Moral injury is a trauma response to witnessing or participating in workplace behaviours that contradict one’s moral beliefs in high-stakes situations. Organisational decision makers are ultimately responsible for preventing moral injury, yet individual employees are often forced to deal with the consequences on their own.

Moral injury in the workplace

Terms used to describe responses to moral events.<ul><li>Moral challenges are single incidents or low-stakes transgressions, such as using lower-quality materials or requiring an employee to stay late as an exception.</li><li>Moral stressors involve more substantial or regular moral transgressions, for example, a dental practice that upsell patients on unnecessary treatments.</li><li>Injurious events, such as a health care worker that is required to provide a medical treatment that will lead to more unnecessary treatments.</li></ul>

A Continuum of harm

Denial of moral injury can be a coping mechanism. But that instinct to survive can lead to organisational Stockholm syndrome, where you form a bond with your abusive environment while ignoring its harmful effects. If you find yourself saying, “She probably didn’t mean it that way”, or “He’s just having a rough week again,” take note. It is fine to give someone the benefit of the doubt once or twice. But if it is a pattern that causes destructive outcomes for others, you have to face the harm.

Confront denial and listen to your pain

Moral injury is often described as the wounding of the soul and needs a particular kind of attention to heal. An honest conversation with a trusted professional is a good way to release the emotional pain. Restoration isn’t a quick process, but if you want to leave behind the remnants of moral injury, you’ll need to commit to the process.

Engage in “soul care” as self-care

The bitterness of moral injury can lead to craving revenge. However, any momentary satisfaction will be short-lived as you'll be compromising the very values that were injured. Learning to self-regulate is critical to steering clear of acting impulsively. A close confidant, mentor, or coach that you can call on short notice can be helpful.

Avoid vengeful and entitled reactions

When your conscience has been wounded, choosing forgiveness requires you to step back and explore your relationship to this often misunderstood value. <ul><li>Forgiveness is not the restoration of trust. Forgiveness means letting go of your bitterness and desire to pay back for the harm incurred. It's letting go of your anger as a source of motivation.</li><li>Forgiveness is a process. It's a daily choice to engage and release the emotions that flood your mind.</li></ul>

Determine what role forgiveness can play

Grappling with the harm we've caused is one of the most painful discoveries when dealing with moral injury. Guilt and shame can cause health issues. One way to shed regret and shame is to accept the things you did and didn't do. This will reignite your convictions.

Shed shame to restore your moral center

We cannot restore our conscience while continuing to violate our values. It also cannot heal in the same situation where the injury continues to take place. Sometimes it is possible to do good work or help change our organisation, such as helping to create new regulations. But if that's not possible, leaving the situation is a necessary step.

Change your situation

Moral injury occurs across occupations and is a trauma response to witnessing or participating in workplace behaviors that contradict one’s moral beliefs in high-stakes situations. While the ultimate responsibility for preventing moral injury rests on organizational decision makers, individual employees are often forced to deal with the consequences on their own. The authors’ advice, prompted by readers’ responses to their recent article, is directed to those who must take care of themselves while their employers put them into situations of moral harm. If your conscience has been wounded, even by your own hand, they offer six ways for you to begin your process of restoration.

Stashed ideas

What to Do If Your Job Compromises Your Morals

The scepticism many of us feel towards people who are only trying to make the world a better place is a known behaviour, described by psychologists as “do-gooder derogation”. And while the phenomenon may seem to be wholly irrational, there are some compelling evolutionary reasons for being wary of unreciprocated altruism.With an understanding of our innate suspicion around overt acts of kindness, we can identify the specific situations in which generosity is welcomed and when it is resented – with some important lessons for our own behaviour.

Hating Good And Morally Upright People

Recent behavioural studies show that selfishness and selflessness are considered to be morally equivalent by a lot of people.Strikingly, this tendency seems to emerge early in life – at around the age of eight. And while the size of the effect may vary depending on the context, it seems to be present to some degree in most cultures – suggesting it may be a universal tendency.

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

To understand the origins of this seemingly irrational behaviour, we need to consider how human altruism emerged in the first place.According to evolutionary psychology, hardwired human behaviours should have evolved to improve our survival and our ability to pass on our genes to another generation. In the case of altruism, generous acts could help us to foster good relationships within the group which, over time, help to build social capital and status.

Reciprocity and Reputation 

Reputation is “positional” – if one person rises, the others fall. This can create a strong sense of competition, which means that we’re always alert to the possibility that other people are getting ahead of us, even if they are achieving their status through altruism. We’ll be especially resentful if we think that the other person was only looking for those reputational benefits, rather than acting out of a genuine interest in others, since it may suggest a cunning and manipulative personality more generally.

If A Person Rises, Others Must Fall

Altruistic behaviour can make us walk a metaphorical tightrope. We need to balance our generosity perfectly, so that we are seen as cooperative and good, without arousing the suspicion that we are acting solely for the status.If there’s no good evidence to suggest that their acts of generosity are self-serving, we may choose to give them the benefit of the doubt, knowing that our uncharitable intuitions may be fuelled by our own fears of losing status.

The Rules Of Life

Ultimately, the only fool-proof way to avoid do-gooder derogation may be to do your best deeds in complete secret. And if others happen to discover the truth, despite your attempts to hide it – well, the good reputation that follows is simply a bonus.

Hide The Good Deeds!

People tend to hate the goody-good and kind people!

‘Do-gooders’ are often judged harshly. Why do we resent their acts of altruism or question their motives?

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What to Do If Your Job Compromises Your Morals

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#morals

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What to Do If Your Job Compromises Your Morals

Why overly kind and moral people can rub you up the wrong way

It's time to

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