February 2024 – Toxic Work Spaces

Our New Focus on Transforming the Workplace from the Top

At Pros Like Us, we’ve been driven by a shared passion for transforming the workplace helping professionals navigate the workplace. But recently, we’ve recognized the need for a shift in focus—one that addresses the root causes of workplace toxicity head-on. With this in mind, we have a new direction for our community: one that centers around leadership excellence and empowers leaders, corporate and leadership coaches, CEOs, work critics, HR professionals and work psychologists, all to create healthier, more inclusive work spaces for all. Pros Like Us is now a premium platform for leaders, corporate and leadership coaches, CEOs, work critics, HR professionals and work psychologists who are dedicated to driving positive change in the workplace. Originally founded as a space for individuals navigating toxic work spaces, our community has evolved into a platform for leaders, CEOs, corporate and leadership coaches, work critics, HR professionals, and work psychologists alike. Here, they can come together for round-table conversations, we can get to listen to a podcast featuring interviews with industry experts and critics, and provide collaborative exclusive access to cutting-edge content and resources aimed at driving positive change in the workplace. Our premium community is built on collaboration, innovation, and a shared commitment to excellence. We believe that by empowering leaders, corporate and leadership coaches, CEOs, work critics, HR professionals and work psychologists, we can create a powerful network that drives lasting change that benefits everyone.

Understanding trauma as a result of a toxic work space

toxicworkplace, wellbeing, work / February 18, 2024

Since 2019 when I started toxic work spaces, I have learned an enormous amount not only about the impact and manifestations of trauma as a result of toxic work space experience but I have also explored various ways to help traumatized professionals find their way back. Many of us will experience traumatic events in our lives and recover; how long it takes to recover and what support we need to be able to do so can vary greatly. When I work with professionals, especially those who have experienced a toxic work space, I am often drawn to wanting to understand what actually happens inside their brains. This has proven essential to understanding the damage inflicted by trauma and has guided us to formulate entirely new avenues of repair. With the counselor and coach I work with, we have also begun to understand how overwhelming experiences affect our innermost sensations and our relationship to our physical reality—the core of who we are. Trauma is not just an event that took place sometime in the past; it is also the imprint left by that experience on mind, brain, and body. This imprint has ongoing consequences for how the human organism manages to survive in the present. Trauma results in a fundamental reorganization of the way the mind and brain manage perceptions. It changes not only how we think and what we think about, but also our very capacity to think. As the founder with a background in communication, I have discovered that helping victims of trauma as a result of a toxic work space, finding the words to describe and communicate what has happened to them is profoundly meaningful, but usually it is not enough. The act of telling the story doesn’t necessarily alter the automatic physical and hormonal responses of bodies that remain hypervigilant, prepared to be assaulted or violated at any time. For real change to take place, the body needs to learn that the danger has passed and to live in the reality of the present. At Toxic Work Spaces, our search to understand trauma as a result of a toxic work space has led us to think differently not only about the structure of the mind but also about the processes by which it heals.

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