Click the play button below, or subscribe and listen through our podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Lately we’ve had multiple clients share a worrying pattern. It goes something like, “I can’t stop ruminating on this awful experience I had at work. I obsess over it constantly. It’s really affecting my mood, energy, performance, and confidence.”
If you’ve had a bad romantic relationship — maybe an ex who said nasty things to your face, or who would scream at you at the drop of a hat, or who neglected your needs and then gaslit you into thinking you were crazy for having needs in the first place — you get to call it what it is. Namely, unhealthy, toxic, traumatic, even abusive.
But when these things happen at work (and they do happen at work, all the time) … we often don’t call it any of that. We often think we aren’t allowed to have feelings, at all, because we’re at work.
So, in this month’s brand-new Side Chat, we’re getting frank and talking about career trauma, namely:
- What “counts” as traumatic when you’re in a work setting,
- Signs that you might be struggling with some form of work trauma,
- When to speak up or just plain leave a toxic work situation,
- And how to heal from this kind of experience.
Leave a comment after you’ve listened to share your stories of unhealthy work environments (we know you’ve got them).
KEEP YOUR EYES PEELED FOR OUR HOLIDAY PROMO
2020 was a YEAR, 2021 has also been a year, and you deserve something nice! So, heads up: From Wednesday, December 8 – Friday, December 17, we’re bringing back the super-popular promotion we did this time last year! You’ll be able to…
- Get the Passion Profile Short Course, our intro course that helps you get clear on your career direction in as little as 1 day, for 30% off its usual price ($174 instead of $249). No discount code needed! The price will be automatically lower on our site.
- Get a single coaching session with one of us! We normally only offer one-off sessions to former clients, but we’ll be opening this option up to everyone for a very limited time (we only have about 10 sessions, and when they’re gone, they’re gone).
We hope it’ll be a simple and super helpful way to rid yourself of some 2021 gunk and gear up for a much better 2022. ☺ Stay tuned for when it’s available in a few weeks!
LISTEN TO THESE EPISODES NEXT
Blog: Why everything can get easier when you get a bridge job (June 2019)
Side Chat: When your feelings are ignored, scorned, & gaslit (January 2020)
Side Chat: Why dating & job searching are the same thing (March 2020)
Burn This: Sacrificing your health for a job (May 2020)
Navigating a toxic workplace with Stacy Campesi (February 2021)
In this podcast Kristen says “You don’t have to make yourself care enough about something to get good at it.” I needed to hear this. I’ve been in a job I don’t care about any more, and am being asked to learn new technology that I also don’t care about. But I’m in the process of moving on to something completely different, that I do care about. Learning for my new career directions is so much easier and I can already see that I am motivated to work at it, and get good at it, because I care about it.
Love that you’re seeing how much easier it is to be motivated and learn something new when you care about it! Seems like a simple thing in hindsight, but when we’re in the thick of it we often don’t realize that it should feel that way!
Trauma! yup. The toxicity of a work environment may be traumatizing and the environment or conditions and factors may be what causes burn out, anxiety, damaged morale and eventurally low sense of self worth and esteem. Passionate people who identify with their career are at risk here when they work for an organization that systemically undermines, underfunds, ignores the department that the company “has to have” because it makes the company look good but in reality it is just about looks and the company could care less in reality. I could go into more detail but the company is the government.