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Ladies and gents, welcome…
What you’re about to read will probably give you a bit of an anxiety attack if you’ve ever been unfortunate enough to work in a place like the person who wrote this story describes.
And I gotta say…I think they nailed it on the head.
So take a deep breath, relax, and dig in.
And, if you haven’t experienced a workplace like this, consider yourself lucky!
Stages of Self-Destruction in a Toxic Workplace.
“You start a new job, bright eyed and full of optimism and energy.
Everything seems great and everyone seems nice.
It starts slowly…
After a few weeks/months, you hear people complain, but you have yet to see any issues.
You start to feel like your coworkers aren’t full of team spirit and possibly don’t take sick or vacation time when they should.
You find that there are “secret” things that are frowned upon like attending company events when a busy project is underway, leaving the office for 15 minutes to get a coffee, talking to coworkers at your desk for more than a minute, etc.
More red flags show up.
You start to wonder if you’re doing something wrong that no one told you about.
No one speaks in meetings unless they have to.
People seem afraid to make a mistake or look bad.
You aren’t sure what to think.
You start to see clear red flags – bullying, gossip, poor management.
But you hold out hope…
You start thinking about other jobs.
This is the time to get out, but you might still feel like you can make it work.
You run afoul of someone by total accident and become a source of drama for someone else. Your mind starts to focus heavily on work outside of office hours.
The situation gets worse.
You become a target for your coworkers and ultimately your managers.
You become isolated in the workplace.
You notice your sleep and/or appetite has changed.
Eventually you are criticized unfairly without clear reasons or expectations and the game becomes no-win.
The job search really needs to be a priority.
You are still updating your resume because it takes so much time and effort to job search and apply.
You start feeling sick on Sundays and before work in the morning.
Your stomach churns when you wake up, and you think about your sick days, but don’t take any because you’ll be punished or interrogated.
Hopefully you leave now, but you might start thinking you’re to blame and continue on with the work. You’ll get another job when things slow down.
Work stress bleeds over into the rest of your life.
You feel like you’re chasing a moving target at work.
All of your emotional energy is swallowed up by your job.
You spend evenings and weekends trying to escape the way you feel, and your health and household begin to suffer.
The world turns on you.
It’s really bad.
It seems like everything goes wrong at the same time outside of work.
You feel awful every day, and your relationships become unhealthier because you have nothing left in the tank except work anxiety.
Work stress becomes unbearable.
The situation is pretty grim.
You stop looking at other jobs because you are too tired.
Self care has become non-existent.
You get a warning at work or have an awful performance review. Maybe HR has become involved.
Your anxiety and depression deepen and you may experience panic attacks or severe emotional outbursts.
The dread is unbearable…
No matter what you do, you know you are getting fired or pushed out, and feel that way every single day.
It gets harder and harder to cope without help or substance abuse.
It all feels hopeless.
If you haven’t gone on stress leave by this point, you ultimately end up getting fired.
Getting fired doesn’t have to be a bad thing.
You receive your last paycheck.
You breathe a giant sigh of relief. Game is over.
You feel a great deal of grief for the way it’s played out, but eventually the sun comes out and you realize how awful it was.
You allow some recovery time and find your strength again while on unemployment OR jump on the first thing you can find and hope you don’t start the cycle over again….
Don’t be unrealistic.
—Impossible outcomes that never happen:
You hang in there and eat it every day until it magically becomes a healthy workplace.
You win a million dollars and take a dump on the CEO’s desk while screaming “I win!”
***Moral of the story : red flags mean STOP before you hurt yourself!”
Reddit users spoke up.
This person had a lot to say.
Another individual weighed in.
This reader shared their thoughts.
Another person spoke up.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a company that didn’t expect their work-from-home policy to result in better time off benefits for their employees.
And this reader shared their thoughts.
Wow, that brought back some interesting memories…
At least you can appreciate not having to deal with that kind of nonsense anymore once it’s all behind you.
Onward and upward!
If you’ve ever had a job you dreaded before, this makes a lot of sense.