Chanta Moore, a licensed professional counselor and an adjunct professor at online school Walden University, equates toxic workplaces to living in a place with contaminated air or polluted drinking water. Toxic workplaces – environments contrary to wellness and not well aligned with emotional, mental, physical and social needs of employees – have always been around, says the Houston resident.
Whereas ableism, racism, sexism and sexual harassment are typically easier to identify, toxicity at work may be subtle, Moore says. The signs can come in the form of favoritism, micromanagement, high turnover, tokenism, unrelenting workloads and limited-to-no opportunities for growth. "Toxicity in the workplace is often divisive and systemic," she says. Impact ‘after you've clocked out'Clients facing toxicity at work may enter a clinical setting with anxiety and depression, but symptoms such as dread, fatigue, hopelessness and overwhelmed may also be present, Moore says. Clients often feel dissatisfied and stressed. "It's so pervasive it permeates nearly every aspect of life," she says. "It's not that you're miserable for those eight hours when you're in your office, but you're also miserable even after you've clocked out. And it's seeping now into other areas of your experience."Most clients will connect their dissatisfaction with work but may not have the language or the tools to attach the behavior to a feeling. Moore helps clients rewrite their narrative, acknowledging that each experience is different and there's no template for therapy. She helps clients "author" or tell their story by asking:
Where are you positioned in your life? How did you get here? What parts don't work for you? What can you absolutely live with? What needs to be changed?
Then Moore gives clients the opportunity to re-author their story. "I think our first task is to name and give unique voice to the toxicity in the workplace," she explains. Moore's aware that not everyone can quit their job, so she helps clients navigate employee assistance benefits such as coaching and short- and long-term disability to access all of the resources available to the client. "We don't want to minimize how powerful it can be to empower clients to be more assertive, to be more communicative about their grievances," she says. "For some of them, it may be the first time they've stood up for themselves or asked for what they needed."Building critical skills for survival Latesha Byrd is a certified executive coach and the CEO of Perfeqta, a talent development agency in Charlotte, North Carolina. She's focused on solution-based methods to help clients move forward and suggests, in certain cases, a client seek counseling to supplement their emotional growth. She likens the microaggressions seen in a toxic workplace to "poking at a small cut, and over time. It's not a small cut anymore; it's a large wound that's going to take a lot of time to repair."(Microaggressions) are a huge impact on someone's emotional safety."Clients become disappointed and resentful after noticing the signs of a toxic environment, which aren't always evident during the interview process. Sometimes the company's culture changes, becoming toxic. "They (the employee) start to internalize the microaggressions – ‘I don't belong here, I'm doing something wrong,'" Byrd says. "That can diminish motivation, self-confidence. Therapists can help clients build the power to say, ‘Enough is enough. I am valuable to this company; my voice deserves to be heard.'"
Byrd identifies four skills for clients in a toxic work environment to develop: boundary setting, communication, conflict resolution and managing up. A therapist can assist the client define where the toxicity is coming from, who is responsible and how to address it with a colleague, supervisor or when it's time to reach out to human resources. When a supervisor is toxic, unfortunately, the client may have to manage up – oversee the growth of their own career, rather than rely on a manager to mentor and look for opportunities for advancement. Therapy begins with intake process Tammy Lewis Wilborn's book, "Playing a New Game: A Black Woman's Guide to Being Well and Thriving In the Workplace," is based on her personal experience in a toxic work environment. As a retired, board-certified licensed professional counselor and board-certified licensed professional clinical supervisor, she speaks around the country about mental health and wellness. She founded the Black Women's Wellness Conference of New Orleans in 2018."The reason why I wrote this book from the angle of the impact of stereotypes and specifically about the experiences at work," says the Nashville-based author, "is because stereotypes have the ability to distort how people of color are seen and treated. And when those stereotypes are internalized, it also impacts how the individual sees and treats themselves."When Wilborn was practicing, the intake interview was an opportunity to ask questions about a client's workplace. Wilborn suggests finding out the details of a client's job: where, when and how long? Even if the client doesn't indicate their job is the reason for coming in for a visit, she recommends probing into what stressors are associated with the client's job. "In the initial intake session, it is very important to ask specifically about workplace experiences," Wilborn says. "It really does open up an opportunity for clients who may not be seeking counseling for work to identify potential sources of stress. They might be coming in for a clinical issue, but the underlying causes might be workplace stress."Before developing a therapeutic plan, Wilborn always ruled out health issues for physiological symptoms such as headaches or migraines, sleep disruption and eating issues. She'd advise a medical consultation. Once medical issues were ruled out, Wilborn developed a treatment plan using cognitive therapy. "The self-care is essential because it's what goes out the window for people experiencing a toxic work environment," she says. "It's really important to identify the impact to one's self-worth, to one's self-perception, to one's self-confidence, and replace any distorted types of thinking caused by negative experiences in the workplace with positive affirming, empowering messages."
First published in Black Mental Health Today, Spring 2023 (Vol. 7).