How She Handled a Toxic Work Environment

At first, I tried to fix the situation, change the environment. I eventually realized my peace and mental health were more important and removed myself from the toxic environment.

After I had my son, I began experiencing seizures, which brought a lot of unexpected challenges for our family. As work, childcare, and my husband's own frustrations with his job became increasingly difficult to balance, we decided to take a leap of faith and build something of our own. That decision became the beginning of our journey as business owners, creating a future that gave us more freedom while allowing us to build something together as a family.

When working in a challenging work environment, be the bright spot amongst the negativity. Your coworkers will thank you and that bit of positivity will get you through each day until find yourself in a better situation.

I was induced with my first child because of preeclampsia and ended up being in labor for 52 hours before having a C-section. During that time, I received multiple calls from work. They usually started with someone asking how I was doing, how labor was progressing, and then moved pretty quickly to whatever work question they needed answered. I had prepared a transition document before I left, but I answered the calls anyway. Looking back, I understand why I did. I was still relatively early in my career, I wanted to be seen as dependable, and I didn't yet have the confidence or perspective to say, "This can wait." I'm not even sure the people calling realized the message those calls were sending. That's part of what makes culture so important. It isn't always created through big policies or intentional decisions. Sometimes it's created through small moments that tell people what is really expected of them. Today, as a leader, I think about that experience very differently. I couldn't tell you what any of those work questions were, but I remember feeling like I needed to remain available. That has influenced the kind of environment I want to create for other people. We can tell employees that family comes first and encourage them to set boundaries, but our actions have to support those words. There are moments in someone's life when work truly can wait, and people shouldn't have to wonder whether choosing their health or their family will somehow be held against them. For me, that's one of the responsibilities of leadership: creating an environment where people don't just hear that they're trusted to make those choices, they actually believe it.

There have been times in my life where I have managed work and home life balance well, and others where I got out of balance, especially as an administrator for a nonprofit. What I have learned is that there are no short cuts to taking care of yourself, it always has to be an intention practice. Our bodies need regular care, food, exercise and resets. In order to consistently have access to the healthy foods that don't lead me down a path of sluggishness and brain-fog, I have to create a plan at the beginning of each week, and prep some of it in advance. Exercise doesn't happen without time built in for it. Schedule it on your calendar. Resets aren't optional for when you have time. You need times of rest for your brain, your body and your soul. And the most rejuvenating resets often are found with people you love. So take the time to plan your week, be intentional about including the time you need for your health and well-being, and don't put your friends and family at the end of your scheduling plan, factor in time for them first. As I have done these things, I have found that balance is not something that exists on some future plane, but can be part of my everyday.