It would be nice if everyone can have a job they enjoy showing up for every day. Unfortunately, not everybody does. However, if you often dread going into work (whether in person, 
or working from home), and you find that your mental health is suffering, then it’s possible your work environment could be toxic and repeatedly triggering you. This can lead to feeling depressed, anxious, or chronically stressed, as well as other possible symptoms.
What Is A Toxic Work Environment?
A toxic work environment is different from having a job that you dislike or don’t enjoy. A toxic work environment can severely and negatively affect your wellbeing and make you do almost anything to avoid going into work.
In a toxic workplace, you may feel undervalued, stifled or silenced, bullied, overlooked, ignored, treated as a cog (rather than a person), controlled, condescended, shamed, small, and more. It may also be difficult to progress in your career due to poor leadership or a negative and unsupportive culture at your job. This could be due to management, other coworkers, supervisors, or simply the company policies.
The more you encounter this kind of toxicity at work, the more likely it can lead to loss of self confidence or worthlessness, particularly if you are dealing with bullying within the workplace, whether by colleagues or leadership.
Often, when dealing with a toxic work environment, it can impact your productivity, even if you’re trying to do good work. This causes its own chain reaction from losing income or difficulty being promoted in your work, to wanting to change jobs, due to not feeling adequate, relevant, or valued in your current role.
It can be very easy in toxic environments like this to have old trauma triggered, whether family traumas, or trauma from school you may have experienced, or other familiar experiences brought out in a toxic relational environment.
All of this can result in feelings of depression and anxiety, or even panic symptoms and others, where you may feel significantly distressed due to your work environment.
Signs Of A Toxic Workplace
There may be many different signs that your workplace is toxic. Whether your boss is passive aggressive, colleagues or peers are competitive and demeaning, or you feel that you are undervalued and overworked, toxicity can manifest itself in various ways. These may vary from place to place:
- There is very poor or little communication within your organization
- High employee turnover
- Unmotivated employees and coworkers
- You feel constantly burned out
- There is gossip and rumors circulating
- There are lots of cliques
- Your job description is often changing from what you signed up for
- Overworking and working overtime becomes a sign of dedication and related to success in your job
Emotionally Managing If You’re Feeling Depressed From a Toxic Work Environment
It can be really hard for many people to leave their work struggles at work. When dealing with toxicity, it can be triggering in a way that makes it all-consuming, at times. You may go home, or finish work from home for the day, but still find yourself preoccupied with what others are thinking of you and/or your work performance, or aggravated about the unrealistic expectations that perhaps you’re facing, or any other number of potential issues that can find its way to intrude on your mental and emotional health.
If you feel like your mental health is struggling, or that the difficulties from work are carrying over into your personal life, you may consider addressing depression or other symptoms in therapy. Therapy or counseling can give you the space and support to manage and work through the issues you’re facing so you can move forward. The first step to moving forward is reaching out.
