Have you been wondering if you’re being gaslighted at work? Perhaps you’re not sure when or why your workplace started to feel unsafe, and you find it even harder to explain this feeling to your coworkers when asked directly. It’s hard to put into words, but you know you’re feeling uncomfortable.
And, the signs keep showing, and growing, as time goes by. You begin to second-guess your memory after conversations. You feel drained after meetings, not just mentally but also emotionally.
One day your supervisor praises you, the next they belittle you, and you chalk it all up to an “overreaction.” What you’re likely experiencing here is the emotional aftermath of subtle workplace manipulation, often described as “gaslighting” in professional settings.
The workplace can be, and often is, the ideal environment for a gaslighter to operate freely without being called-out or penalized for their actions for years on end. Since the superior-subordinate hierarchy is set in stone, and often necessary for smooth functioning, the psychological manipulation of undermining the subordinate’s perception, memories and judgment flies under the radar for the most part.
This constant psychological interference can stir feelings of self-doubt, emotional fatigue and confusion, making even competent and confident employees question their abilities.
To measure this phenomenon reliably, researchers created the Gaslighting at Work Questionnaire (GWQ), a 12-item scale developed and published in 2023 to capture the specific and seemingly innocuous ways supervisors may manipulate their underlings despite being in a controlled environment.
The scale focuses on two key dimensions:
- trivialization, where concerns are minimized or mocked.
- affliction, where blame, control or unpredictability is directed toward the employee.
By rating each item on a scale from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree,” individuals can gain insight into whether they are encountering behaviors that align with known forms of workplace gaslighting. If you tend to agree with most of these statements, there’s a high chance you’re being gaslighted by a superior at work:
1. “Your supervisor diverted the topic to project the fault onto you.”
You walked into your manager’s cabin with a concern and left with an accusation of being part of the problem. If this pattern has become the norm for you, it might be a sign of workplace gaslighting. They never take any accountability, but imply that you’re the one that’s done something wrong to cause the problem. Not only does it leave you feeling invalidated, the ensuing self-blame will ensure that you stop bringing up work culture problems to the authorities, tightening the gaslighter’s grip on you.
2. “Your supervisor told you that you were ‘imagining’ things.”
Dismissal of this nature directly attacks your perception. By framing legitimate concerns as imaginary or trivial, a supervisor positions themselves as the ultimate arbiter of reality. Employees may begin to doubt not only the specific incident but also their broader capacity to read situations accurately, creating a chronic internal tension between their instinct and imposed “truth.”
3. “Your supervisor passed degrading comments followed by rewards.”
Alternating between insult and reward enables a gaslighter to create an environment where employees are always unsure about how their actions will be received. Over time, this pattern mutates into a dependence on the supervisor’s approval and a heightened emotional sensitivity to their reactions. Gaslighting bosses want to keep you feeling small, but still under their control.
4. “The words of your supervisor did not match with their actions.”
When you’re constantly unsure if words and statements will be substantiated with meaningful corresponding action, trust goes out the window. A gaslighter can use this tactic routinely to weaponize ambiguity. So when the time comes, they can control the narrative and maintain authority.
5. “Your supervisor denied the promises they made earlier.”
Another hallmark of a gaslighting superior is a memory that fails them at the most convenient moments. This enables them to dodge honoring prior commitments, creating an environment where employees have no one to rely on but themselves. A sense of isolation and helplessness is part of the emotional fallout of working in such an environment.
6. “Your supervisor undermined your complaints.”
When your supervisor dismisses your concerns, especially formal complaints, it’s trivialization in its purest form. By undermining grievances, supervisors signal to their employees that their experiences are invalid or unworthy of attention. They ensure that any problems pertaining to them aren’t brought to light, while the employees internalize this sense of futility.
7. “Your supervisor ‘twisted/misrepresented’ things you said.”
Misrepresenting or making even “minor tweaks” to a subordinate’s narrative has the power to establish and even entirely transform office dynamics. For instance, with a few tone-based flourishes, a seasoned gaslighter can turn simple statements into supposed evidence of error or incompetence. As a result, the employee may be forced to defend not only what they said, but also their intentions and memory of the event.
8. “Your supervisor had unnecessary control over you.”
Constant micromanagement and puppeteered decision-making dependency makes sure that the employees never rely on their own instinct. A gaslighter restricts their subordinates’ autonomy in small, unnoticeable ways so that the resulting dominance-submission dynamic goes undetected too. The subtle but recurring psychological strain from this, however, exacts a tangible toll on the receiver: it robs them of the ability to make and defend their own decisions.
9. “Your supervisor made you your worst critic.”
Repeated deliberate exposure to manipulative behaviors forces employees to internalize criticism, and they often end up becoming harsher on themselves than any supervisor could be. The idea is simple: diminish the employee’s accomplishments, so that the resulting emotional fatigue keeps them stuck in a feedback loop of doubt and anxiety.
10. “Your supervisor made you depend on them for making most of the decisions.”
A gaslighter often shoots down good, original ideas. According to them, an environment that encourages initiative could also breed dissent. So instead, they resort to enforcing compliance, so that their opinion becomes the final word and no one can get anything done without their express permission and/or validation.
11. “You felt emotionally drained at work because of your supervisor.”
Emotional exhaustion might just be the biggest price you pay for enduring gaslighting behavior. At the workplace, your resilience may shatter, productivity may suffer and you may notice a generalized decline in your mental and physical faculties. But the problem gets worse when these symptoms show up in your personal life. That is the moment that you need to recognize these patterns; emotional depletion is rarely random.
12. “Your supervisor was very sweet to you one moment and very mean the other moment.”
Volatility in behavior, alternating between warmth and cruelty, is the gaslighter’s way of making sure that their team never knows what comes next. To cope, employees learn to hyper-focus on their supervisor’s moods, adjusting behavior in anticipation of reaction rather than engaging freely with their work. This emotional whiplash keeps employees in a heightened state of alert, subtly shaping behavior and perception.
If you’re concerned about gaslighting at your workplace, you can take this science-backed questionnaire for more in-depth results here: Gaslighting At Work Questionnaire
