Divide and rule in the corridors: when management feeds hostility between colleagues

There is a very old tactic, as ancient as the primitive desire to hold on to power at any cost, known in the history books by its Latin name divide et impera, divide and rule. But you do not need to leaf through the annals of ancient empires to see this scheme at work. It is enough to spend a little time backstage in many of our businesses, warehouses and offices.

There you will see a strange and deeply poisonous dynamic.

The day shift angrily blames the night shift for every mistake left hanging. The warehouse looks at the sales staff with hostility. The people at the counter talk behind the backs of those who sit in administration. Two colleagues who share the same desk and the same modest pay no longer speak to each other, but communicate with cold notes and stiff looks.

A naive observer might think this is simply ordinary human friction, a natural result of everyday tiredness and stress.

But when you look deeper, you understand that this hostility does not arise by itself. It is carefully planted, watered every week and protected by the very people who run the company.

Let me say this with all the clarity the truth deserves. When an insecure manager does not know how to build cooperation through process, he deliberately chooses to build clans through intrigue. Because a divided team fighting among itself never has time to see the emptiness of the one sitting at the top.

Let us watch how this little civil war in the corridors is orchestrated.

It always begins in the boss's closed office, in secret conversations behind half-open doors. The owner or the director calls in one of the employees, offers him a coffee, smiles at him with false confidence and whispers in a low voice: “Look, I count on you. You're the only one who really works here. Watch out for that other one, he said some unkind things about you yesterday.”

Then, just an hour later, the same scene is repeated with the other colleague, with only the names changed.

This is not simply idle gossip. It is a well-planned psychological manipulation. By pouring the poison of suspicion between people, the manager achieves two dark aims in a single move.

First, he destroys any chance of solidarity. He knows very well that if the staff talk openly, if the employees sit down together and compare the facts, they will discover the truth at once: they will understand that the chaos of the shift does not come from their colleague's clumsiness, but from the complete absence of documented procedures. They will understand that the delays are not the storekeeper's fault, but the fault of a worn-out system that no one deigns to repair. And above all, they will understand that all of them together are being paid far less than they are owed.

A united, clear-sighted team demands accountability, demands standards and demands dignity. And that is the worst nightmare of incompetent management.

Second, through this division, the manager casts himself as indispensable. He becomes the only centre of gravity, the only channel of communication, the supreme father keeping the balance between quarrelling children. Employees no longer go to a colleague to clear up an operational problem; they go to the boss to inform on each other and to seek protection. And the boss enjoys watching grown adults demean themselves just to win a crumb of favour in his eyes.

The price a business pays for this sick game is enormous.

The energy that should go into improving customer service, eliminating mistakes and growing the value of the company burns away entirely backstage. People hide information from their colleagues just so the other one fails on the next shift. Handovers are laid with invisible traps. And the workplace becomes a minefield where everyone walks in fear, waiting for the next blow from behind.

True leadership does exactly the opposite.

A leader with integrity and self-confidence knows that his success is measured by the level of trust that exists between people when he is not in the room at all. He cannot stand intrigue. As soon as someone walks into his office to speak badly about a colleague, a true leader stops him at once and says: “Call him in here, sit down across from him and tell him to his face what you have to say.”

He sets clear procedures for communication, builds transparent handover protocols and creates an environment where each person's result depends on the success of everyone together.

If you are working today in a place where the air is heavy with jealousy and colleagues are seen as rivals for survival, do not be fooled by the façade. Do not look for the blame in the colleague beside you, who is carrying the same heavy load on his shoulders.

Open your eyes and look at who is profiting from this senseless war. Look at who is hiding his own weakness behind the noise of your clashes.

Because the truth always remains simple: small minds divide so they can rule over ruins, but great leaders unite, because they know well that no real castle can stay standing if the stones of its foundation are wearing each other away.