A Bengaluru-based woman has sparked a broader conversation on workplace toxicity after revealing that her manager once threw a Dell mouse at her face. The woman — who does not wish to be named — opened up about this traumatic experience during the Tech Roast Show in Bengaluru last year.
A video of her recollecting the moment of workplace harassment was recently posted on Instagram, where it has been going viral.
Angry manager throws mouse at employee
The Bengaluru-based product designer was part of the audience at the Tech Roast Show when she was asked about her worst job experience. She recalled the moment at a past job when, on her last day, her manager asked her to work on a particular task. The woman said she got confused and started working on something else.
When her manager discovered her mistake, he got angry and threw a computer mouse at her face in a fit of rage.
The incident occurred several years ago, when she was working in Mumbai.
Traumatic workplace incident
“I developed severe trauma after this incident,” the woman told HT.com. “I make it very clear to any company I have joined post that incident to convey their problem with empathy and not take the anger approach with me.”
{{/usCountry}}“I developed severe trauma after this incident,” the woman told HT.com. “I make it very clear to any company I have joined post that incident to convey their problem with empathy and not take the anger approach with me.”
{{/usCountry}}The woman said that her manager often had these outbursts of anger – directed not just towards her but also at other employees.
“He had anger issues. He has had these outbursts on multiple people in front of me, and after I left as well,” she told HT.com.
On workplace toxicity
The woman said that it is common to find such toxicity in the design industry.
“In design as an industry it is pretty common to face such toxic work cultures, and really bad pay adds to it as well. I hope reading this story would give people some strength to talk about this issue more because it's very common and often ignored,” she said.
Fortunately, the product designer is now in a much better workplace environment, and already, her video has sparked a discussion about toxicity that is normalised in workplaces.
“This should not be normalised, not even as a joke,” wrote one Instagram user in the comments section of the video. “This would be a lawsuit in the US,” another said.