Is Your Work Place Psychologically Safe? Five Ways To Find Out

We spend much of our lives at work and often it becomes a second home with our colleagues as our work family. But do you feel as psychologically safe at work as you do at home?

For those wondering what I mean by psychological safety: It’s when you believe you won’t be punished or humiliated for sharing your ideas, concerns, questions or mistakes at work. This is usually encouraged by the work culture and is a common expectation among team members.

Psychological safety is not about being kind or nice, it’s about having difficult conversations where everyone feels safe to speak their truth.

In My Experience

I’ve worked in places where I felt psychologically unsafe and, in my experience, hierarchies in such places are more pronounced and divisions more obvious. So, all the senior managers stuck together and everyone had their own clique. It’s almost like you’re back at school where there are the popular kids, the ones in the middle and the nerds. The popular kids in this case were the ones who were favoured by the managers.

I’ve also worked in environments where I felt psychologically safe, where people were encouraged to bring their whole selves to work, and where hierarchies were less pronounced. Where things like inclusion and diversity, discrimination and unconscious bias were openly discussed.

It is from these experiences that I draw these five characteristics that make a workplace psychologically safe.

Psychological Safety in the Workplace

Here are five ways to determine if your workplace is psychologically safe:

1. Can you put forward your ideas without fear of not being heard?

If there is a fear that creeps up on you every time you want to say something or contribute your ideas. If you’re afraid of being judged, ignored, or misunderstood, then there is a possibility that you don’t feel psychologically safe or/and that your workplace hasn’t created a safe atmosphere for you to do so.

2. Are you able to address unfair or discriminatory behaviour without being ostracised?

If it gets you blacklisted, passed over for promotion or excluded from things, then it’s not a psychologically safe environment. If that were the case, you should be able to do so without consequences. Regular open discussions about issues such as discrimination and encouragement to speak up should be a given.

3. Is your team or group inclusive?

Do you feel included in team activities and discussions or do you feel more like an observer than a participant. An inclusive team ensures that everyone’s needs are considered when it comes to organising activities, or that everyone’s ideas are heard when it comes to discussing problems or finding solutions.

4. Are you able to be truly authentic or do you have to wear a mask to belong?  

We all know that we must show professionalism at work, but that shouldn’t distract from who you are as an individual. For example, if you’re naturally a humorous person, you should be able to be that at work. If you find that you have to change drastically to fit in at your workplace, then it may not be psychologically safe.

5. Can you freely admit your mistakes?

In a safe work environment, it’s not frowned upon to make mistakes, because everyone makes them and it’s common for even managers to talk about their mistakes to show that they aren’t exempt either. Even though you learn from mistakes, in a psychologically insecure environment you may feel very afraid when you make them. This can be for a variety of reasons, such as fear of disapproval or reprimand.

So, there you have it five questions to consider. If there are any that resonated with you I’d love to hear it in the comments.

A Little Encouragement

If you feel that there are shortcomings in your workplace in one or more areas and you feel confident in making changes, I’d encourage you to do so. However, if you have tried several times without success, it may be time to move on, especially if it’s affecting your mental wellbeing.

Trust me when I tell you that you can and will find something better, and don’t be afraid to ask about the work culture at interviews, because just as you need to fit the company’s requirements, it needs to fit yours.

And with that, I’d like to leave you with this:

“A psychologically safe work environment doesn’t use punishment to control employees but creates safe spaces where they can express themselves freely without consequences.”