With over 30 years as an Occupational Health Nurse in Ontario and I thought that toxic environments were slowly fading but not so much. While we continue to struggle with increasing awareness about Mental Health issues in the workplace, reducing our workplace injuries and managing our absenteeism, a toxic workplace negatively feeds the souls of many employees and management team alike. It has the ability to seep into our minds, our hearts and our bodies. And voila, disease ensues.

You can manage this seepage, so some of us would like to think, but in the end, if you are facing this alone or with a few comrades, you eventually make a decision to abandon what you once thought was a promising job and organization and look for another company to work with or you become bitter by staying, thereby joining the toxicity of which you have become a part of.

Why would you stay?

Unfortunately, I see people stay for years and years and in the end I hear the company is this, and the company is that, and yet you remain for decades with the same, actually, growing toxicity. At this point, you are drinking your own poison. The company stopped doing things to you eons ago and you just didn’t notice. You become numb to the work, to the work environment, to the possibilities that life is better somewhere else than where you are. You become paralyzed and unable to make a move towards the exit door.

Instead of being a part of the solution to clean up the organization, you can no longer see clearly, and you become a part of the problem. If you have nothing healthy to say about the company you are working for; if it drains you of your energy; if all you do is complain; if you drag your butt into work daily; if you hate the thought of Monday mornings and only look forward to Fridays, you should quit because that pension you are sticking around for when you hit retirement isn’t worth a penny if you’ve just wasted decades in a toxic environment eating away at you. It’s time to move on.

 

This toxic environment is going to make you sick – physically and mentally. The cost of disability in Canada is on the increase. Don’t play a part in your early arrival at illness. There is too much life to live; too much work to do; too many good times yet to be had. Find yourself a great organization to work for – there are plenty out there.

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pic-of-lucie

Lucie M.H. Fournier RN, COHN(C), BA (Psych)
Founder/Workplace Health Strategist
lucie@fournierhealth.com

Expertise in 6 distinct niches including:

1. Corporate and Transformational Coaching

2. Advanced level training for internal claims manager to MAXIMIZE cost containment 

3. Sensitive claims management of professional staff, such as HR, health team, and/or executives such as supervisors, managers, directors 

4. Complex claims management resolution

5. Mental health claim return to work & accommodations

6. Transitional Leadership when moving to & from a 3rd party disAbility management company

We service clients across Ontario in all types of employers – large or small. We provide a customized approach to your business because we, and you, are different than the company down the road. A cookie cutter approach is NOT our specialty; nor our interest! We enjoy keeping the humanity in disability management while assertively managing your claims and costs. Feel free to call if you want to examine a long-term approach that is unique to you and your employees.