If Dominic Raab can’t deal with challenges, he’s the snowflake, not his staff

Government ministers are responsible for taking crucial decisions in high-pressure situations, and it’s sometimes the job of civil servants to take the strain.

That means supporting ministers not only by anticipating and responding to requirements for briefing and advice, but also by absorbing pressure from distractions and other demands on ministers’ time so that they can focus all their energy on their work.

It does not mean having to be a pressure valve for uncontrolled rage or a target of controlling behaviour from someone who has to get their kicks from kicking down.

Deputy prime minister Dominic Raab resigned on Friday morning in the wake of Adam Tolley KC’s official report into allegations that Raab had waged a campaign of bullying against civil servants. (Raab denied wrongdoing.) It comes two and a half years after then home secretary Priti Patel was found to have breached the ministerial code by bullying staff; government ethics adviser Alex Allan quit after then PM Boris Johnson decided to keep Patel on.

Some of Raab’s parliamentary colleagues had sought to minimise Tolley’s findings in advance ever since his investigation was announced. Jacob Rees-Mogg, Bernard Jenkin and others dismissed complaints against Raab as “snowflakey” and complainants as “very easily bullied”, shifting attention away from the substance of the allegations and what they say about a minister’s ability to run a department.

Raab made a similar claim in his resignation letter, saying the “threshold” for bullying had been set too low. That he was able to undermine the investigation (and the two findings against him) like this before Tolley’s conclusions had even been published further illustrates the unequal power relationship between ministers and officials, who are not at liberty to make public statements with their versions of events.

Repeatedly subjecting officials – in whose professional interest it is to serve ministers well – to behaviour that aggressively belittles and undermines them undoubtedly inflicts damage on individuals that, more often than not, goes untold.

But using that behaviour, or the threat of it, to set the tone of a private office must ultimately inflict damage on the minister.

Moving staff away from their assigned roles with problematic ministers, or moving more senior staff in to shield colleagues in their dealings with them – as has allegedly happened in Raab’s office – consumes time, energy and other resources that government departments don’t have to spare.

And it’s an ineffective way of addressing the problem anyway: whichever officials are parachuted into private office, they will be working for a minister who is unduly fazed by minor obstructions, and who resorts to tactics of aggression and intimidation in order to communicate his needs to staff.

It must be difficult for anyone who works in such an environment to give of their best, and no staff move or office reorganisation can resolve the question of whether a minister who cannot be reasonable in day-to-day interactions is secure and resilient enough to hold office with confidence and trust. Who’s the snowflake here?

The culture of many public institutions still serves to normalise unacceptable behaviour and victimise workers who object to it

Civil servants and other officials who complain of workplace bullying have been characterised as personally weak or professionally not up to the job, and Dominic Raab’s apology – for any “unintended stress or offence” caused by his “pace, standards and challenge” as a minister – plays on that insinuation. The truth is the opposite.

While the formal mechanisms for making a complaint might – at last – be in place, the culture of many public institutions still serves to normalise unacceptable behaviour and victimise workers who object to it. Only the bravest staff speak out, only the best managers back them, and both groups do it not for personal gratification or gain but in the public interest.

As a House of Commons clerk left isolated by a campaign of bullying and harassment and a series of management failures, I know how bullying can affect individual staff and undermine the work of whole teams. I also know how unlikely staff are to make the “spurious” claims that Dominic Raab suggests the investigation findings will “encourage”, given the stigma that persists around bullying in working cultures that allow unacceptable behaviour to go on. I have also experienced how professionally and personally damaging it is to raise bullying as an issue, let alone pursue a formal complaint.

Officials in private offices and similar roles are required by their job descriptions to be brave. They may have to bring their bosses bad news or present evidence with conclusions that are not in line with a minister’s policy agenda. They may have to warn them about the risks, or remind them of the rules. They may have to say: “Not that way,” or, in very rare cases, even just: “No.”

But doing that – fulfilling their professional role in public service – may well be the reason why they become the target of a workplace bully who can’t cope with being challenged. Staff then have two problems: the bullying behaviour that obstructs them in carrying out their job from day to day, and the bigger picture, which is the intention and effect of the behaviour in repelling scrutiny and accountability in any form.

Bullying in public institutions is about more than personality clashes and customer service. To be effective, a government needs the capacity to accept challenges. Civil servants need to be able to speak freely in advising ministers and to do their jobs without the prospect of being punished for it. In resigning, Raab has denied wrongdoing and blamed civil servants for their response to the challenge that he brought to his department. He has also publicly made allegations about his staff that they are not in a position to answer and about which the facts may never come to light.

But the allegations themselves and the manner in which Raab has aired them speak of a dysfunction in working relationships that has the most serious implications not only for Whitehall offices but for how we are all governed at home and represented abroad.

Workplace bullying has been treated as a side issue, but tackling it properly is central to the health of public life. Beyond Adam Tolley’s findings and their consequences for Dominic Raab, unless Rishi Sunak accepts that challenge, bullying will continue to be both a symptom and a cause of sick government.

Updated 21 April 2023: This piece has been amended to reflect Dominic Raab's resignation letter.