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Drawing on work in institutional discourse analysis and enunciative linguistics, this article questions the influence of managerial discourse on the subjective relationship with language. It is based on individual accounts of experience of workplace bullying. Through a case study, it first shows the ambivalence of discursive approaches to psychosocial risk prevention, which, by limiting the expression of emotions at work and related to work, limit the use of language’s symbolic function, creating the risk of hindering the resolution of emotional episodes. It then shows that this process contributes to the promotion of a utilitarian relationship with language and thus fosters the emergence of a new ethical code governing verbal exchanges, where relationship prevails over meaning. It concludes by underlining the importance of the enunciative framework for verbalizing emotions and studying violence in organisations.