Passive Aggressive Language In The Workplace
It’s most likely in email, occasionally in messages, but rarely in person — unless the miscreant is completely shameless.
The modern dysfunctional corporate workplace is awash with everything from condescending messages affixed to noticeboards, toilet doors, and monitor screens¹ to ambiguously offensive emails, messages, and HR droid PowerPoints².
The prose contained therein is something of a work of art and it’s sometimes really quite hard to decide whether or not it’s done on purpose for, as we all know, true passive-aggressive wording is an art form cultivated by the truly cynical, damaged, progressive engineer who has spent way too much time in the Grand Game of Software Engineering.
*cough*
<looks down at the keyboard>
Moving on, I suspect that the purveyors of such prose come from one of the following three broad groups:
- They’re fully invested existentially in their meaning like the classical waiter in Bad Faith, have become a “true manager” right down to their core, and the light of conflict resolution, agile process, and “dealing” with high achievers³ shines brightly in their eyes.
Ergo they fully believe the message and don’t understand what passive aggressiveness is, they’re just saying what they mean.
