Our work started in 2019 as a quiet, uneasy feeling that something wasn’t quite right at work. Not because the work was too hard, but because the environment made people feel small. It was the silence after meetings, the anxiety before Monday, the slow erosion of self-worth that crept in quietly.

We saw it in different forms. In the late-night texts from professionals questioning their value. In leaders who were once passionate but were slowly burning out trying to do good inside broken systems. And in ourselves — the perfectionism, the shrinking, the pressure to keep going no matter the cost.

We came to a powerful realization that the harm happening in today’s workplaces isn’t just about performance. It’s emotional. It’s psychological. And it’s deeply systemic.

That realization was the beginning of Toxic Work Spaces. Not just as a platform, but as an awareness initiative and as a space built to name and reflect on the emotional and systemic harm professionals were carrying, often silently.

In our early days, we focused on creating a safe space where people could gather and speak what was once unspeakable. A place to say out loud: “This doesn’t feel normal. This doesn’t feel okay.”

We didn’t rush to offer solutions. We listened. We held space. We built trust. And in doing so, we discovered that awareness was only the first step. We gave people the language to name their experiences, the safety to reflect, and the community to feel seen.

But soon, we began asking new questions:
What if we could do more than just listen?
What if we could help people heal — and help organizations prevent the harm in the first place?

That question changed everything and from it, our work evolved into something bigger, a mission to not only hold space for truth but to design new systems where that truth is honored.