Betrayal At Work
The way you handle betrayals is not only going to make you wiser, but also will tell how your problem-solving abilities are. Be always logical while dealing with the problem and the person. Don’t be radical, instead be rational. Try to control your rage as much as possible. Here are some ways you can consider while you are dealing with betrayal at work.
Take Time to Assess The Situation
Most of the time our first reaction to betrayal is to get to the bottom without evaluating the situation first. No matter how you have known that you’ve been betrayed, you need to assess the situation and figure out what actually happened.
Take as much time as you can to know why the person has betrayed you. Ignoring their reason will only take you further away from the solution. Give yourself time to breathe away the negative emotions.
Talk To the Person
Having the conversation face to face with that person is the most difficult thing. Do not let your ego shatter this stage for you. Remember, communication is the biggest key to a solution. If this has happened more than one time, and you are tired of going through this again, you can talk to your boss or the human resource manager instead.
The worst thing to ignore in a betrayal is the conversation with the betrayer. It is always better to talk and show your emotions to the main person than to rant with anyone else who has nothing to do about it. This will not only lower your reputation, but also will make you look like an insecure and inferior person.
Take Your Own Responsibility
When people go through a betrayal, they get too emotional and lose their focus from the actual experience. You should always re-frame the experience you’ve gone through and hold accountability for every possible way you might have influenced the betrayal. Ask yourself if you had any role to play in that situation which led to the person betraying you.
If there is anything you might have done that made them betray you, take your responsibility. Talk to that person and tell them how you are feeling sorry about it, and you won’t be doing it again. List all the things you could do to make the situation better and interact with that person about it.
Always keep in mind that the betrayer’s action is a reflection of their character. And your reaction is a reflection of your character. While you might have influenced the situation but them choosing to betray you has nothing to do with you.
Response In a Professional Way
Once you are betrayed, it’s really difficult to trust the person again. But in a workplace, you can never progress if you keep someone behind or lose connection. Connection is everything that matters in everyone’s profession. Especially if you get betrayed by your boss, and you stop contacting them, you might not be able to get promoted.
Try to figure out what was your fault and how you can protect yourself in the future. If you have missed the red flags, or overlooked them, you should be more open to judge people constructively in your workplace. However, if you only focus on doubting your co-workers every now and then, you will just lose the good relationships.
Some professional relationships are worth saving. Not because you connect to them on a deeper level, or you love them unconditionally, but for your own good in your office. Although trusting them again may take a while. If you are struggling with rebuilding trust, you can always talk to them.
Most of the time, you should at least try to rebuild the trust. But you should not think twice if this is not the first time. File a proper complaint about the person who has the authority and let them know how dangerous it might be to work with this person again.
Whatever you choose to do, just don’t gossip about it with your other co-workers. It is totally an unprofessional thing to do. Remember, you don’t necessarily have to like them to work with them, but keep your emotions to yourself. Gossiping leads to backstabbing, and that eventually seeds another betrayal.
Forgive And Move On
Forgiveness and moving on is the wisest thing to do after getting betrayed. It is not about letting them do whatever they want, but letting yourself free of all the anger, sorrow and disappointment you have gone through. Forgiving someone lets you out of the blame game and makes you focus on problem-solving.
Let go and move on from the fact that you have been betrayed. Rather, accept that you’ve been betrayed and think of all the things that you can do to not get betrayed again. The worse the betrayal, the bigger the challenge of acceptance. But only acceptance can make you move on.
If you cannot forgive the person, you can never expect a solution to this. In fact, you might be facing difficulties working with anyone in that place. So no matter how hard it might sound, you always need to forgive the person in order to maintain a safe and sound work environment.
Reaching out to HR
If you think the treatment you are getting from your co-workers is always deceiving and abusive, and if you can’t take it anymore, then you should reach out to HR in no time. When you talk to HR about the problems you are facing, you are helping everyone in the office.
You should always know that not everyone in your workplace is trying to betray you. If you constantly think that someone is betraying you, you will become paranoid. Reaching out to the HR is always a good decision, but you should always keep in mind that if you complain a lot, the HR will not believe you anymore.
You don’t want to break off the relationships with your co-workers, especially with the HR. Only when you think the situation is no longer handle able, should you contact your HR. If you think you can handle the situation yourself, analyze it first and list all the things you can do to help it.
HR can easily identify whoever is causing a problem in the office and easily take further actions. Even if they can’t take any proper actions with the person because of their higher powers, HR can at least show you more opportunities around the workplace.
Conclusion
Tackling the betrayal at work can assess how much of a problem-solver you are. If you can take enough time and give it a good thought, you can easily handle the situation.
I hope this article gave you a good understanding on how to handle betrayal at work and how you can easily deal with it.
