In Episode 11, Meredith and Megan discuss workplace hierarchies and who, ultimately, is responsible for the workplace culture, whether it is toxic or healthy. In many workplaces, there is a clear hierarchy, with chief officers over managers, over frontline workers. The expectation is that the person at the top of the hierarchy has more responsibility than the person who is paid the least. But, what happens when that responsibility breaks down? Often, in toxic work environments, the person at the top is not emotionally or intellectually capable of creating a healthy work environment. In that case, even though it is unfair, the person who is paid less, may want to take more responsibility rather than leave or allow a workplace culture to deteriorate. This episode includes some tools to reclaim power where the person expected to be responsible has not followed through. 

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In Episode 10, Meredith and Megan go into their experiences of resolution and non-resolution related to past work experiences. Meredith breaks down the steps she has taken to make resolve past work experiences and the typical steps she sees related to reporting harassment and discrimination and how we have been taught to respond to those issues. Sometimes, employees seek closure and justice through the legal system, and other times they walk away feeling no closure. Ultimately, it is possible to create closure and justice even when the system fails. This episode touches on how that can happen.

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In Episode 9, Meredith and Megan talk about boundaries at work and navigating the experience of taking work home, not just physically but mentally. Have you ever had the experience of burning dinner or forgetting to eat because your brain is so distracted by something that happened at work? Just us? In this episode, we focus on the first pillar of Empowered Communication: Boundaries. But, not just physical boundaries. We talk about our inner boundaries with our own self-talk. If you want to leave work at work, these are some tips and tricks to try. 

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In Episode 8, Meredith and Megan explore how we can hold abusers accountable at work. Often, when we talk about holding people accountable, it means that we want the other person or a group of people around us to agree with us about something that happened. Other times, people use the word accountability to mean punishment to the abuser or even creating safety for ourselves. In Empowered Communication, we talk about accountability as math. It is possible to know an abuser caused harm without the abuser agreeing with us (or really without anyone else agreeing with us). Before we do the emotional, physical, and time-intensive labor of holding someone else accountable, we want to make sure it is the best choice for us and that we are caring for ourselves. 

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In Episode 7, Meredith and Megan explore imposter syndrome at work. We typically label an experience as imposter syndrome when we are in a new situation, unsure of ourselves, and wondering if everyone is going to find out we don't belong. It is a feeling that we "sneaked in" to a position that is above our abilities. But, we typically don't use "imposter syndrome" with people who have privilege. When someone has primarily dominant characteristics, we just say they're having normal jitters or they're learning, but we assume they belong. While the phrase "imposter syndrome" might feel comforting, it is also possible that it marginalizes people around us (or us!). It is normal in any new experience to feel nervous or unsettled. We're not imposters for having that experience.

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Reshma Saujani on Imposter Syndrome.

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In Episode 6, Meredith and Megan talk about the experience of being a highly sensitive person and how valuable that can be, even if it is a toxic work environment. A toxic work environment is one where we are tolerating experiences we do not want to tolerate. Highly sensitive people have heightened perceptive abilities and have more pronounced experiences than others. This is only a problem when we try to shut down our perceptive or when we are unwilling to experience other people's discomfort. When we can see our body's signals and sensitivity as a power, we can respond to experiences we want to shift in a more empowered way. 

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In Episode 5, Meredith and Megan talk about holding bullies and abusers accountable at work and how we can respond if someone else has called us abusive or a bully. This episode dives into the third pillar of Empowered Communication: Accountability. Accountability is essentially the math, or the “accounting,” of the actions we’ve taken and the results they’ve gotten. The math is always neutral. When we are afraid we might be bad people, we often get defensive and afraid of owning the actions we’ve taken and the results they’ve gotten. Similarly, when we struggle with getting someone else to acknowledge their actions and results (aka take accountability) we can give ourselves permission to know our perception is right, even if someone else disagrees with us. Then we take the next step to care for ourselves and create safety in our environment. 

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In Episode 4, Meredith and Megan talk about the power of negative feelings. You may have heard about the power of "positive" feelings, but "negative" or painful feelings are equally powerful and important. In this episode, we talk about the second pillar of Empowered Communication™, reprogramming hegemony, and Meredith shares the structure of her IMPACT Model™, a tool to help look at the root cause of uncomfortable feelings so that we can decide whether the pre-programmed thinking behind that feeling serves us or harms us. As humans we experience a range of feelings, and both comfortable and uncomfortable feelings can be important to our safety and wellbeing. Often uncomfortable feelings are important alerts about our safety or integrity. 

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In Episode 3, Meredith and Megan talk about the first pillar of Empowered Communication: Enforcing Boundaries. Personal boundaries, like property boundaries, are the line where I end and someone else begins. Boundary violations happen when someone's actions come into our space. When we enforce our boundaries, it is about taking action that makes us safe and rewards us, even while another person may behave in abusive ways. We can try to stop the other person's behavior and be successful at that, but our safety and success has to come first. Learn more about what works and what doesn't work when we encounter abuse in the workplace in this episode.

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Basic Breathwork Exercise.

Waking the Tiger, by Peter Levine.

Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving, by Pete Walker.

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In Episode 2, Meredith and Megan give an overview of the 4 most common types of toxic work environments and the 2 most common types of toxic workplace experiences. Each of those situations can create different pressures to tolerate experiences we do not want to tolerate or confusion about when it is okay to leave. We call the 4 most common types of toxic work environments the "big happy family," "gaslighting passion project," "brainwash factory," and the "9-5." Learn more about each of those and the 2 most common experiences people have in them in this episode. 

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