Blog
A Toxic Workplace and Its Impact on your Health
Oct 2019
Are your colleagues often calling in sick from work? Does your boss publicly belittle you at work? Do you leave work every day feeling totally drained or just plainly unhappy?
Toxic workplace environments are common. In fact, one-fifth of working professionals in America consider their workplace toxic. A toxic work environment can negatively affect your health, leading to emotional stress, worry and anxiety. It’s important to note that the damage here is emotional and may often lead to depression and suicide. Suppressing your emotions and not taking the time to talk things out and address those issues can easily lead to diseases. Instead of keeping in those negative emotions, it is very important to learn to release them. Get a journal and start writing what is no longer serving you. Jeffery Pfeffer, at Stanford Graduate School of Business, recently linked workplace stress
to 120,000 deaths a year in the US.
The average person spends more than 90,000 hours in their lifetime at work, this is more time than most people spend at home with loved ones or hanging out with close friends. Imagine how damaging these negative effects can have on your happiness, self-esteem, and quality of life if you’re constantly harboring these feelings inside of you. You will feel frustrated and angry all the time if toxic co-workers are constantly gossiping about you or if your management team continually show favoritism.
After working for a long period of time, you may start to see some physical manifestations through inadequate sleep, weight gain or develop more medical problems. After a long crazy day at the office, you may start to take out your stress on your children, or husband. And if you’re not careful, your work stress simply trickle over to become home stress, often at the expense of your families. No matter what is happening at home, you start to become short-tempered and get grumpier and angrier at every one. So, have a good work-life balance and allow your bad day at work to stay at work.
When your personal life or relationships start to get impacted, then it’s time to make an exit strategy. Pick your battles wisely, and don’t let workplace politics and workplace bullying or bad-mouthing go unquestioned. Be assertive, and put a stop to this kind of behavior now. Speak out!
You can make plans to protect yourself. You need to assess the workplace environment and its impact on your well-being. Look on the bright side of things and the need to quit because your health is at stake. If you’re constantly feeling like you can’t stand the job, or you find yourself most often telling people that you hate going to work, the solution is to change your workplace. Take initial baby steps and start making plans. Know when to draw the line and say enough is enough. Take time off to recharge and check out other opportunities for a better fit. If you want something to change, you have to make it happen.
Have an honest talk with your boss in person. If no resolution, then plan to give in your two-week notice. Give 100% performance effort to the very end. Update your resume and network with recruiters in your area. Network to get work. Apply to jobs online or make a plan to start your own business.
Just because you got employed with the company doesn’t mean you have to stay there till retirement. Learn from the experience and move on. Your experiences and skillsets are not wasted. All your training will translate into something useful, so make a plan. Discover a new career path and step out in faith into a transformed life.
About the Author
Dr. Christina Wachuku is the Founder/ Owner at MediFixx Health, LLC. She’s a Board-Certified Ambulatory Care Clinical Specialist, and places strong emphasis on Medication Therapy Management services as the ultimate preventive healthcare practice
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