Tips For Moving On From A Toxic Work Environment | FRIENDLY SISTERLY ADVICE

Hey y'all, it's Steffi and welcome back to my channel. So I just got off of a one-on-one friendly socially advised call, so I felt inspired. So I wanted to kind of do a follow-up chat about my dealing with a toxic work environment video. One of you guys had asked me how to recover from working at a toxic, in a toxic environment. I just want to give you guys some quick tips on how to just move on from a toxic work environment, how to, you know, just get your mindset on right and stuff like that. So let's jump right into it. If you're dealing with a toxic work environment and you have not seen my video, I'm going to go ahead and link it here in the cards for you guys so you can get, you know, an idea of what I dealt with in a specific situation. So there's a few ways that you can get yourself out of a situation like that. My first piece of advice before just quitting and, you know, finding a new job, all of what I'm trying to share with you are ways to improve the situation, but if you can't get out of it immediately, like this is the advice I gave myself and others were giving me when I was dealing with it. Not feed into that toxic environment. It's really easy to fall into the same kind of like trap that is going on in a toxic work culture, people talking about each other, judging people, excluding people. You know, it's very easy to fall into that pattern as others really be conscious of that and realize that, you know, how you treat others reflects on you as a person. You wouldn't want to be treated a certain way. Don't do that for others. Secondly, you know, it's like if you're the recipient of some bullshit, you need to realize that you don't deserve that type of treatment. You deserve to be treated with, you know, respect and as a professional and just know that it's not you. Like you're not doing anything to cause people to treat you a certain way. Just don't take it that way. You have to be your own support system and as much as, you know, you may have outside support from like your husband or your partner, whoever, your friends, your family, like when you're in a situation and you're in it alone, you have to be like your biggest cheerleader thinking good things about yourself. Don't let the actions or reactions of other people affect your own like inner voice. You know, there's already a lot of negativity out in the world that you don't need to add to that at least for yourself and don't add that for others. Then third of all, something that always helped me was like I can't control other people, but I can control how I react to something and how I treat others. So, you know, you can't control the fact that other people are excluding you. You can't control the fact that other people are talking shit about you, but what you can do is control how you react to that. You can react, you know, with dignity. You can keep your head high, you know, you can ignore it. You can focus on the work because honestly, that's what you're supposed to be doing at work. Focus on what is actually important, which is work and not other dumb bullshit. So those are some, just some of the things to think of when you're in a situation itself. Getting out of a toxic work environment. In public accounting, I know that it looks poorly on you, but you know what? You got to do what you got to do for yourself to improve your career, to improve your overall life. And if it's not adding to a conducive work environment for you and others, like, it's okay to ask off of an engagement. It may not happen immediately because there's logistics that need to go, that need to be taken care of, of course, like a replacement for you on that engagement. But, you know, if you have to, if you get to that point where it's like, I cannot work with these people, their character and their levels of morals and integrity, they are not up to par with me, then you know what? It's okay to ask off of an engagement. And I know people like frown upon that and may advise you not to, but if this is what you have to do for your own like mental health, your health overall, then there's nothing wrong with that. And I know I struggle with that when I was going through my situation because I felt like I earned my spot on that engagement. Like I felt that I created a really good environment for other people. I thought I had good rapport with the client. I delivered good client service. I technically was where I needed to be. And even though it was a hard decision for me, I felt, you know what? Like overall though, it's not conducive for me and my life in general. I will advise you guys to just because you are in a tough situation, don't just ask off every single time you go through something kind of difficult. There's a difference between a harder work situation and a toxic work environment. You know, like if it's just a tough job or a more difficult personality because not everyone's personality meshes, but it's not toxic, you know what I mean? Like just because you don't get along with someone, but there's nothing that's being done that's like disrespectful or under the belt or whatever. Like you can learn to work with people who are different from you. You know, of course, I'm not saying don't ask off if you are in a hard situation, but of course, try to work through things. I think with anything, try to work through things, but you just kind of have to balance out. Definitely can't be asking off of every single engagement, but you know, don't be the person who cries wolf because then it's kind of like you got to learn how to get along with people. But if it's a toxic work environment, then you know, I definitely feel like that's appropriate if you've tried to fix things already. Always try to fix things. And then at some point in time, you kind of have to throw in the towel. There's always moving to a different department in your firm, similar situation. And then of course, there's looking to leave wherever you're at. I have a whole series on how to find a new job. Should you leave your job? Should you leave public accounting? How to use recruiters and then putting in your two weeks notice and things like that. I have like a three video series. So I will link that in the description box for you guys. And hopefully that'll be helpful for you. That is the process I went through when I was leaving my toxic work environment. So if you go through the whole recruiting phase and you find a new job, when it comes to, you know, going to a new place, really leave the baggage of this past situation, this toxic environment, like leave that in the past. You can't associate one situation with every single person. Similarly, if you were moving from one engagement to another, don't just assume that every person you interact with, who's a senior or at a certain level is going to be like whatever situation you were just in. Because everyone is different. Every situation is different. So just don't bring that negativity and that energy with you to your next job. To a degree, it's almost as if like those shitty people are winning, you know, because they're still having an effect on you mentally or whatever. And you just have to like, let it, let that go. Of course, try your best to like, see if it's going to be a good fit for you. If you're interviewing for a new job and just listen to how they describe the team, you know, like, are they talking about things in a professional manner? Is it, or are they being gossipy? And that you can kind of tell if there's going to be a similar environment or not. There's something that you have learned from the situation that you were just in. So keep those lessons learned in mind, but give everyone, you know, the benefit of the doubt. Start things fresh. Go into it with like a sense of hope and of purpose and of like, you know, just fresh beginnings. Just because you had a bad situation or a bad experience in one place, doesn't mean that's going to continue happening for you. It really is a matter of, I feel like, your mindset. You just have to have a certain outlook in life and with situations, because otherwise it just, it does become kind of a bummer, you know, then you start not looking forward to things and that's not good either for yourself. You know, that's not fair to yourself. Okay, so last thing I wanted to talk about was certain questions that you could ask to determine the team culture. But of course, people can say whatever they want to say. When you're interviewing, you really can't tell until you're like in the middle of something. So, you know, these aren't foolproof ways to tell if it's going to be toxic or not. Asking people to describe what's the culture like here. How do you as a boss provide feedback to people in the team? How do you hold people accountable on the team? The different members of the team, you know, how would you describe them? What's the team dynamic like? You could ask those types of questions. Never really know until you're in the middle of it. So take that with a grain of salt, of course. It can be very apparent if they just start talking crap immediately during the interview. But, you know, that's not to say that that's a foolproof way to find out if they're toxic or not. All right, y'all. I just wanted to share a few thoughts on that. I know some of you guys had asked me, so I just felt like going ahead and jumping on here real quick. I hope you guys enjoyed the video. If you did, please be sure to give it a thumbs up. I would greatly appreciate it. Don't forget to be a part of our subbie fam because we would love to have you. Stay safe, stay positive, and stay healthy. And I'll talk to y'all in my next video. So I just wanted to give you guys quick tips on how... Oh, sneeze. Sorry. My hair air-dried and I'm just not even gonna mess with trying to, like, curl it and make it look all cute and stuff like that. So please just ignore the hair. So, okay. So, like, you have to be your own support system. Sorry, like, lighting's getting all crazy. Like, you know, we got lives outside of work and we're trying to get to them. So I don't got time. Sorry. My hair is like a blanket on my head and it's freaking hot and I'm sweating. Like, oh, goodness. Okay.