Is Your Workplace Toxic?

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[00:00:50] Hello friends and welcome to the Ask Nurse Alice podcast, the show where all things health and wellness take center stage. I'm your host, Alice Benjamin, clinical nurse specialist, family nurse practitioner, and you know me, I love to talk to people before they become my patients. And speaking of talking to folks, listen, you've been joining me for quite some time now. It's time you hit that subscribe and like button if you haven't already to make sure we stay connected and you don't miss an episode.

[00:01:14] Now, today we're going to be tackling a universal issue. It's one that transcends all industries, all specialties, all ages, ethnicities, genders, and I'm going to say it's a global problem. And that's how to identify if your workplace is toxic and could that be the cause of your physical and mental health issues? Well, in my role as a healthcare provider, I often see patients who report feeling drained, anxious, stressed, or just generally feeling unwell.

[00:01:42] And so they come in with symptoms like headaches, stomach issues, or chronic fatigue, they can't sleep and just unable to relax. And initially we can't pinpoint the exact cause. Like for example, if someone has nausea or vomiting, usually they can relate that to some food that they've recently eaten. But in this case, it's general, it's vague, it's actually kind of feels chronic, and I really don't know what's going on. So I dig in. I start to ask questions about their personal and their professional life.

[00:02:09] And lo and behold, once I ask someone, so what do you do for a living? Tell me about your work. Bingo. That's when all the bells go off. I start to see it. The eyes begin to roll. They start to slouch in their chair. Their tone changes. You can just hear the dissatisfaction kind of just spew out of them. And it often parallels some of the things that's going on with work. And so in fact, there's some studies that show that about 40% of workers report that they are very or extremely dissatisfied with their job.

[00:02:36] And it can result in many health complaints, even more so than financial or family problems. So although this is being presented as a healthcare issue, it's also a workplace problem. And it's widespread. Now, good news first, right? The good news is this is your workplace. So there are probably some things that you can control and manage about that, which we're going to get into. The bad news is that for many of us, this is a career we've chosen. This is how we pay our bills. So you might feel stuck.

[00:03:00] So rather than for me to just prescribe a medication or therapy, which would only sugarcoat the problem, we've got to get to the root of it. So like if you had an infection, I'd need to give you an antibiotic to kill the bacteria that's causing you that pain and that infection. So in this case, I'm going to bring the specialist out. I have someone who's going to be joining me to help us take a deeper dive into could your workplace be causing you this stress? And is your workplace toxic? So please welcome to the show. I have Tracy Holder.

[00:03:26] She is a seasoned integrative health coach who specializes in resiliency enhancement and burnout management. With over 17 years in emergency care as a nurse and her own personal journey through burnout, Tracy has lots of valuable insights to share. Tracy, welcome to the show. Thank you so much, Nurse Alice. Hi, everyone. Now, Tracy, let's just jump into it. You know, we hear the term toxic and it gets thrown around a lot. And sometimes, you know, it's kind of like, love, you mean it. Do you really love me?

[00:03:51] So when you hear the word toxic, we know that it's really meant to describe a less than ideal work environment. But that's actually a serious word and can have some real serious implications. Now, based on your experience, could you help define what is a toxic workplace and what are some of those red flags that everyone should be aware of? Yes, these are good questions.

[00:04:10] I think the most important thing to look at is to look inside yourself and really identify feelings that you might be feeling, the emotions that might be going on. We're calling back to certain instances at work where a conversation might have went awry. Some major issues when you look back at your work is how many times have you missed your break?

[00:04:34] How many times you were asked to work overtime, but it was asked in a way that it's sort of you felt obligated to report in? How many times have you been on your day off and been called into work and you felt guilty saying no?

[00:04:52] A real big research study was done with MIT and they looked at more than a million glass door review of employees working at the top 40 industries here in America. And they narrowed down a toxic workplace to five attributes. That will be feeling disrespected, non-inclusivity, unethical experiences, a cutthroat environment and abusiveness. That's interesting.

[00:05:21] And obviously, Tracy, we're both nurses. What came to mind right away is eating your young. You know, we have a lot of that that happens at work. Many of us feel like it's almost like an incivility. It's something that you've you kind of notice, you kind of feel it, but it's not quite as objective or easy to point out so that it's also objective to someone else. Because someone will say, oh, you're in your feelings. You're in your emotions. Don't be so sensitive, which I feel is a form of gaslighting.

[00:05:50] But, you know, many people find themselves there. So let's so if I'm someone and I'm at work and I have experienced any of those five things and I'm suspecting that something's going on this workplace. It's toxic, right? Or it's on its way. Yellow flags, right? It's on its way to being toxic or identified as toxic. What do I do? Okay. I feel this way. I've identified those things. But what do I do now that I've noticed that?

[00:06:19] Well, I think it's important to, again, create a journal, a log. Maybe it's something in your smartphone that you can start writing things down to notice if there's toxicity. And going back to the point of gaslighting, that's really hard. Sometimes gaslighting is so subtle that it just, you leave a conversation feeling blamed and feeling guilty that it's really your fault, that there wasn't an even conversation.

[00:06:46] Simple things that we could do is firstly, number one, is to assess, to look at your workplace. This can be very simple. There's so many free online tools that you can assess if you're burned out or if your workplace is toxic. The second one is start setting boundaries. This is hard for all of us, myself included. And that is to say no. Saying no to extra overtime, saying no to extra shifts.

[00:07:15] I know for me, when I worked a lot of overtime in the beginning part of my career, I rationalized it as I'm helping out the team. I'm really important. Wow, they asked me to stay out of everyone else. And I also remember thinking, feeling that I would let people down if I didn't stay at work. So saying no to extra shifts. Thirdly, hey, why don't we schedule a massage?

[00:07:40] A lot of us don't realize that we can use our HSA account, which is our health savings account, or our FSA account, depending on your workplace. Also, a lot of the insurance packages that we get from work have some in-network providers for massage, for chiropractor, for acupuncture.

[00:08:02] So just call the number on the back of your insurance card and see how many visits a year do you get, and if they can provide you a list within network service providers. The fourth one is something that is contemplative, something that we can do, something of mindfulness. And that's to start a gratitude journal. And it doesn't have to be complicated at all.

[00:08:26] It's something, again, you can use your smartphone, or maybe when you're laying down in bed, just kind of recalling some of the events of the day. The way I like to do it is I like to do with three small wins. And you might have heard other people practice this as well. In the beginning, it might be really hard. So how I started was just recalling things that went well. Like, hey, I didn't get cursed out today. I actually clocked out on time today. I took a break away from the break room today.

[00:08:55] So this way, we can start training our brain into noticing what's good about the day instead of ruminating on the negative. And the fifth thing that's actually a very fun activity, and it blew my socks off when I did it, is ask three of your friends or your family members to tell them three things that they like about you, about how you show up in their lives, about what it is you being in their lives means to them. And this will allow you to start feeling good.

[00:09:24] When you hear these comments, it's going to tap into a place of yourself, of true introspection, and you'll be able to see your impact in the world of the closest people near you. And those are the reasons why we're here on this planet, is to show up, to do meaningful work, and to feel that we matter. So those strategies sound incredibly powering. They're within my locus of control and things that I can do.

[00:09:54] And I really like how you talked about leveraging mindfulness, because sometimes, I'm just going to be honest, Tracy, some people are like, mindfulness, what's that going to do? It feels so kind of, you know, I can't put my hand on it. I can't necessarily measure it. It's not, you know, and so I think some people struggle with doing that because they feel like it's not going to be as helpful. But that is, I think it's like exercise, like physical exercise. You have to do it and be consistent with it in order to realize your gains in doing it.

[00:10:21] And I think some people don't really know how to do it. So I know you have some tools that you have on your website and things that you do with your clients when it comes to mindfulness and walking them through how to do this. So let's say I'm someone I've never done any type of mindful activity. How would I start off, Tracy? Is there something like, right, like let's say I'm having a hard day at work. I'm ready to have a meltdown. This is it.

[00:10:49] I'm ready to just throw my badge at the security guard and just hit the door. What could I do in that moment? Is there like a breathing exercise, a certain something I can say to myself? What would you have me do in those few minutes that I have?

[00:11:02] So in those few minutes where you feel yourself being taken away by the negativity of a situation or that things are escalating in a way that is not comfortable to you and you're starting to feel that you're losing control of your emotions and your sanity. Take a moment. Breathing is a very good one. Is there a place at your workplace where you can go just be by yourself for just a few seconds or a couple of minutes?

[00:11:31] Sometimes that could be the restroom. And the word rest is in the word restroom. So I want us to think about that, that you're in the restroom. You close your eyes. If you have a smart watch or a Fitbit or something like that, there's apps where there's mindfulness there that you can tap into right away for a few minutes. Or you can just close your eyes and concentrate on your breathing.

[00:11:57] The hardest part about meditation is that our mind is very busy because that's what our mind does. It wants to solve problems. Constantly, it wants to solve problems and then move on to the next thing. But what if in the restroom, you start breathing and you take an inhale and then your mind's going crazy? What I like to have people do is take a breath in and then notice the place of stillness that lives between the inhalation and the exhalation.

[00:12:24] And just keep noticing that place of stillness that always happens. And now begin to notice there's also another place of stillness where the exhalation becomes an inhalation. And noticing that as we breathe deeply, this activates our parasympathetic nervous system, which is our rest and digest system. We're getting fresh oxygen to our brains and we're starting to calm down our breathing. Our parasympathetic system's kicking in.

[00:12:52] It's slowing down our heart rate and slowing down the stress hormones. Another thing to do if the breathing activity is too quiet, still while you're in the restroom or maybe a supply closet, you can take your hand. And a friend of mine taught me this technique that I like so much that I practice constantly. And you take your other finger and on that one hand that's stretched out with all five fingers,

[00:13:17] you take the opposite finger with your index and you just trace the shape of your fingers. And you move your breath in this way, breathing in. And when you reach the top of one fingertip as you're tracing, then breathing out. Breathing in and breathing out. Breathing in and out. Well, I can see this. So listen, if y'all see me on the unit and I'm doing this back up, just back up. Just give me a couple minutes. I just needed to get it together.

[00:13:46] Because Tracy, there are definitely moments. And I also want to say this to listeners. Do not feel bad about having to take a moment to yourself. And I always frame it. You know, we've always and again, we're nurses. So I always frame it as, you know, for the sake of patient safety, I just need to take a moment to gather my thoughts. Now, you are a patient, too. We're health providers. But at some point, you are still a patient as well. We're all, you know, we're subject to the same things our patients are.

[00:14:10] But I think, you know, for my mental sanity and for my personal safety, for my mental safety, I need to step away. And you need to say that to someone. Don't just leave and take your, do your breathing. In extreme situations, you might need to. But, you know, let someone know that you're stepping away and then take the time for yourself. I think that's real important. And actually, I love this hand exercise, Tracy. I'm going to try that. So these were some, you know, some great strategies to manage this now in the workplace where I'm having a moment.

[00:14:40] Now, Tracy, I also want to share because, you know, as a health care provider, I get people who come in. They, they're explaining to me what's going on. Now, it's, and this is something that's, I wouldn't say, wrong with Western medicine. We're always wanting to fix things. Antibiotic, treatment, surgery. These type of things and symptoms I can't fix. I can't, I could prescribe you an anti-depression, an anti-anxiety medication. But is that really going to help or is it only going to mask a symptom? And honestly, it probably, if it does mask it, it won't mask it very well.

[00:15:09] Because some of what I hear a lot of, Tracy, and I don't know why, some people just aren't nice, it seems like. Because I've had a lot of patients mention to me that at their job, there's lots of passive-aggressive communication. And it wears them down. Some of the things that they're said, how they're treated. It's like they have, some folks have no home training. And so while it's easy to say, to sell someone, you know, six and stones can break my bones, but names will never hurt me. And we just know that simply to not be true.

[00:15:34] I mean, verbal and emotional abuse are just as painful and if not even longer lasting than physical pain. So when someone is in the heat of the moment, or maybe not even in the heat of the moment, because you gave us that exercise, we can step away and do the exercise. But what are some steps that you recommend to people to protect their mental health in these types of situations? Yes, there's some things that we can do to protect our mental health. But I want to take a step back to a couple of things.

[00:16:03] Again, about what you were saying about when we come to work and there's signs and symptoms that are happening. And I want everyone listening to be aware, everyone watching to be aware that there are things that I myself can do that I might be doing that I don't realize is maybe a symptomatic problem of a toxic workplace.

[00:16:27] One of the ones that we see a lot, and I've seen it when I've gone out to stores or restaurants is presenteeism. And what is presenteeism? It is different than absenteeism when you call out sick for work. Presenteeism is also called quiet quitting. And that was something that was really big going on during the pandemic where we show up to work, but we're not really at work.

[00:16:52] We are just doing what we can do on the bare minimum just to complete our day so that we don't engage with people and we don't engage with our colleagues. Another thing that we might be doing is constantly looking for job openings. I remember doing that a lot, and I remember a lot of my colleagues was doing that a lot. And we would tell each other about job openings while we're working a job. So we're not being in the present moment.

[00:17:18] And changes in mental health that we're going to talk about is experience emotions very frequently, emotions like stress, anger, sadness, or loneliness. There was a 2024 Gallup poll done of global workers around the world. And I want us to understand how this problem is not just limited to the United States.

[00:17:45] They found that 62% of global workers were not engaged. Only 34% reported that they felt that they were thriving. A 41% reported daily stress. And a whopping 52% reports an intent to leave. So I think for protecting our mental health, nothing will replace talking to someone about it. You can talk to your friends.

[00:18:12] You can talk to a trusted colleague or coworker if you have someone at work you really trust. You can talk to a family member. If you're a member of a church, maybe you want to talk to your pastor or your priest about this. A lot of our health insurance have the employee assistance programs or EAP programs where there are therapists provided.

[00:18:34] I know that a lot of us worry that that information can be given back to the workplace or we might be worried that we're going to lose our job or our license. If that's the case, then maybe you want to pursue your own therapy with somewhere else or a support group somewhere else. You know, I think that's really important. Support groups. And that's why, again, we're both nurses. So the community of nurses, but it could be a community of lawyers. It could be a community of teachers.

[00:19:03] Finding a group that you feel comfortable with and is a safe place to share. Sometimes you can share with your family. But I tend to find that if my family isn't really familiar with the idiosyncrasies of my work, sometimes they don't quite understand the issues that I'm having. But, you know, find your tribe, someone to talk to, like Tracy is saying, or a therapy, whether in-person, online. There's tons of online resources these days.

[00:19:31] And Tracy, you bring up such great points. And I also want to mention and kind of segue, you know, we're talking about your workplace being toxic. But this will actually also be your school. It can be your church. It can be some community activity you're doing. Wherever there's a gathering of people, I think it's really important that we look at how we feel and what we're thinking when we leave that group or when we leave that place.

[00:20:00] Because, and also, again, we're talking about workplace. And rightfully so, because a majority of adults spend a majority of their time at work, right? Because by the time we get home, we do a couple activities, it's time to go to bed, right? We're asleep. So that's why we focus a lot on workplace, but it could be other places. Tracy, what are some of the signs, right? Like we've talked about things to look out for, ways to manage it, resources, things that we can do. But what if we've done all those things? And listen, I've had it. This is too much.

[00:20:28] They've come to see me so many times. I've referred them to therapy. Maybe I started them on some medications. And they're just having a very difficult time. When is it time to leave? When is it time to leave? There are some red flags of when it's time to leave. But I want to go back to how you were explaining that toxicity doesn't always have to live at the workplace. Oh, yes. We could find it even in support groups.

[00:20:56] Maybe there's a support group that I might be going to, and I realize it's just ramping up my anger with a certain set of people. Because finding your right tribe, finding the right vibe is so important. Right? That's why there's so many different restaurants because we're so many different kinds of people with different tastes. That's why there's so many different types of clothing to fit certain body types or to match your colors in a certain way that you really like.

[00:21:23] So I think it's important to know that it's not always going to be one size fits all. That after we leave an interaction with a group of people or in a certain setting, that we turn into ourself introspectively. And as you had said, when I walk away from this setting and this experience, how am I feeling now? Am I checking in with myself now?

[00:21:50] Oftentimes, we're so busy throughout the day in any kind of profession, whether serving customers, we're doing so much helping that we forget to check in with ourselves. Another common thing that may not be very healthy is that when we come home from work, we're vomiting our entire workday and tragedies upon our family members and friends. And some of them might not have an understanding of what we do.

[00:22:18] I remember a friend of mine, one of her wedding vows, in her wedding vows, it was written that she would not talk about what happened at work in their relationship. And that's the setting of boundary, right? And that's setting a boundary even with yourself. Sometimes we need that moment right when we get in the car from our workplace.

[00:22:38] Let's do that breathing activity that I just talked about, finding those moments of stillness in the breath or tracing your hand to activate the feel-good tactile stimulations of what it feels like to be calm and restful. Because that is considered secondary trauma. When you're reliving the events, you're traumatizing yourself again.

[00:23:02] And now you're traumatizing someone else who really loves and cares about you, but they don't know how to fix your situation. I think I've been on both ends of that. I think I've done that to some of my family and friends. And I've also been the recipient of that. That makes a lot of sense. And mind you, I don't know if Tracy, maybe you do this too, but does anyone else sit in the car? Like when you get home and you pull up in your driveway, you don't just pop on out of the car. You sit there for a minute, like, and I just sit there and breathe. It's almost like it's my, it's maybe that is my, my activity that I do.

[00:23:31] I'm not tracing my hand, but I'm sitting in my car kind of just like de-stressing, trying to as much as possible before getting in the house. So that just made me, that made me think about that. Okay. So it could be very well that maybe the place you're going to seek comfort or help could be exacerbating or adding fuel to the fire and causing you to relive that. Man, Tracy, I'm still not winning here. Still having a hard time trying to get through all this stuff, but okay. Let's say, so I've identified that.

[00:24:00] I've tried to fix, I've tried to find my tribe for my patients who've done, and not even my patients, but anyone, because we all can be patients. Anyone who's tried all these steps. You know what, Tracy, I've done this. I've done that. You know, I've seen my healthcare provider. We've done all these things. I've tried to adjust my sleep, my eating. I've done all of these things, but it's just there.

[00:24:19] I mean, how do you, how, what do you think, what would you recommend should be the ultimate deciding factor if you had one to share of when to leave your job? Because let me say this first. And let me also say, as a provider, you know, we have sick days, right? And some people feel like it's only when I'm physically sick. I got a cough infection or something like that. You can also take these as mental health days, right? So use your PTO, pay time off, or someone will say, prepare the others.

[00:24:48] Or if you have vacation time, maybe you need to take some time off to unwind, get back to yourself, refill your cup, those type of things. But sometimes that wears out, that you don't have any PTO, you don't have any vacation. And so I often get asked, can I have some time off of work? That can be a slippery slope, but I wanted to bring this up before Tracy gives us kind of the golden key of when we should leave. But you need to talk to your healthcare provider. We need to make sure that we're working collaboratively and we're doing all the things that we can.

[00:25:18] Maybe there is some type of work condition or an adjustment in your schedule that we can help. I can write a note for you so your employer can hopefully accommodate. And in some scenarios, I have done this and it is appropriate to take some time off of work on a short-term disability. Now, those can be some very extreme cases. Don't automatically jump to that because we want to make sure that we're doing everything we can.

[00:25:44] But I wanted to share that because some people don't realize that that is an option unless it's offered to them. So your provider may not offer to you, your job may not offer to you, but I'm letting you know that that is something that is on the menu of things to do. Now, the secrets in which when you get to that, if you get to that point, that's a discussion for you and your provider. So I want you guys to work together on that.

[00:26:05] But just know, we don't want you to have any physical manifestations that stem from emotional or mental issues that are happening as a result of your workplace. Again, if this were an infection, I want to give you an antibiotic to take care of the underlying cause. And the underlying cause in this place is your work. Some of us are stuck, Tracy. We've got student loans, we were providing for families, and we have to work. And this is the job that I have.

[00:26:34] There's not a lot of jobs on the market, but my health is my wealth, and I absolutely have to take care of myself first. So when is that golden key present itself to leave the job? Okay, yeah, this is the, I guess you would say a million dollar question, right? There you go. That we are in a job at the top of our field. We've trained for this job. We really thought this is what we wanted, but we have a family now.

[00:27:04] We have financial obligations. And we see that there's some sort of purpose that we still want to serve in our current condition. I also want to put out there that there is a new breed of health coaches coming out, like myself, that has been trained in resilience coaching and burnout coaching. So you might want to add that to your repertoire of your team that's supporting you in your healthy behaviors.

[00:27:32] Some things to look out for is feeling disrespected. That was one of the things that the MIT researchers was talking about that was the biggest impact felt by the employees. And that's, we all have the basic human needs. I mean, I think we remember it as a Maslow hierarchy of needs. When we're disrespected, that means we're not being given courtesy or dignity. Another thing is not feeling included in an environment.

[00:27:59] So whether that has to do with our gender identity, our age, our race, nepotism, maybe there's cliques, maybe there's the boss's buddies. And a workplace that's ethical. I think that's important because we all as human beings value honesty and we value people for what they say they're going to promise to us, whether it be a boss or an organization, that that is delivered to us.

[00:28:27] Another component is the cutthroat nature. This is where there's a lot of competition. There could be backstabbing. There could be sabotaging of projects. So that meets our need to feel part of a team, right? As a family, as a workplace, as working in a community. We all want teamwork and collaboration.

[00:28:50] We all have this need to contribute equally and to see other people contributing equally and that fair work is being done by all people. And I think gossiping falls in this category. There was a time when I realized that the most toxic place, even in a healthy work environment, may be the break room. If you have one employee in there that's having a bad day, what they're going to try to do is get it out.

[00:29:19] And I think that's just human nature, you know, just trying to do the problem solving thing. But what that does is it might add to the other employees also speaking negatively about the situation. So I found that it was easier for me to take a break away from the break room. And if there's bullying or harassment, and this can be not only by your colleagues or your supervisors, this could be by customers or clients.

[00:29:49] There's types of industries where people get yelled at a lot by customers. People that are hungry, working in a restaurant. And I know we've seen some viral videos of people, just some customers just destroying a restaurant because of whatever happened. As we're evaluating this answer, I guess there's really no one answer. Like, for example, if this were cholesterol, when your cholesterol reaches 250, we're going to start you on this.

[00:30:17] There's no exact line in the sand of when you, whoever's listening, you, in your particular situation should leave your job. I think when you've had enough, you've had enough. But one thing I would say before you pull the plug on that is after you've done all these resources and looked for your tribe and treatment and therapy and all of these other things, have a sit down with your boss and share with them. I know this is something like, I don't want to talk to them. I don't want to talk to them. They're probably the problem. They're probably the reason why you feel a unit is toxic.

[00:30:46] But, you know, if you're really struggling with when to leave your job, I would probably say have a sit down with your boss. And I don't have the perfect words for this, but have some form of conversation to communicate that you're having some, you know, I've gone to school for this. This is the profession I really want to work in. But as of lately, I've been having some issues that, you know, I'm having all these physical symptoms and I really believe it's stemming from work.

[00:31:12] And maybe and share some of the issues, the incivility, maybe the bullying or how you're feeling left out at work. And, you know, hopefully they lean in, they're caring and they try to help you with a solution. Now, if this is indeed a toxic workplace and maybe they're part of the problem, they might not have an answer for you. And in some situations, Tracy, I've seen it where some people, they do this, they treat people like this because they want them to go.

[00:31:39] So I also have to believe in realistically, right? I wish this was an episode where I didn't have to disclose these things. But in some places, your workplace is toxic. There's a certain culture and a type of person that can work there, the toxic folks. And they're the people who survive and stay there. And if that doesn't fit you, you feel uncomfortable and it's not you, then it's time to go. It's time to go. But I've also been in a situation where I've walked that line like, I need to work, I need to do this. But I am being disrespected. I am being left out.

[00:32:08] And that started to erode at me personally and internally. And at a certain point, I said, that's it. My dignity and myself as a person, I am much more valuable and I deserve better. And I need to focus on things that are better for me and that are healthy for me and go somewhere where I'm celebrated, not tolerated. So, you know, I think that's, I don't know, Tracy, if we have really an answer for the people on that one. Because that's a tricky question, right?

[00:32:37] I asked a tricky question. I think that's it, Nurse Alice. I think that the most important thing is when we start to feel and notice that our workplace is toxic, that we don't keep bottling everything up until it explodes. It will explode. What's going to happen is I'm going to quit and then I have no next step planned. Right. So now I'm without health insurance or a reliable income. So I think it's important to realize. Plan your exit.

[00:33:06] Have an exit strategy. Yeah. Even while you're having an exit strategy, maybe is there certain little elements you could do at work to make it more tolerable? So say that you want to start doing positive get togethers. Can you organize a monthly hike, a monthly walk or doing a book club? Does your workplace have healthy work initiatives?

[00:33:30] There was a place that I worked at that I didn't know until I started doing digging that we could have a wellness team come in. They could teach yoga. They could teach Tai Chi. They can teach us healthy snack making. And my manager didn't even know about that until I pointed it out to that person. So I think some digging around is good. Even calling HR to see if there's like a healthy team, wellness team that can come in.

[00:33:56] A lot of workplaces are mandated to allot these amounts, certain amount of funds for healthy workplace activities. So yeah, use those funds. I think that's helpful. And for one, if they're not using them, that's also probably why they're a toxic unit. They're not even looking at the resources they have. But Tracy, you brought up a good point. And we kind of, as we're wrapping this up, having an exit plan.

[00:34:22] And if you identify your workplace as toxic and you've implemented all of these solutions, you've tried your best, but you recognize that this is not the place for you. Before you explode and just quit, start your strategy plan. Start looking. So like, as you said, Tracy, you're not left without a job or employment or insurance benefits. Start planning. And maybe you can navigate to a different area within the same company.

[00:34:44] But maybe do so before you just, it just all, it just, you know, you explode and then you end up leaving on not nice terms. And, you know, you want to be eligible for rehire or at least transfer. So I think those are some things that you want to think about. And I mean, we can go on and on and talking about this. But Tracy, you brought up some wonderful items here for us to, and processes and solutions for us.

[00:35:10] And also, by the way, if you haven't already, make sure to go to AskNurseAlice.com and check out Tracy's article, How to Know If Your Workplace is Toxic. It's a great addition to listening to this podcast. Tracy is a contributor for AskNurseAlice.com and has contributed other wonderful information. But Tracy, where else? Where else can people follow you and get more information about the resources that you have to offer? Yes. Thank you, Nurse Alice. You can follow me on Instagram. My handle there is Nurses Wellness.

[00:35:39] That's Nurses with an S. On Facebook, it's the same, Nurses Wellness. I have a ResilientNurseToolkit.com where there is some methods to help you apply to your life right now. Some strategies to help you with your workplace stress. Yes. I'm also on LinkedIn as my name, Tracy Holder in California. And then I have a YouTube channel, Tracy at Resiliency Within.

[00:36:09] Thanks so much, Trace, for joining us. And again, if you haven't already, visit AskNurseAlice.com and check out her latest article, How to Know If Your Workplace is Toxic. Now, I hope this episode helps someone and that you're able to get information that you need for your particular situation that it helps make things for the better. I'm Nurse Alice. I love talking to people before they become my patients. And I want to thank you so much for listening to the Ask Nurse Alice podcast as I talk about all things health and wellness as I take center stage.

[00:36:35] And we give you that TLC before the injury, before the insult, before the trauma, and before you become a patient. So make sure to visit AskNurseAlice.com, a trusted source of health and wellness information equipped with the latest blogs, trending topics, videos, information, tools, tips, you name it. It's there. We have an amazing free health library with a range of health and medical topics. And that's a wrap. So I hope, again, I hope you found this discussion helpful.

[00:37:00] Please take a moment to support us by hitting the like button, subscribing and leaving a review and sharing this podcast with your friends, your colleagues and your coworkers. And, you know, that helps us to get the podcast out to more listeners who can benefit from health tips just like you've benefited from today. And thanks so much again for listening. I look forward to our next health conversation. And until next time, make good choices, be kind to one another and live well, my friends. Talk to you soon.

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