Hello and welcome to my podcast, The Wellness Project with Des. On today’s podcast episode, I speak with Tori Williams about how a toxic work culture negatively impacted her mental health.
I’m Desiree, a Mental Health Therapist that is passionate about helping people improve their mental health and live a healthy and fulfilled life. One way I do this is by interviewing experts in the field of mental health and wellness as well as those that have struggled with their mental health but have gained control over it and now live fulfilling lives. In this episode, we will hear from Tori about how she left a toxic job.
Tori explains that her mental health was suffering from a toxic work environment. She was at her job a total of seven years and spent over a year actively looking for a new job. For years, Tori had been in and out of therapy for job related stress. Tori had little to no work life balance and explains that her sleeping habits suffered due to working overnight shifts and over time.
There are many things that create an unhealthy work environment. The unhealthy culture becomes insidious and negatively impacts the employee’s mental health. Tori shares many of the issues that made her job unhealthy and toxic.
- The low pay
- The residence was open 24/7 and needed constant coverage
- Working in residential treatment is already stressful
- Higher up didn’t promote a healthy work life balance
- Employees were rewarded for working overtime
- Managers played favorites which was reflected when it came to assignments and shifts
- Employees weren’t seen as devoted or dedicated if they clocked out on time
- Employees weren’t valued if they didn’t do extra or go above and beyond
- Felt chaotic, there was always a crisis
- Roles were not defined properly
- Abuse allegations not followed up correctly or appropriately
- Inconsistent
- Employees were not being held to the same standards
- Gossip, a lot of rumors
- Sexual harassment
- Training for new employees was inconsistent
- New employees were trained by disgruntled employees
Though the job was unhealthy and impacting her mental health, Tori explains why it was so hard to leave her job. She also explains that sometimes the only solution is to leave. Tori worked hard on her mental health. She shares the steps she took to heal from her experience with a toxic work culture and Tori gives great tips on how administrators and managers can create a healthy, safe, and positive work culture.
We spend many hours at our places of employment. It’s easy to say, “It’s just a job” but that just isn’t true. Jobs can impact your mental and physical health. It’s important to know the signs of a toxic work culture and how that culture is impacting you.
Listen to Tori’s story to learn about toxic work culture and the steps she took to heal from it’s effects on her mental health.
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