Njeri joined a new artificial intelligence firm in Westlands, Nairobi, that was experiencing rapid growth. Excited in her fresh role and industry, she felt perplexed by her new supervisor who seemed to have unusually high standards.

He would call her into his office after team meetings and calmly but clearly insist that certain conversations did not happen the way Njeri remembered them from the meeting that just transpired.

If she raised any concerns about the discrepancies, he would smile and misogynistically suggest that she had grown too emotional to think clearly.

Other colleagues praised her work, but her boss would later at times tell her privately that colleagues actually seriously doubted her work output and judgement but only acted polite when speaking to her face so that they would not hurt her feelings.

Slowly and without consciously realising it, Njeri started to question her own memory, instincts, and abilities until one afternoon she figured out that she was not the only employee noticing the bizarre issue with her boss.

While what Njeri was going through clearly falls into mental manipulation, such experiences often get dismissed too casually in everyday work conversations.

People in 2026 often toss around the term gaslighting as if it stands as a catchword for all kinds of lying, rudeness, or even ordinary office politics. But in reality, it is something very deep and specific.

A newly released comprehensive study by Babatunde Ogunfowora and Joshua Bourdage shows the need to be more careful in explaining the realities of workplace gaslighting and not just casually using it to refer to any general mistreatment at the office.

Researchers specifically define professional gaslighting as a distinct attempt by a person holding power to control another individual by making them doubt their own perceptions, memories, abilities, and sense-of-self at work.

The distinction matters because not each and every toxic boss gaslights. But gaslighting is indeed a form of toxicity that leaves especially deep psychological scars.

What are some managerial actions that encompass gaslighting? Denying actual events, flipping around realities of a story, presenting false versions of what happened, subtly regulating the employee’s actions, or using psychological manipulation to keep the other person off-balance.

The study found some disturbing impacts that employees feel as a result of being gaslit by their bosses. Experiences include self-doubt, confusion, dread, avoidance, feeling a surreal eerie feeling that something feels wrong and distorted even when one cannot fully explain why.

The research further uncovered that much of the negative impacts of gaslighting comes from power imbalances. Gaslighting flourishes more when one person holds more control over things needed by the other person like resources, approvals, or punishment avoidance.

Read: Gaslighting: Bosses who instil fear in staff inspire false loyalty

Workplace hierarchy already gives managers considerable formal legitimate authority over so many things like evaluations, assignments, visibility, and opportunities.

But a gaslighting boss does not merely insult or criticise but can actively reshape an employee’s working reality by controlling narratives, blocking support, denying pervious instructions, and making the staff member increasingly dependent on the boss for a version of what is supposedly true.

Additionally, the study finds that beyond hurt feelings, when leaders utilise gaslighting tactics, the affected employees then generate worse organisational outcomes for their companies such as lower organisation-based self-esteem, stronger desires to quit the firm, and their performance on tasks drops precipitously.

Affected workers even increase their own workplace deviousness, sometimes in attempts to get revenge.
Meanwhile, other affected staff completely change their behaviours to start their own impression management routine toward their boss to not be viewed so negatively.

Such actions can include trying harder to please the manager, appeasing them, or excessive striving to win their approval, which is sad irony since their boss is the very person who destabilises them.

Putting it bluntly, a gaslit employee may start performing for the boss more anxiously while quietly falling apart inside.
Finally, the research finds that workers can fight back against gaslighting and not just subside as helpless victims.

When employees possess stronger informal workplace power relative to their manager, especially by being experts in their field, widely networked in their industry, and well-liked by fellow employees, then the effects of gaslighting reduce.

So, bosses will then find it harder to distort their reality perceptions. This shows the unfortunate truth that in many organisations, it is the younger staff, junior professionals, or the most isolated employees who suffer the most from gaslighting because they lack the protective social standing to resist the manipulation.

In short, build expertise, foster internal and external alliances, and establish trusted networks to not only protect your career from a bad manipulative boss, but stabilise your sanity as well.

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