1st Edition

Unexpected Poison Betrayal and Moral Injury in Your Workplace

By Mark Layson Copyright 2026
188 Pages 5 B/W Illustrations
by CRC Press

188 Pages 5 B/W Illustrations
by CRC Press

188 Pages 5 B/W Illustrations
by CRC Press

People go to work hoping for a reliable environment and trustworthy leadership who will provide what is needed for them to work well. This hope is true for any worker, especially those whose work entails exposure to physical or psychological hazards in the service of their community. High rates of "burnout" and psychological distress are becoming increasingly common across all professions. This... Read more

Part 1: Foundations of workplace betrayal.1. The relationship between identity, meaning and work. 2. Dissonance: What else were you expecting? 3. Betrayal: The personal side of dissonance. Part 2: The Mechanisms of Organisational Betrayal. 4. Faking good: The Halo effect. 5. Organisational Betrayal: Leveraging the Resources of an Organisation to Crush Individuals. 6. Paltering: Halving the Truth. 7. Landing betrayal: The art of scapegoating. 8. Et tu and Mea Culpa. 9. Saving ourselves: Defending virtue. 10. Saving Our Organisations: Courage and Curiosity.

Biography

Rev Dr Layson (CESM MAIES) is an Adjunct Research Fellow at Charles Sturt University, Australia, and Director of the NSW/ACT Disaster Recovery Chaplaincy Network, placing pastoral carers in disaster zones. He serves as a volunteer Chaplain with the NSW Ambulance Aeromedical Unit, working alongside his therapy dog, Wallace. Mark's career spans multiple emergency services: seven years as a NSW Police officer, professional firefighting, 18 years as an Anglican Pastor, and over a decade as an ambulance chaplain. His interdisciplinary PhD, funded by the NSW Centre for WHS, explored moral injury in Australian first responders, developing a holistic bio-psycho-social-spiritual framework for organizational culture change. A member of the Australasian Society for Traumatic Stress Studies and certified Emergency Service Manager, Mark's research focuses on wellbeing, psychosocial risk, and moral injury. He regularly presents at national and international conferences.