You shouldn’t have to wear a Hazmat suit to work unless it’s your job. Use these strategies to deal with a toxic workplace until you can find something better.
If going to work makes you feel stressed or depressed, and/or if you have a loss of focus, decreased confidence, stomach pain, headaches, and/or an impaired immune system, you are most likely working in a bad environment. Surviving toxic workplace anxiety is difficult, but it is entirely possible.
Every day, you feel like you’re about to burst into tears at your desk for a scientific reason.
“A toxic environment keeps people in a fight or flight mindset—the constant pump of cortisol, testosterone, and norepinephrine generates physical, emotional, and mental stress,” says Cheri Torres, an Asheville, North Carolina-based business leadership coach.
She claims that working in a toxic workplace prevents you from doing your best work and jeopardizes your health and well-being.
- Create a network of trustworthy coworkers:
People in toxic workplaces are selfish, judgmental, and manipulative. It’s easy to believe that no one is drama-free, but finding your tribe can help you deal with a bad boss or a coworker who refuses to listen to your ideas because they are “always right.”
- How to deal:
“One important way you can weather a toxic work environment is to find one or two good friends you can trust in your workplace and offer each other support and a place to vent,” says Raffi Bilek, a director at The Baltimore Therapy Center.
“Being able to commiserate and understand each other’s frustrations can offer a significant uplift and help you make it through the difficult situation,” he says.
Just be careful who you choose as friends and only speak openly with people you trust. Having said that, you still don’t want to share certain things at work, even with your coworker’s best friend.
- Maintain your focus on important objectives
When you walk into a toxic workplace, it can feel like you’ve stepped back in time to high school, when rumors flew faster than the track team and cliques were more exclusive than the varsity cheerleading squad.
People love to gossip about anything, whether it’s the CEO’s affair, how inept James from marketing is, or whether the upcoming restructuring will result in layoffs.
There may even be entire group texts or Slack channels dedicated to slandering coworkers and pointing fingers.
- Be courteous to everyone (even toxic co-workers):
Toxic workplaces are often highly competitive, making employees feel as if they must climb over their coworkers to reach the top. To look better and advance up the corporate ladder, they will lie, cheat, and steal ideas.
Backstabbing behavior is always on the lookout in this type of environment, which can make surviving toxic work environment anxiety more difficult.
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