I was reading through “The Karpman Drama Triangle” on a recent LinkedIn Top Voice post and realized how it shed light my usual workplace drama making it less stressful to deal with inevitable conflicts in the workplace.
“This is ridiculous!”, an administrative staff hijacked a staff meeting and decided to deal a blow to my boss I sat shell shocked at the karpman drama triangle playing out before my very eyes.
“Oh no!” I gasped as everyone could not believe her audacity and responded with a shocked silence in the meeting meant to discuss the main business agenda. The whole room fell eerily silent as they could not believe how one could take the role of the “victim” so far.
The administrator started declaring that she is victimized by all these “professional tone” that she needed to use. Seeing herself as fundamentally powerless, she pitted herself against the “professionals” and showed us how a really unprofessional tone looked like as she ranted on about how “poor me” she is.
Everyone felt fundamentally helpless and loserish when in the presence of the boss she had the audacity to speak in such a manner. We could not do anything but feel loserish and wish we had the superpower to understand how to prevent the drama called workplace conflict which may be inevitably ubiquitous.
Here are the roles introduced by the Karpman Drama Triangle
The Bully/Persecutor: The bully is someone who is highly critical and quick to find fault with their colleagues, all while also exerting dominance and control over the situation.
The Victim: The victim sees themselves as fundamentally powerless and hopeless. They are likely to complain about their situation and adopt a ‘poor me’ mindset. They may see themselves as being bullied, and seek help from the rescuer.
The Rescuer: The rescuer over-functions and enables the victim by stepping in to ‘save’ the victim regularly. They appear self-sacrificing and over-responsible, but they do not resolve the problem in the long term.
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