Let’s assume you’re being asked to do something that you have no legal obligation to do. Let’s assume that you’re being asked to do this thing by your employer, that your employer is a defendant in a lawsuit. Let’s assume that the thing you’re being asked to do is to talk to the defendant’s lawyer about the case, just you and the attorney, even though you’re a witness for the plaintiff.
Let’s assume that you respectfully decline to meet with the defendant’s lawyer (in other words, your employer’s lawyer). Further, you decline several times, but they press hard and get your boss’s boss to ask you, which turns it into an issue of insubordination.
Assuming all that… isn’t that intimidating? Isn’t that the word you would use, privately, amongst friends, to describe the position your employer is taking?