# Advice for employees in toxic environments

- **Episode:** [179](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/179.md) (2025-03-13)
- **Type:** interview
- **Tags:** toxic-environment, employee-advice, career
- **Time:** 15:59–18:20 (start 959s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/179?t=959](https://truthliesandwork.com/179?t=959)

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[15:59] Leanne Elliott: If somebody is listening who is maybe an employee and is thinking, do you know what, Eric? I don't really have great relationships in work. I'm not provided the resources that I need to do my job. And I don't really have a clear idea of my goals. From what you're saying, it sounds like I'm working in a toxic environment. My mental health is struggling. I'm exhausted. I need to leave my job, but current climate, economics, I've got a family. What do you advise somebody who's in a toxic environment that just can't get out quite yet?
[16:27] Eric Stone: There are more than I'd share to acknowledge that are going through this right now. I went through it. And so the guidance I would give is step 1, learn from what is not happening within the organization. Many of my initiatives that I now used or used in the past initiatives that became staples were not from what I got or from what I didn't get. And I committed to myself that as I grow within any company, specifically where I was, here's what I'm going to change. So number one is you just try to learn from that specific situation. I think it's important that as you are struggling and trying to figure things out, that you're seeking out, in a sense, mentors. Some companies assign mentors to you outside of your department. You need to seek people out either outside your division or even outside of the company and start asking them some questions about what you're seeing and what they might want to be doing. You're going to try to upskill your own performance. You might ask for extra responsibilities so you can try to showcase what you have. But I will tell you, one of the most important things is actually having the courage to have the conversation to your, I guess we'll call them boss, supervisor, direct report. Asking for an opportunity that we might want to refine some things. And those are things in the meantime, while you are tweaking your resume potentially, I think those are things that at least help you get started. Because if I left enterprise and I had plenty of people who weren't good at helping me lead, and I didn't go through some of those unique things because they're omnipresent, they're at every company you go anywhere, there's going to be some opportunity
[18:04] Al Elliott: Yeah
[18:05] Eric Stone: And so the key is first try to solve it, communicate it, and in the sidelines, make sure you're using those outside networks to create and tweak your own little resume. Don't just assume it's going to get better somewhere else though