So far we have considered how kindness can be compromised by various pressures: individual and group dynamics, the demands of the work, poorly managed organisational change, industrialised ‘target cultures’, and blame. Now we will look at when kindness itself is under direct attack; when as a matter of operational policy, or for political reasons, the explicit intention is to be unkind, shaming or confrontational. When this happens it is usually framed as some form of ‘self-defence’.

The term ‘hostile environment’ gained popular recognition in the context of UK immigration policy from 2012 until its unravelling in 2018. The Home Office explicitly used unkindness as a tool of public policy, an approach that may also be finding its way into the ‘Welfare State’: and so requires careful consideration.