Workplace Toxicity Quotes

WHAT’S THE ONE thing that most affects how much people enjoy their jobs? First and foremost, people thrive when they feel appreciated by their supervisors and colleagues—and that means they sense the appreciation is heartfelt and authentic.

We all need support, in the workplace and beyond it. When we both give and receive, we stand a much better chance of survival.

Toxic relationships are like a good pasta that has been overcooked.

I view the modern workplace as somewhere that you go to have your long term health severely damaged.

The emoluments of toxic workplace is stress & depression, but by the time taxes are taken out, it's just sort of a haggard existence.

Everyone has an invisible sign hanging from their neck saying ‘Make Me Feel Important.’ Never forget that when working with people.” Mary Kay Ash

I’m now much less of an asset to the company than I could be. I keep my head down and for self-preservation just do my work with little conversation with anyone. Yet the irony is this: in my self-preservation, I’m actually destroying myself. In bottling up my unexpressed feelings, I’m making myself sick emotionally and physically.

Feedback is a gift only when it comes from a person who has earned your trust.

GET TOUGH. Mental and spiritual toughness go together. Deepen your commitment to your most essential values and mentally rehearse the specific ways you can take positive action.

The stereotype is that only men are narcissists, sociopaths, and psychopaths. That is completely incorrect. There are many women who are the cause of a toxic relationship, family, workplace, or church setting.     Please

that I didn't need to suffer to succeed, and a successful career didn't mean compromising my mental health. 

There isn't enough positive self-talk you can practice in a toxic work environment, and there isn't enough strength you can possess to survive.

it became clearer that if there was any doubt in my mind about leaving my job, it had to be set aside.

Trust is a fragile commodity. Know your code of conduct and the values you stand for. Remember: if you wouldn’t want to explain it on ‘60 Minutes,’ don’t do it.

To those who value words of affirmation, criticism feels like a knife in the heart.

When a workplace becomes toxic, its poison spreads beyond its walls and into the lives of its workers and their families.

No matter what I did, it was never enough.

When you’re through changing, you’re through.” Bruce Barton

We need the richness of many good counselors all through our lives and an attitude that nurtures them. That way, we may find the clarity and resilience we need when things go awry.

SEE THROUGH THE FOG

You have to be careful about damaging workers health because those damaged workers may publicly research your toxic workplace to discover what made them sick.

Researching the workplace damage to my health has turned into a fascinating voyage of discovery.

Achieving great accomplishments doesn’t matter much if everyone who helps you get there dies along the way.” Paul White

Bosses use humiliation to dominate.

Never assume the long term biological toxicity of your workplace has been characterized, as it probably has not.

I look for three things in hiring people. The first is personal integrity, the second is intelligence, and the third is a high energy level. But, if you don’t have the first, the other two will kill you.

[W]e are the ones to blame for enabling and even nourishing the toxic workplaces. In continuing to cooperate with a profoundly unhealthy and exploitative employment system, we become at once the dagger and the wound. Wounds never heal so long as they continue to cooperate with daggers. In a sense, the cure is in the disease itself. Our silence is the disease. Our serious commitment for change and for exposing power abuses and bullies is the cure.

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is sadness, joy; where there is darkness, light.

. There were also multiple ways of earning an income that didn't pose a threat to my well-being. But there weren't various options to choose from when it came to life. I simply had one life, and it was up to me to create great experiences for myself. I

THRIVE ON CHANGE. Many of us get tired of hearing that mantra, especially when we must cope with changes disrupting what we most care about. Yet the relentless acceleration of change requires flexibility of all of us, whatever our skills and roles. We are hurtling into the future, and the future will soon be a very different culture. Like an immigrant to a land with different customs and languages, we have to continually adapt and cultivate mindsets that maintain both our integrity and capacity to contribute.

I keep my head down and for self-preservation just do my work with little conversation with anyone. Yet the irony is this: in my self-preservation, I’m actually destroying myself. In bottling up my unexpressed feelings, I’m making myself sick emotionally and physically.

Over time, this results in a workplace in which most people, especially those who are closest to the leader, are chronic yes-men and sycophants and, in that way, the toxic leader is able to maintain a distorted and almost delusional sense that everyone is in agreement with him or her.

But the story of BPA is not just about gender: it’s also about class. Or at least it’s about gendered class. Fearing a major consumer boycott, most baby-bottle manufacturers voluntarily removed BPA from their products, and while the official US line on BPA is that it is not toxic, the EU and Canada are on their way to banning its use altogether. But the legislation that we have exclusively concerns consumers: no regulatory standard has ever been set for workplace exposure.5 ‘It was ironic to me,’ says occupational health researcher Jim Brophy, ‘that all this talk about the danger for pregnant women and women who had just given birth never extended to the women who were producing these bottles. Those women whose exposures far exceeded anything that you would have in the general environment. There was no talk about the pregnant worker who is on the machine that’s producing this thing.

Just as most American employers give us ‘at will’ employments, our entire existence has become subject to their will. We have arrived at a point where most of our stress is a result of not knowing whether we will get the next paycheck. Exploitative employers love it this way. So long as we are afraid, they are sure to get 100 percent submission from us. We cannot let our toxic way of working be accepted as the norm and as the typical American work ethics. We deserve and can do much, much better than this.

It seems we have no clue where to draw the line regarding conversations we shouldn't initiate and questions we shouldn't ask. When it comes to matters of the body, there is already enough hell that one is going through; you do not need to add more fuel to it. Although I may not speak for everyone, I know many of us experience body insecurities somehow. It is a struggle for the vast majority. Questioning people about their weight, sexuality, and fertility are conversations that we should refrain from unless initiated by the concerned parties. Even then, when these conversations come up, it is never an invitation for judgment. If ever there was a time when compassion was needed the most, it is when the affected people bring up such topics. What they need the most are compassion and kindness. And sometimes, empathy is just listening

At first glance, professionalism tries to convince you it’s a neutral word, merely meant to signify a collection of behaviors, clothing, and norms “appropriate” for the workplace. We just ask that everyone be professional, the cis white men will say, smiles on their faces, as if they’re not asking for much. We try to maintain a professional office environment. But never has a word in the English language been so loaded with racism, sexism, heteronormativity, or trans exclusion. Whenever someone is telling you to “be professional,” they’re really saying, “be more like me.” If you’re black, “being professional” can often mean speaking differently, avoiding black cultural references, or not wearing natural hair. If you’re not American, “being professional” can mean abandoning your cultural dress for Western business clothes. If you’re not Christian, “being professional” can mean potentially removing your hijab to fit in, sitting by while your officemates ignore your need for kosher or halal food, sucking up the fact that your office puts up a giant Christmas tree every year. If you’re low-income or working class, “being professional” can mean spending money you don’t have on work clothes—“dressing nicely” for a job that may not pay enough for you to really afford to do so. If you’re a woman, “being professional” can mean navigating a veritable minefield of double standards. Show some skin, but don’t be a slut. Wear heels, but not too high, and not too low, either. Wear form-fitting clothes, but not too form-fitting. We offer maternity leave, but don’t “interrupt your career” by taking it. And if you’re trans like me, “being professional” can mean putting your identity away unless it conforms to dominant gender norms.

Workplace harassment was a feature of USA professional astronomy.

Over time, this results in a workplace in which most people, especially those who are closest to the leader, are chronic yes-men and sycophants and, in that way, the toxic leader is able to maintain a distorted and almost delusional sense that everyone is in agreement

A toxic coworker can insert significant stress into your work life, and we know that workplace stress is a form of stress that takes a significant toll on your health. Management and organizational researchers Joel Goh, Jeffrey Pfeffer, and Stefanos Zenios examined the impacts of poor management on health and on the basis of their data concluded that over 120,000 deaths per year and between 5-8 percent of health care costs may be related to workplace management.

Boundaries and documentation are your best defense against toxic coworkers. It is also critical that you keep detailed notes and files on your contribution to product, sales, and other outcomes in the workplace—don’t be surprised if your coworker blithely takes credit for your work. That documentation can be invaluable if there is a need to substantiate your work in the face of his or her claims.

The financial costs are also likely to be quite high. There are no statistics on the cost of narcissistic bosses in terms of productivity, but we can speculate that the cost of toxic behavior in the workplace results in healthcare costs, lost dollars due to disability or inefficiency that results from working with toxic coworkers and bosses, lawsuits resulting from pursuing damages against toxic coworkers and bosses, and other impacts of the toxic workers and bosses on clients, consumers, and the public at large.

Sexual harassment is an important and deeply painful element of workplace abuse, but there is also the abuse people regularly suffer at the hands of a toxic and narcissistic supervisor who is a bully.

DOLINSKY’S IMPERATIVE: “Individuals must take it upon themselves to form and grow bubbles of civility within and external to their organizations. Doing so creates new and deeper relationships across stakeholders. It prevents bureaucratic claptrap and friction from descending like a toxic cloud of dissatisfaction. Friction is reduced, and the spread of the workplace zombie virus is slowed.

DOLINSKY’S IMPERATIVE: Individuals must take it upon themselves to form and grow bubbles of civility within and external to their organizations. Doing so creates new and deeper relationships across stakeholders. It prevents bureaucratic claptrap and friction from descending like a toxic cloud of dissatisfaction. Friction is reduced, and the spread of the workplace zombie virus is slowed.

Of twenty employees, Carlos says he was the only one who hadn't slept with the receptionist. Talk about a dysfunctional workplace! However, he couldn't immediately quit. How did Carlos survive? “I just did my job,” he told us.

The women I interviewed seemingly “opted out” of what Rachel, whom I cited earlier, called “the enormous experiment of engaging in capitalism.” Their choice to leave the workplace can be seen, as some of them suggested, as a resistance to neoliberal capitalism—to its exclusive valorization of the sphere of commodity production and the toxic competitive work cultures on which it depends. Their embrace of full-time motherhood can be understood as an attempt to shift priorities and to put care before competition. It is seemingly removed from the demands of advanced capitalism and the public sphere of work that they left, but which their government promotes and their husbands—mostly in high-powered, high-income jobs—occupy. Yet, as a consequence of heading home—a choice that was in part imposed by the pressures of advanced capitalism—women have become heads of their home who run their families as small enterprises, and endorse “intensive mothering”72 as a means of trying to ensure the invincible middle-class future and security of their children. In rechanneling their professional skills and competitive spirit through their children, and taking on the role of family CEO, these women may be reproducing what many found so brutal in the workplace. They have reproduced neoliberalism in the sense that their children have become human capital—investing in them is a way of increasing good returns in the future.73 In the words of Sara, the former senior financial director, “And the competition lives on, it’s just in a totally different guise.”" (from "Heading Home: Motherhood, Work, and the Failed Promise of Equality" by Shani Orgad)

Then there’s absenteeism. Absenteeism is a purposeful and intentional skipping of work because of conditions people are facing at the job. It’s glorified hooky. It’s a significant financial hit. And it’s rampant in toxic workplaces because people have an oversized need to get out of the office. How expensive is absenteeism? Kaiser Permanente analyzed employee absenteeism and estimated it costs businesses $ 1,685 per employee per year.

In fact, emotions are so shared, organizational psychologists have found that each workplace develops its own group emotion, or “group affective tone,” which over time creates shared “emotion norms” that are proliferated and reinforced by the behavior, both verbal and nonverbal, of the employees.7 We have all encountered office environments that suffer from toxic emotion norms, and now we also know that their bottom-line results suffer because of it.

Things should always be done their way, no matter how brilliant your ideas may be

When you encounter certain things, shame may overwhelm you to a point where even admitting to yourself that you're under unbearable conditions becomes so hard

Corporate culture has no room for your work speaking for itself

Toxic management style grooms you into being a cooperating subordinate.

The majority of the organizations assume that highly experienced individuals in certain areas, perhaps people with over 26 years' worth of work experience in the same company in specific expertise, make for great managers. Many organizations are being led by individuals who have been within the company for a significant number of years

Leadership is about transforming people. It is about recognizing the power you have and opt to use it for the greater good of the transformation of people within the team.

Now, many folks who are suddenly handed leadership positions and lack people skills are the ones whose power becomes a tool to destroy the workplace and the people.

Everything became clear as I continued to hike. I was guilty of hoping that what a toxic environment required me to be would somehow lessen the disregard and ill-treatment. My biggest mistake was changing myself to fit a narrative that was unhealthy and dangerous to my well-being. I opted to survive instead of thriving. Slipping into this state had been my body's final warning.

A toxic workplace doesn't end at the office; it follows you into every part of your life

And sometimes, empathy is just listening. People want to be seen more than being judged

It is hard to function as a human being in spaces where all the focus is on what you do wrong than what you get right.

Many of us remain committed to crossing boundaries with personal questions that have nothing to do with us

The issue with people-pleasing is that you gain nothing from it. You are constantly giving and overextending yourself to people who wouldn't do the same for you. These connections thrive well between parties that lack boundaries. The takers, who don't know when to stop taking, and the givers, who don't know when to stop giving

. The issue with pretending to be a non-creative person and having no wings to stretch is that it kills your soul. Every day you wake up to attend to a workplace that prevents you from extending your wings, you die a slow and painful death internally.

To survive under a micromanager, you have to act stupid, even when you know you're smart. You have to shrink yourself into a non-existent person who has no mind and waits for instructions, no matter how ridiculous those instructions are

If they mention your achievements, it seems they assume it steals the limelight that they so desperately crave

Perhaps the uproar and the tantrum were the realization of the lack of control she had on the outcome of other team members' performance, that despite her desire to only be the one recognized, other team leads were comfortable praising their teammates.

Due to the disbelief from the beginning, you don't realize that you are subjected to unbearable working conditions. There is also shame attached to it that if you quit, you suddenly appear to be weak.

Old folks in the corporate world have created an image that paints their work as mysterious and critical

This, I noticed, has left a lot of teams with high resignations because having experience in specific areas doesn't necessarily mean one has people's skills.

Leadership is about transforming people. It is about recognizing the power you have and opt to use it for the greater good of the transformation of people within the team. Now, many folks who are suddenly handed leadership positions and lack people skills are the ones whose power becomes a tool to destroy the workplace and the people. For some, it becomes a means to control people and ensure that those beneath them feel the power they now have

I had, in the past, heard stories about people walking dead inside, and now I was living on the same page. I felt dead on the inside and still didn't want to make things better for myself.

Numerous times, I had sleepless nights, anxiety attacks, extreme episodes of sadness, and constant exhaustion, which I could have interpreted as warning signs. Still, I was too eager to survive to listen to the warnings. The state I was in forced me to pay attention

. There were also multiple ways of earning an income that didn't pose a threat to my well-being. But there weren't various options to choose from when it came to life. I simply had one life, and it was up to me to create great experiences for myself.

It is very hard to manage staff when you are suffering from the toxic effects of workplace mercury poisoning.

If you are not in tune with your intuition, you can miss the divine signs. Also, you may miss divine detours that lead to a better way. If you don’t trust your gut, you may stay in unhealthy dynamics, including toxic workplaces, abusive relationships, and unsafe spaces.

You can deny my workers compensation for occupational disease and I can tell people you denied me when I was too sick to work because of your toxic workplace exposures.

It was clear that while ACEs might be a health crisis with a medical problem at its root, its effects ripple out far beyond our biology. Toxic stress affects how we learn, how we parent, how we react at home and at work, and what we create in our communities. It affects our children, our earning potential, and the very ideas we have about what we’re capable of. What starts out in the wiring of one brain cell to another ultimately affects all of the cells of our society, from our families to our schools to our workplaces to our jails.

I read a joke somewhere about how Bollywood movies exaggerating about people getting heart attacks as a result of being humiliated was nonsense, because if that were the case, then everyone working in toxic jobs would get one every week. Reading that “joke” actually made me pretty sad about the kind of lives many are being forced to lead. Obviously, people will say they have no choice. Because they need to put food on the table. This is a valid reason. But it’s not just food but also expensive clothes, gadgets, jewelery and accessories. And they need expensive furniture in an expensive house. And then they need an expensive car outside, or maybe two. The more the better The best part, they buy almost all of that using bank loans. Congratulations, now you are a slave till every single one of your debts is paid off, which is probably the next 30 years. Now you just need to choose whom you prefer to make your life hell - Your toxic workplace or the "friendly" people from the collection agency when you default on the loan? What a beautiful life indeed!

Rightwingers are fond of warning about the utter mayhem that will ensue if social justice has its way, but the ‘new heaven and new earth’ can unfold with little apparent change to the physical situation (think of the transformation that can happen in a workplace, when the boss is away). It

the true freedom of this philosophy comes when you are no longer monetarily dependent on an employer.

What happened? What were you feeling and thinking? On the -10 to +10 Scale, how intense were your emotions? How did you react? (fight, flight, freeze) What was the impact of your reaction on others? On yourself? On the group’s goals?

Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize?” ~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

I look in the mirror through the eyes of the child that was me.” ~ Judy Collins

We either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.” ~ Carlos Castaneda

We “create our own reality” by how we choose to make meaning and interpret situations we encounter. Our story creates our feelings, the physiological “warning signs” that we are triggered, and our thoughts about ourselves and others. We are usually unaware of why we created this interpretation and we rarely question its validity or explore the intrapersonal roots that fueled our meaning making. We accept our story as “fact” and are often unaware of how it results in triggered emotions and unconscious reactions.

The ability to observe without evaluation is the highest form of intelligence.” ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

Finally, the review is an assertion of power for the boss, affirming she is the evaluator — not a coach or mentor. This is not a mutual relationship where the boss and worker are a team that mutually strive for goals. It is not uncommon for a worker to fail and be fired while the boss, the one who should serve as a trainer, is promoted. There is no partnership — only finger pointing and blaming with the intent of creating feelings of job insecurity and generating threats to illicit more productivity.

And after they’ve raked you over the coals or simply failed to compliment your effort, be sure and tell yourself you did a good job.

Keeping your personal goals firmly at the forefront ensures you are in the driver’s seat of your career. If you don’t know what you value and what the parameters of your dashboard are, others will define it for you. Breaking or even bending the rules you have established for yourself will always have its price.

Expecting less from your boss can lead to being pleasantly surprised instead of horribly disappointed. Once you stop seeing him or her as an all-knowing supervisor who should be mentoring and supporting you without criticism, you can accept them better for who they are — as fallible, human and petty as everyone else, prone to bad judgment and hamstrung by the limitations of their education, experience and ego.

In the end, you’ll want the power and leverage to quit a bad situation. And it’s okay to quit. Sometimes it’s the only way to save your health or find out what you truly want to be and do in this life. Maybe you don’t want to do anything except take long walks, hang out with your dog, be artistic or musical and putter in the garden. And you know what? That’s just fine. Take a hard look at that dashboard you created at the beginning of this book and see what you really value. I bet somewhere on there is happiness — and you deserve it. So go out there and… don’t work so hard.

Unfortunately, once we have reacted, there is no way to undo our impact.

However, in my experience, it takes significant skill to be grounded enough to intentionally choose effective responses. And one of the biggest obstacles is that we rarely realize we are reacting impulsively, much less recognize the impact we are having on others.

my mentor and co-teacher lovingly gave me some feedback and told me that my content was useful but the way I engaged the participants interfered with their learning.

Holding On, Letting Go,” that was offered through the National Training Laboratory (NTL).

When our feelings are extremely high, we probably shouldn’t trust our initial perceptions or thoughts. If we have an intense, disproportionate reaction, it is more likely that our response is fueled by cumulative impact or retriggered issues from our past. Any impulsive reaction will usually escalate the difficulty of the situation.

If she had, instead, assumed that her colleague was being curious, possibly wanting to know what he needed to do to be selected for similar roles in the future, then she may have felt willing to mention the 2 previous projects she had co-facilitated and how her research was related to the focus on this team’s goals.

We can also use The Cycle as we anticipate how we may feel triggered in future situations. We can imagine how we might typically react unproductively and then visualize and practice more useful responses

While I may not appreciate someone’s actions in the moment, it is useful to try to understand and relate to the possible underlying reasons for them. When I shift my focus away from my negative thoughts to think about the reasonable intent and unmet needs of the people whose behavior is the source of my trigger, I am more likely to feel greater empathy and enough distance to de-escalate my emotions to a level from which I can choose a productive response.

The young child asked, “Which one will win the fight?” And the grandfather replied, “Whichever one you feed.” If we replay and obsess about negative thoughts and criticisms, we will strengthen them, and they will win.

Just like an athlete improves their performance by visualizing success, we can anticipate potential triggers and practice effective responses. In your journal, write about the following: What is a situation in the near future in which you anticipate you could feel triggered? Write out the common unproductive intentions you have thought in similar situations.

To create new positive tracks, add this practice to your morning routine: Imagine 3-4 activities you have planned for the day State aloud your positive intentions for each one or write them in your journal Repeat these intentions a few minutes before you start each of these activities

Keep a list in your journal of all the ways you have responded productively in difficult situations, as well as the impact your response had on others. You may want to review this list before meetings or conversations you anticipate may become challenging.

believed that many chemicals widely used today are wreaking havoc on all of us, particularly on young children whose brains, immune systems, reproductive systems, and lungs are growing rapidly. “We have abundant evidence that toxic chemicals cause diseases in children,” he said. “We know that air pollution causes asthma and other respiratory diseases. We know that these chemicals cause loss in IQ, shortened attention spans, and behavioral problems, all of which plays out in school and in the workplace as they get older.” Dr.

When a workplace becomes toxic, its poison spreads beyond its walls and into the lives of its workers and their families. In contrast, positive organizations energize and inspire their workers. When forced to downsize, they try to soften reality’s hard edges. Their leaders know organizations thrive when employees thrive.

WE EXPECT COUNSELING centers with their commitments to healing and their high degree of training to be community oases. When those values are violated, it strikes us as very strange. Other organizations dealing with social breakdown and crime often hire less trained employees and sometimes the combustible fumes in the air explode.

It was tough handling angry, troubled kids all day, but that didn’t drain me nearly as much as being snubbed by the professionals who never said a cheerful word, let alone an encouraging one. A smile or a single word of appreciation would have made all the difference.

Effect On Culture Organizations are made up of people. Those people work and “live” there with other people at least 40 hours per week. Like the connective tissue that begins to form when we are injured or when we are healing and becomes a part of who we are, team members are a part of the connective tissue of the organization. What happens when we remove or tear out a piece of that tissue? Not only does it hurt a lot, it causes heavy bleeding. If it doesn’t heal properly, there are complications. We may never regain our function in that area. When good productive people leave, we feel the pain and so does the culture of the team. The only way to mend the tissue permanently is to do the right things to engage and retain them. Spillover Effect We don’t talk about this much, but there is a psychological impact on other productive and engaged employees when they are forced to work with disengaged employees. Whether it is during water cooler talk or just in combined work spaces, the negative energy that disengaged employees pass to the entire team and organization can be toxic. Oftentimes, the disengaged employees are the scapegoats to deeper organizational issues. When we do not look at what is causing them to be disengaged, we enable the spillover effect to continue. Organizations that want a thriving workplace must rid themselves of disengaged employees, not necessarily by termination, but by living by the Laws found in this book. Negative Word Of Mouth Remember that unhappy employees don’t make for good promoters of your brand. In fact, disengaged employees are likely to tell more people and blurt it out all over social media and at every party. Reputationally, this negative word of mouth works against your brand promise. Who are you out in the world to your customers? Whatever that is, it must match who you are to your employees. Loss Of Organizational Stability Stop for a minute and think about what it says to your customers, partners, and investors when your employees keep walking out the door. Potentially, they could be in the middle of a complex project implementation and having a consistent point of contact through that process is key.

By calling BS on so much of what goes on, this book gives people a closer, more scientific look at many dimensions of leadership behavior. Most important, it encourages everyone to finally stop accepting sugar-laced but toxic potions as cures.

Misinformation, rumors, and gossip are making this time stressful for everyone.

No child can avoid emotional pain while growing up, and likewise emotional toxicity seems to be a normal by-product of organizational life—people are fired, unfair policies come from headquarters, frustrated employees turn in anger on others. The causes are legion: abusive bosses or unpleasant coworkers, frustrating procedures, chaotic change. Reactions range from anguish and rage, to lost confidence or hopelessness. Perhaps luckily, we do not have to depend only on the boss. Colleagues, a work team, friends at work, and even the organization itself can create the sense of having a secure base. Everyone in a given workplace contributes to the emotional stew, the sum total of the moods that emerge as they interact through the workday. No matter what our designated role may be, how we do our work, interact, and make each other feel adds to the overall emotional tone. Whether it’s a supervisor or fellow worker who we can turn to when upset, their mere existence has a tonic benefit. For many working people, coworkers become something like a “family,” a group in which members feel a strong emotional attachment for one another. This makes them especially loyal to each other as a team. The stronger the emotional bonds among workers, the more motivated, productive, and satisfied with their work they are. Our sense of engagement and satisfaction at work results in large part from the hundreds and hundreds of daily interactions we have while there, whether with a supervisor, colleagues, or customers. The accumulation and frequency of positive versus negative moments largely determines our satisfaction and ability to perform; small exchanges—a compliment on work well done, a word of support after a setback—add up to how we feel on the job.28

Speculation, the process of expressing and exploring tentative ideas in public, made people, especially in the work setting, intensely vulnerable, and that… people came to experience their workplace meetings as unsafe. People’s willingness to engage in delicate explorations on the edge of their thinking could be easily suppressed by an atmosphere of even minimal competition and judgement. ‘Seemingly acceptable actions such as close questioning of the offerer of an idea, or ignoring the idea … tend to reduce not only his speculation but that of others in the group.’37 Even

When the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) found out that Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) were going to visit the site to assist in bringing it into legal compliance, they freaked out! They insisted that the visit had to be canceled and the result was that I eventually became so sick from the toxic workplace environment that I had no option but to leave.

To put this into even simpler language, the mold toxin can enter a cell and set off a severe inflammatory process. Most people (75%) are not susceptible to this reaction because they are genetically blessed to be able to bind to and get rid of this toxin before it creates all of this damage. Unfortunately, 25% of the population cannot do so, and are predisposed to being affected by mold toxins and these are the patients who we see with mold toxicity. There is nothing psychological about this genetic predisposition to illness created by mold toxins, but because you can have one or two individuals at home, or in a workplace, profoundly affected by mold toxins, but others will be perfectly fine in the same environment, you can understand how the immediate (and incorrect) assumption that it must be something psychological.

Summit working in professional astronomy is a strange world of hypoxia, altitude sickness, shift work disorder and toxic workplace exposures.

Today the issues most vulnerable to becoming displacements are, first of all, anything related to safety: product safety, traffic safety, bicycle safety, motorboat safety, jet-ski safety, workplace safety, nutritional safety, nuclear power station safety, toxic waste safety, and so on and so on. This focus on safety has become so omnipresent in our chronically anxious civilization that there is real danger we will come to believe that safety is the most important value in life. It is certainly important as a modifier of other initiatives, but if a society is to evolve, or if leaders are to arise, then safety can never be allowed to become more important than adventure. We are on our way to becoming a nation of “skimmers,” living off the risks of previous generations and constantly taking from the top without adding significantly to its essence. Everything we enjoy as part of our advanced civilization, including the discovery, exploration, and development of our country, came about because previous generations made adventure more important than safety.

My occupational diseases require me to shut down your biologically toxic workplaces.

When asked, every other White privileged American—especially males—will tell you that their dream is to have their own company and brew their own beer! Ironically, their dream springs out of the total misery and toxic work environments they experience. Yet, instead of challenging and changing this reality for all, they dream of walking away and having their own company to repeat the same old game again.

In brief, anyone who has worked at one or two workplaces in America is familiar with that type of middle management or upper management individuals whose job is almost exclusively to create unnecessary tasks and procedures that turn the lives of employees under them into an absolute nightmare. What usually happens under such toxic circumstances? Nothing. A deafening silence from most employees. In fact, many employees not only remain silent out of fear of getting fired, they go as far as putting on fake smiles (or even loud laughter) to survive. Some walk around the office with the attitude of ‘I love my job!’ ‘I love my life!’ ‘I am living the dream!’ to please middle and upper management.

I will remember the Obama administration for deploying a known biologically toxic utility smart meter radio frequency transmitter system onto USA homes and workplaces.

I associate professional astronomy with toxic workplaces, harassment and safety cover-ups.

I hated supervising because the workplace is filled with slackers! If you follow the management team’s direction to get the work rate up, they complain about you! The workplace ends up being a toxic mess!

In my experience, triggers are the prime reason that men and women end up retreating to gender silos, narrowing their experience and depriving themselves of useful connections. That’s what happened when Jen enlisted Chantal to commiserate with her after the meeting in which Mark received credit for her idea. Sharing her resentment with a female colleague may have temporarily relieved the emotional distress Jen felt at being disregarded. But venting her feelings only reinforced the story she was telling herself to explain what had happened: “Men just can’t listen to women!” This increased the likelihood of her remaining stuck in a negative groove. It’s the stories we tell ourselves when we feel triggered that keep us dug in and limit our ability to frame an effective response. Here’s how the process works: First, the trigger kicks off an emotional reaction that blindsides us. We feel a rush of adrenaline, a sinking in the pit of our stomach, a recoil, a blinding rage, or a snide “of course.” Or we may simply feel confusion. Our immediate impulse may be to lash out. But if we’re in a work situation, we fear what this could cost us, so we try to suppress our feelings and move on. When this doesn’t succeed, we may grab the first opportunity to complain to a sympathetic colleague, which is why so much time at work gets consumed in gripe sessions and unproductive gossip. In this way, our response to triggers plays a role in shaping toxic cultures that set us against one another, justify sniping, and waste everybody’s time. But whether we suffer in silence or indulge the urge to vent, the one thing we almost always do when triggered is try to put what happened in some kind of context. This is where storytelling enters the picture. We craft a narrative based on past experience or perceptions in a way that assigns blame, exonerates us, and magnifies impact. Because these stories make us feel better, we may not stop to question whether they are either accurate or useful. Yet the truth is that our go-to stories rarely serve us well. They are especially damaging when they operate across divides: gender, of course (“Men can’t, women just refuse”), but also race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and age (“They always, they seem incapable of…”). Because these default stories rely on generalizations and stereotypes, they reinforce any biases we may have. This makes it difficult for us to see others in their particularity; instead, they appear to us as members of a group. In addition, because our go-to stories usually emphasize our own innocence (“I had no idea!” “I never guessed he would…”), they often reinforce our feelings of being aggrieved or victimized—an increasing hazard for men as well as women. Since we can’t control other people, our best path is to acknowledge the emotional and mental impact a trigger has on us. This necessary first step can then enable us to choose a response that enhances our dignity and serves our interests.

Often as people start the journey towards developing greater self-compassion roadblocks appear. One of these might be the environment in which they work or love. Unfortunately, many people work in organisational settings that are toxic. Maybe the work is demanding, colleagues are critical towards each other or superiors are unsupportive. In some examples, workers in conditions like these are given mindfulness and self-compassion programs to make things better, but this totally neglects the systemic changes needed to make the workplace healthier. It also implies the problem is not the workplace structure of culture, but the individual. It suggests that if you just had greater resilience, mindfulness or self-compassion you would be able to cope with the demands.

Varies from repetitive disputes to toxic competitions, The Clash of Channels affects the company strategic growth, so rather than growing together as a team, teams members dilute the growth journey by personalizing outputs & focusing on the wrong things, withholding information, imposing their insecurities & surely bringing down workplace moral/ culture

The illnesses in high altitude professional astronomy are generally a mixture of long term altitude sickness and workplace toxicity.

You have the legal right to a safe workplace.

Whitewashing your toxic thoughts and words with positive-thinking affirmations is merely a temporary fix, a band-aid approach.

You haven’t even come in contact yet with the really harsh toxins that lurk outside, generated by car exhaust and manufacturing processes, or that lie in wait for you at your workplace and in the fast food and junk food that you sometimes consume. “We are the first generation of people to ever be exposed on a daily basis to such an unprecedented number of chemicals,” says Dr. Sherry A. Rogers, a fellow of the American College of Allergy and Immunology. “At no other time have patients, through reading and education, had such an important and crucial role in determining their own wellness.” MYTHS WE CHERISH TOXICITY IS SOMEONE ELSE’S PROBLEM While it may sound rather harsh to label each and every one of us a living toxic waste dump, the reality of the body burden of toxins we each bear does support that description. We absorb so many synthetic chemicals during an average lifetime that, according to some reports, when we die our bodies decompose more slowly today than if we had died just three decades ago.

Avoidance of toxic people in the workplace is always a good strategy.

The irony is, in the midst of the pressure this creates for both companies and employees, employees also want a culture of accountability. Cultures with a poor accountability structure create a toxic work environment that under-values star performers, incorrectly rewards poor performers, and leaves leaders feeling confused and overwhelmed. In the end, the best employees leave for a culture with greater accountability so that they are no longer adopting the slack of employees who are not being held sufficiently accountable.

Publicly belittling a colleague’s idea in a meeting might be a way to divert attention from your own workplace insecurities.

Many mistakenly think that remaining silent until finding another job is the safest and least costly approach, only to find out once at a new job, that the same old game starts all over again. The reason for this is simple: there is no escape. The issue is not about a specific company or corporation, even though it is true that some of them are much more oppressive and unbearable than others. The reason why changing employers never solves the problem is because the problem is systematic, structural, and indeed cultural. The fact that this reality of toxic workplaces has been tolerated for so long has turned it into a normalized and acceptable culture. It is very dangerous when anything becomes an accepted culture or norm. This point is crucial to ponder if we want to resist and change this unhealthy culture. The toxicity of many workplaces in America has been so normalized that people do not even question them anymore. Also, predictably, over time, things normalized become moralized. By moralized I mean that this toxicity is now considered as a moral way of earning one’s living, despite much evidence that it’s at once unhealthy and demoralizing. It is considered moral to work hard to earn your living, and it has become accepted that work is simply what it is and there is nothing you can do about it.

Some things that immigrants learn not to do: 1. Do not call 911. 2. Do not report workplace health and safety violations to management. 3. Do not interact with OSHA. 4. Ignore mental health issues in the workplace. 5. Leave toxic jobs at the earliest opportunity.

Research facilities can be very toxic workplaces.

I have been watching the Democrats run the USA for four years. The police are still corrupt and incompetent, their ‘green’ energy policy is toxic, workplace health and safety enforcement through OSHA is a ‘ghost’, Boeing is a global embarrassment, millions of people are being denied their eligible disability benefits through feeble excuses, mental illness is a national crisis, cities have filled up with the homeless, housing is out of reach to the masses, rents have gone astronomical, their proxy wars have us on the edge of the next nuclear disaster, their unemployment numbers are fraudulent because they do not count the long term unemployed or the disabled, unemployment benefits are cut off to the long term unemployed, illegal immigration went crazy during their term, and so on. I will be using my 2024 USA vote for positive change and that will not be coming from another four years of the Democrats.

comes from sturdy stock and knows how to work hard and take what comes.

Based on what I experienced at the toxic W. M. Keck Observatory, this is the Mauna Kea workplace harassing procedure: 1. Hit the worker with multiple nasty surprise resignation meetings. 2. If they do not voluntary resign, make their working conditions intolerable by repeatedly changing their working conditions on a regular basis and extend their working hours. 3. If still present, put them on leave against their will and fire them while they are away from the workplace.

It has been my experience that the astronomical industry will not rehire past staff members whose health they know was damaged by their biologically toxic high altitude workplaces.

The State of Hawaii are facilitating the construction of the biologically toxic 1.4 billion dollar Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) atop the sacred Mauna Kea mountain while conveniently ignoring the unsafe workplace for the very high altitude TMT workers, which is illegal under USA law.

Good times don’t always last. Great organizations can lose their momentum. Life and work are difficult for all of us. But we can choose our attitude. And we can seek common cause with those of like spirit who see positive potential in persons and in our fragile workplaces.

One of the worst cases of employee abuse that I witnessed in the workplace was a toxic manager holding employees captive in a remote location against their will to complete a project that was behind schedule. It was verging on kidnapping the employees.

The last thing you want when you are willfully damaging your workers health is for your biologically toxic workplace to fill up with law enforcement officers!

When you become aware of how much the corporate government knows about the toxicity of a wide range of common household and workplace items, you realize that you are dealing with a blatantly rigged health and safety system.

It was unfortunate when I was on a green card application that I realized that I was developing sick building syndrome at the toxic workplace. I legally had to stay working there, as you are not allowed to change employers during the application process. I spent my last year trying to figure out why it was so biologically toxic.

When I was working at a biologically toxic facility, it was unfortunate that I was on a green card application that prevented me from changing employers. From the point of view of long term health, I was able to leave in a sickened state shortly after receiving it.

It is not surprising that the biologically toxic field of high altitude astronomy has an established history of killing workers through occupational disease and workplace accidents.

I can assure you that after developing workplace mercury poisoning, the astronomy management team will not renew your contract.

Employees are people who live in communities. Let's stop pretending workplaces are separate from community, places where robots go to die.

Dealing with toxic people is an art that can be learnt. Whether it is in a family, among friends or at the workplace, exercise a choice to establish and maintain clear contours of your relationship with such people. Define very clearly in your mind what about this person irks you. And draw the line there. The point is not whether others can get along with such people, the point is that you cannot suffer them. So, when others ask you to be “adjusting”, you must tell them why you can’t do this – that it affects your inner peace. Once you define and draw the boundaries clearly, barring the initial settling in issues, pretty soon, everyone will see value in your approach. Clearly, there’s no point sacrificing your Happiness for another’s behavior or your reluctance to call them out!

I have dedicated my life to shutting down your biologically toxic workplaces.

I really dislike the hiring managers that did not disclose the known toxicity of their hazardous workplaces to me.

The nice thing about being disabled was I could finally say this to the toxic workplace: Your problems are no longer my problems!

Leaving professional astronomy was one of my better decisions.

A leadership born from a rigid hierarchy is doomed to stifle creativity and foster toxicity.

Whether good or bad, I always have to work with toxic people, enemies, or problem creators. Since I can control all problems, I can do my work more effectively. Finally, working with the above bad people is good for me.

NeuroDivergent people are the modern workplace version of canaries in the coal mines. We can be more sensitive to our environments, and may even become physically and/or mentally unwell in a toxic setting, before NeuroTypical people do.

NeuroDivergent people cannot thrive in workplaces that treat them like machines and not people. Even NeuroTypical people, who may fare better for longer, will eventually become miserable, and therefore less productive, in exploitative environments.

You wouldn't plant a flower in toxic soil and expect it to thrive. So why in the world would you expect the same of yourself?

Unfortunately, we live in a society where some people allow their degrees, careers, job titles, and connections to go to their head. I encourage you NOT to be one of those people. I firmly believe that how you treat others is a direct reflection of your true character. Being rude, cruel, and unpleasant is NOT a good look. You don’t have to be a NASTY person… Treat people with decency!

Just over 93 percent and four fifths of Fortune 500 chief executive officers and board members, respectively, are men, both undeniably significant figures even for people like me who believe that feminism's goals must extend well and truly beyond the success of a small number of privileged (mostly white) women within a capitalist patriarchy.

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