Many people don’t realise that working in a toxic environment can still have lasting effects on your physical and mental health even long after you’ve left the job. Once you hand in your badge, there is often a process of de-programming, especially if you’ve been with the same destructive firm for many years.
What is the advice of psychologists and therapists for recovering from a toxic work environment in the weeks and months after you’re gone, and for making the most of any new job or career that you have?
Let yourself grieve
The first part of the process is usually to let yourself grieve. If you experience some sort of professional trauma, it can have long-lasting effects on your emotions and even leave you in a state of mourning or feeling betrayed. If you have strong feelings like anger, allow yourself to feel them. Don’t immediately rush into hustle mode, trying to take advantage of lost time. Take a few days to yourself and simply allow yourself to exist. This way, you can really identify your emotions so that you have the groundwork for processing them.
Allow yourself to decompress
The next step is to allow yourself to decompress. Being in a toxic environment often changes your definition of “normal.” This can then lead to unconscious changes in your habits and routines, which may take a while to identify and stamp out.
For example, if you are in a toxic work environment, you often jump at the sound of a Slack notification. Now that you’re gone from that old job, that sensation of having to constantly be switched on might be lingering. You might also have a habit of overexplaining every action you take without embracing your autonomy. Healthy work environments trust people to perform the roles they’re trained to do. Unhealthy ones constantly micromanage and monitor.
If you notice these behaviours, try to codify them into a list. Write them down so that you know what toxic responses to office culture look like. Once you consciously identify them, you can begin dealing with them one by one.
Re-establish your boundaries
Re-establishing your boundaries after leaving a toxic office culture is one of the most important parts of the process. Don’t allow false beliefs to enter your mind about the work that you were previously doing. For example, your boss may have once told you that you were lucky to be working for them, or that you weren’t good at your job, which are two classic abusive behaviours.
One of them is suggesting to you that there are no good alternatives, and the other is gaslighting you into believing that you don’t have skills that you do have. The trick to dealing with this is to take action. For example, if you were sexually harassed, it’s a good idea to get in touch with attorneys who can fight your case. Companies like the Sexual Harassment Law Firm can provide expert guidance and advice on the next steps you should take.
You can also try writing down a list of things that make you confident about your professional ability. Simply writing these down after having escaped a toxic work environment can be therapeutic. You can rediscover your professional skills and aptitude when your confidence is low. Seeing your accomplishments in black and white reminds you that you do have talents and that you are able to provide real value in the marketplace.
Seek an external perspective
If you have the opportunity, you might also want to look into finding an external perspective that can validate what’s happened to you. If you’re right in the thick of recalibrating from a toxic work environment, it’s a good idea to talk to people who aren’t in that bubble. They can provide a new view of what you’re able to do.
For example, you could reach out to colleagues from old jobs where the environment was healthier to remind yourself what a functional work environment looks like. You could also go to a therapist who specialises in workplace trauma to help deal with your fight-or-flight response every time you get into an argument at a new place of work. Dealing with these lingering issues can make you feel more confident and allow you to relax in new environments. You’re better able to take advantage of opportunities when you’ve dealt with the psychological toll of your previous workplace.
Vet your next move aggressively
Of course, if you have previously been part of a toxic work environment, you’ll want to vet your next move aggressively. You don’t want to be thrown out of the frying pan into the fire.
Just as in dating, you want to look for red flags when you go to your next interview. Ask how long a particular position has been open and what the company’s turnover rate is. If the position has been available for a long time, it’s an indication that people don’t want to work for the firm. At the same time, if their turnover rate is high, it usually means that there’s an issue with management or there are poor working conditions.
During the interview, check for things like psychological safety. Ask the hiring manager how their team handles mistakes or differing opinions. Ideally, you’re looking for a work environment that accepts all perspectives, even if a manager makes the final decision on what to do next. You don’t want a work environment that punishes people for introducing new ideas that could potentially solve problems in a practical and sensible way.
If a company mentions that they’re like family, then this is usually a sign that they have fewer boundaries with each other. This is something you want to avoid, especially if you’ve come from a toxic work environment previously.
Ultimately, it’s not worth working in bad environments. Almost always, there’s an opportunity to move horizontally to another company or job role if your current one is draining you and making you feel burned out. The best way to avoid toxic roles in general is to perform due diligence.
