Navigating Workplace Toxicity

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We are deeply affected by our workplaces.  The relationships we cultivate, the feedback we receive, and the way challenging situations are handled can deeply affect the way we see our work, ourselves, and the world. 

 Toxic workplaces vary widely—some are harsh and biting, some are enmeshed and overly personal, some are cliquish and ooze favoritism.  While they look different, toxic workplaces almost always have these things in common:

• Difficult supervisors or leaders

• The practice of treating every challenge as an emergency

• Poor boundaries

• The employee feeling that something is wrong with them for ‘letting it get to them’ or ‘not being able to handle it’ 

This last bullet point was the piece that really jumped out to me I dove into this work.  Again and again, I would see competent, capable people berating themselves for not being able to embrace and enjoy working in these problematic environments.  They would say things like, “Why can’t I handle this?” and “If I were just better at my job, better at compartmentalizing my feelings, better at letting things go, this wouldn’t be an issue. I’m the problem.”

When something doesn’t feel right to us, our mind and body respond. That response is important information. By pretending it’s not there or to suppressing that response, we’re missing out on critical information about ourselves and our work environment. Let’s hear that information and allow it to be our guide. 

The cost of staying in a toxic workplace with no support is extreme.  I’ve worked with clients that need months or years of therapeutic support to unlearn and move past their toxic workplace experiences.  The most common thing I see in someone who has stayed in a toxic workplace with no support for too long is that they no longer trust themselves. They don’t trust their interpretation of a situation, they don’t trust their ability to handle difficult things, and they don’t trust their ability to be successful.

This coaching program walks you through the following steps:

1.     Understand the dynamics at play in your workplace

2.     Unpack what (or who) is specifically triggering to you

3.     Understand the messages you are internalizing from your work culture

4.     Develop a plan for interacting with the person or problem differently

5.     Learn practices to separate your sense of self from your work environment

6.     Decide if this workplace is a sustainable place for you to continue working 

This coaching program includes six 50-minute sessions, typically spaced out over 12 weeks.  There will be (brief, fun!) homework assignments between sessions to maximize insight and action during our work together. It also includes unlimited email support in between sessions.

The fee for this program is $1300.