Jill Osborne, EDS, LPC and I initially met through blogging about 5 years ago first as e-friends and then eventually we met in person when I was traveling to Georgia to meet with clients.
I have followed Jill’s career as a new mental health professional and watched her grapple with challenges thrust upon her. I’ve also watched her challenge herself with a consistent commitment to her personal and professional values. When she told me she was ready to guest post about working in toxic environments, I was eager to have her do so.
What I know is that I’ve been there – working in offices that continually use up their human (and financial) resources – and I suspect that many of you have been there, too.
It’s one of mental health’s dirty little secrets that we take our newest and brightest clinicians, our least-experienced, most optimistic, and most-naïve professionals and put them into the trenches – with minimal training, with inadequate support, and often with only administrative (not clinical) supervision with seemingly no access to additional resources – to have them deal with the neediest clients with the most severe diagnoses in our society.
Is there any wonder that the turnover rate in community agencies is so high? That’s why I so appreciate Jill sharing these 18 clues that you, too, may be working in a toxic environment.
- Your supervisor has limited clinical or leadership experience.
- Your supervisor/director doesn’t assist you with clinical issues.
- You are asked to meet unrealistic expectations.
- You are asked to do extra work without pay.
- You are told you have a choice about something when you really don’t.
- You are discouraged from following the chain of command if you have a complaint, or grievance.
- You follow the chain of command with your grievance, and are told that there isn’t a problem.
- Attempts to remedy grievances result in lecturing the staff rather than working on the issues.
- There becomes more focus on billing, money, than what is best for clients.
- Micromanaging day to day tasks.
- You cannot get in contact with your supervisor or director to ask questions.
- There are no clear guidelines, but then are scolded for doing something wrong.
- You are asked to work outside of ethical boundaries.
- You feel like you are in constant fear of losing your job when you’ve done nothing wrong.
- Multiple co-workers start to leave.
- There becomes and “us vs. them” mentality between staff and management.
- Materials, office space, and other tools needed to do your job are taken away or not replaced.
- You are not paid for legitimate work done.
As you consider your past / present work settings, if you discover that your own circumstances are toxic, I hope you will let us know which of these clues or another clue resonates with you. And, stay tuned because Jill will be guest posting with us next week when she shares with us how she made the choice to get out of that toxic environment and move forward with her private practice.
I have experienced all of these at my employment in all agencies. Yikes. I knew it was not right. In my Master’s internship (unpaid), I was put in charge of the incoming emergency calls with a script and no demo and nearly no supervision. I had a colleague across the hall in his internship who had done pastoral counseling was my resource as I struggled with very difficult decisions. Though I was in my 40’s, I had little experience with serious mental illness. One of my supervisors (who is still there), was dreadful. She demeaned my decisions to have our psychiatrist evaluate the clients when I recommended the need. She accusationally said I admitted “everyone”, when in actuality the pyschiatrist was the only one who admitted anyone.
That with the next two jobs, where I was clinical director of a day hospital and a foster agency that were somewhat better, but yet condoned lots inappropriate management, led complete confirmation to a private practice. In it I am able to set fees or not; use the best skills available, and have a place (my office) that is comforting and healing.
Good morning, Mary! Welcome back! I, too, found these clues to be uncomfortably familiar. And as outrageous as my experiences seemed at the time, your experience of being put in charge of crisis calls with no virtually no training, no supervision, and minimal support seems particularly egregious! YIKES! I wonder what things you might have learned in spite of (or because) of your experiences . . . and how much of what you learned was helpful / hurtful . . . .
Thank you for sharing your response, Mary. I think that we are not alone, in that there are many therapists who unfortunately experience toxic work situations at some point in our careers. I will say that my experience really taught me a lot about who I am as a therapist and helped me to make better decisions about how I want to practice and treat people that I work with.
Hi, Jill! Thank you so much for sharing your list with us and also for dropping in to continue the conversation here! I’m curious . . . . What is it you learned about who you are as a therapist specifically from this experience?
Tamara, I learned about myself as a therapist in that I learned to stick with my principles and ethics and what is important for my clients rather than worrying about what others around me might be tempted to do. I also learned who I can trust and turn to when I need support in a situation. Most importantly I learned that I don’t have to stay somewhere that is not healthy, that there are other options in life, and always a way out even if I don’t see it right away.
Ohhh, Jill! Good for you!!! Those are excellent lessons to learn so early in your profession! There are some things that just must be learned in grad school . . . and there are others that just must be learned in the field! I’m sorry that the learning was a bit bumpy in spots but so happy that you know this lesson now inside and out (and have the courage to share it with us)!
One of the lessons I learned during my time with non-profit agencies is that the Director’s priorities and the agencies priorities are not (supposed to be) the same as my priorities! It took me years to get this lesson, by the way. In my naive and idealistic mind, I entered community agencies thinking that our priorities were all the same . . . great clinical care. However, over time, I finally realized that the agency’s priorities were about keeping the doors open and the director’s priorities were about satisfying the Board of Directors and funding agents, maitaining a minimum standard of care provided by newly trained (and minimally experienced) mental health professionals. It was my priority (and that of my peers) to provide that great clinical care within the confines of that agency. Once I finally understood those differences, I was much more content – in advocating for my client, understanding the limitations of the agency, and setting my own boundaries for self-care!
Thanks, Jill, for sharing your own lessons. I’m looking forward to hearing what others have learned from their toxic settings, too!
Posts like this are great because I think it reminds us that we are not alone. Not every agency or any other mental health-related job will have all of these concerns, but I’m sure most of us can relate to many of them.
For me, doing extra work without getting paid is a big one. I also understand that this is part of being in the mental health field . Sometimes it seems like the extra work goes above and beyond. I’m not talking about extra research that I choose to do to be the best counselor I can be with my clients. I’m talking about all the required paperwork that seems to multiply.
I also agree with the idea of lecturing staff rather than working on issues. Sometimes I wonder if the directors actually think that things change because of the discussions, but if people are unaware of the reasons that they are doing something incorrectly, they’re not usually going to change unless it is actually brought into their awareness.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, the director of the site where I did my internship looked at most things as problems with the system (within the agency). Rather than blaming a problem on a person, he would say that they weren’t trained in this area or weren’t aware of how such and such a task affected the rest of the chain, so to speak. And if there was a problem with the system (for paperwork or referrals or whatever), there would be steps to change it. That was refreshing.