🕸️ The Web They Weave
How Power, Charm, and Betrayal Collide Behind Closed Office Doors
In many workplaces, the most dangerous games aren’t played in boardrooms or negotiations. The precarious activities unfold quietly, in the hallways, inboxes, and whispered conversations behind closed doors.
It’s not always the obvious bully who causes the most damage, but the one who cloaks manipulation in charm and betrayal in professionalism. This is the story of how power is brokered, trust is broken, and people become pawns in a game they never agreed to play.
It’s a subtle yet sinister performance in the workplace. A carefully choreographed act where the manipulator expertly juggles relationships, playing colleagues, counterparts, and even leadership against each other. They exploit emotional vulnerabilities and professional ambitions to consolidate their own influence.
As they court a new ally or “supply,” they’ll present a polished, competent, even charming façade, while simultaneously undermining and sidelining those who once supported or trusted them.
Their behaviour becomes increasingly toxic, marked by a gradual withdrawal of collaboration, transparency, and respect. They begin prioritising the needs and perspectives of their new allies, often using guilt, veiled threats, or feigned victimhood to control or silence dissent. Gaslighting becomes a key tactic of denying past agreements, rewriting history, and making others question their memory or professionalism.
As their fixation with maintaining power and cultivating their new political circle intensifies, so does their contempt for those they’ve cast aside. They begin to criticise and belittle former allies, sometimes subtly in meetings, other times brazenly in front of others, justifying their betrayal as professionalism or progress. Meanwhile, they shower praise on their new allies, amplifying their achievements publicly to reinforce the new power dynamic.
It’s a twisted game of workplace politics where the manipulator controls the narrative. Those targeted are left confused, isolated, and emotionally exhausted, questioning their worth, their instincts, and their place in the organisation. But the truth is, the manipulator’s actions have nothing to do with the target’s merit or contribution, it’s a reflection of their own insatiable hunger for control, admiration, and dominance in spaces that reward image over integrity.
🧩 In the end, the web they wove around me wasn’t just meant to isolate, it was meant to erase. To rewrite my contributions, twist my intentions, and cast me as the problem while they positioned themselves as the solution.
By the time I saw the pattern, I was already entangled, professionally sidelined, emotionally depleted, and questioning everything I once believed about loyalty, leadership, and truth. But naming the pattern was my turning point. I stopped trying to win back their approval and started reclaiming my voice. And with every thread I cut, I got closer to the one thing they never counted on: my refusal to stay silent.
If this web sounds familiar, wait until you see what happens when you refuse to play the part they’ve written for you.
In an upcoming piece - “I’m No Angel” - I lay bare something raw, personal, and unapologetically honest: my truth, in full. It’s what I’ve got to say about myself, flaws and all.
It’s the chapter they never wanted me to write. Because when you stop trying to be the perfect victim and start telling the whole truth, that’s when the real reckoning begins.
This will be my first paid offering.
If this work has resonated with you, and you’re ready to walk with me into the unfiltered truth, I’d be honoured to have your support.