As someone who started out their early career days completely committed to climbing the New York City corporate ladder to success, I have first hand experience about the stereotypical, cut-throat, and toxic work environments we see portrayed in the media and overheard through the grapevine.
There are the angry higher up dinosaurs, jealous of the #privileges the younger work force enjoys so they do what they can to exert power through unreasonable demands. The slow toads who can't use Microsoft Office or navigate a keyboard so they slough their lack of ability onto everyone else. The overly ambitious peer who employs all tactics to cut others down so they can rise to the top. And of course, the workaholics who spend all of their time working and do their darndest to ensure everyone else does too. Whether these characters are bosses or colleagues, they fill the work environment with their egos and consume as much of their colleagues time and attention as they can. Often, these kind of team or company dynamics, are backed and propped up by an HR team who protects the company & the profits, not the people.
And so the cycle easily begins where one feels chained to their desk (or these days attached to the laptop with work from home policies) and surrounded by people we are not so fond of. But it doesn't have to be this way. Sure, I can certainly endure 1-3 years of a workplace I don't love. For many, you can go much longer. But the question is... why? Why do we stay at jobs we don't love? Why do we tolerate day-to-day exposure to people who drain of us energy?
Of course, the easy and obvious answer is MONEY! Our livelihoods! Our families we have to take care of! The bills we have to pay!
In my 10-years in the workforce, I have worked for 2 VERY GOOD culture companies and 2 VERY BAD culture companies. I started at a toxic, all consuming workplace, and then had the good fortune of following my boss to a feel-good, work-life balanced organization. I had zero interest in leaving that job because the perks were amazing, everyone signed off at 5pm, and people were very nice and respectful to one another. But then I was recruited to a big brand name with a pay bump that was too good not to explore. Turns out, this was just another toxic environment and by year 2, I was itching to get out!
When it comes to finding the right place for you, become clear on what the most important things to you are. Money is important, but it's not the only important thing and you don't have to sacrifice your salary to work in a positive environment. In fact, it's usually the places with a healthy environment that pay the best; because insider secret: they value their employees.
For me, this exercise sounds like: I want to work for a company that gives back to the community, that has kind leadership that promotes and offers raises willingly, that provides a career path for employees at all levels, not just senior leadership to c-suite. I want to work somewhere where the quality of work matters more than clock watching. I want work from home flexibility, I want generous PTO, and I want an HR team that actually cares about the well being of employees. But most importantly, I want to work at a place where I don't feel stressed to go to work and where my coworkers add to the joy of my job.
I wrote this post because I thoroughly enjoy all of the above at my current company, Fresh. Because this was not my first #greatplacetowork it struck me when having a conversation with my colleagues about how amazing our benefits are, when she said something about her past company (that was one of bad ones), "I thought that was just industry standard."
Coming from California, wellness has always been at the forefront for me so I sought out these kinds of environments very early on in my career and they manifested. So for those of you who may not be aware, there ARE companies that are amazing places to work AND pay well. And they are not just in Beauty. I know a gentleman who works at a very large financial firm, makes a great deal of money, and is able to leave his office by 5. With any job, there are busy days, but unpaid overtime isn't the norm.
Share your experiences in the comments section and let us know your industry, if you've found a healthy environment, are looking for a healthy environment, or didn't know these kind of amazing companies exist!
