If “I feel unsafe” becomes an automatic veto on feedback or accountability, the result isn’t psychological safety but psychological avoidance, and that harms employees, managers and culture alike.
Toxic workplaces aren’t always caused by bad managers; sometimes they come from a single employee whose harmful behaviour nobody is willing to address.
They avoid acting because it feels risky: there might be complaints, bullying allegations, grievances or stress leave. So organisations end up managing around the behaviour instead of managing the behaviour.
Avoiding it isn’t compassion. It just shifts the consequences onto the rest of the team.
