Get Out: Quitting Never Felt So Good!
According to Rassol (2021), the feelings that come with a toxic workplace environment, like harassment, bullying, and ostracism, can be detrimental and lead to unnecessary stress, burnout, depression, and anxiety among the workers. Public health toxic work cultures are especially detrimental as public health workers’ 3 C’s (capacity, capability, and confidence) are linked to their work culture and environment. Toxic public health cultures can lead to burnout among employees, which will cause them to quit their jobs. Hint the great resignation of 2020-2022? An unhappy public health workforce will lead to a decrease in the impact of community wellness initiatives, health education campaigns, and vaccination rates. Do people not realize that quality of work is linked to workplace culture?
Have you ever experienced a bad manager? The manager who criticizes everything you do but does not offer feedback? The manager who shuts down your idea after telling you to be innovative and curious? A manager who tells you to write your ideas and plans down but never reads it? The manager who holds projects back because you wait on them, but they wait until the last minute? Yes, that manager. I had that manager.
I left a toxic work culture in 2023. I didn’t feel like I gained anything from that position besides the title. I played secretary to someone who had a high school diploma (nothing against people with a high school diploma only, but I say this because I have a Master and I am CHES certified), and she didn’t let me put my hands in anything. She would constantly ask me for feedback when I was quiet. Always putting me on the spot and making me uncomfortable. Someone who wouldn’t give me a budget to do any projects and instead hoarded money to make herself look good. She did allow me to create a newsletter each month, which I am grateful for.
I left that environment, getting paid over $70k for a current role that offered me $55k. I was an associate adjunct, so my salary from adjunct made up my money and then some. Anyway, I was bought in with a promise to lead a team, create this vision, lead this coalition, manage grants, and do outreach in the community. Less than 3 months in, I was told my position title and classification would not change (which was one of the reasons I accepted this role), there was no room for growth, and my salary negotiation attempts were shut down by a lie. It got worse. I trauma-bonded with someone who had it way worse than me. The manager would tell her partners horrible stories about her, single her out, talk crap about her to her other direct reports, isolate her, and bully her aggressively and openly. One of our team members alerted us after experiencing the same bullying and harassment from our manager. Today, she introduced me and my trauma-bonded colleague to the person whose role I had filled. I was told she experienced some bullying as well, but the extent of their bullying was also astonishing. She experienced everything I had. The manager told her, when they put in their notice, that it was a good idea that they were leaving. Before she put in her notice, she told her to look for another job because she couldn’t be the manager she needed to be. The employee informed HR of everything, yet still the manager received promotions, hired more employees, and repeated the same behavior.
Bad managers lead to toxic work cultures. Toxic work cultures lead to burnout and high turnover. Burnout, high turnover, low confidence in abilities, and incompetent workers impact public health initiatives and community-focused programs. I battle this as I think about leaving the public health workforce.
It’s funny how I left one toxic work environment for another. Maybe I didn’t ask the right questions during my interview panel. Perhaps I should have never received or accepted the offer. I have started my job search and saw an amazing opportunity……. When presented with this, my only advice is to GET OUT!