TikTok Toxicity

Watching TikTok videos and Instagram reels is a guilty pleasure my husband and I share.  We both watch these brief videos at night, usually before falling asleep, texting the funniest ones back and forth to each other.  One millennial TikTok content creator, Sarai Soto (@saraisthreads), has gone viral with her videos featuring the fictional “Veronica at Work,” a character who refuses to engage in her office’s “toxic” environment.  Soto’s videos have made brands out of hashtags like #ActYourWage and #QuietQuitting among young workers in corporate America. 

My adult career has been exclusively in medicine, but I hear enough about the “business world” from my husband, friends, and family to find episodes of “Veronica” amusing. I often feel grateful for working in healthcare and not in one of those potentially “toxic” business environments…

… until a young medical assistant quit after 2-3 months because she could no longer work in our “toxic work environment.”

Toxic work environment?! Us?! Me?! What does that even mean??

According to Dr. Kristen Fuller, a mental health and addiction specialist, a toxic workplace is “any workplace that makes you feel uncomfortable” and an environment that “makes you feel like you can’t ask for the things you need and that you’re not supported [1].” Other characteristics of the toxic workplace can also include micromanagement and expectations for employees to be continuously available outside working hours [1].

Looking back, I am unsure what caused this young MA to feel our workplace was “toxic.” I wish I knew.

Have you had your medical support staff quit due to a toxic workplace?

Have you quit a position due to a toxic workplace?

Is a toxic workplace the same in healthcare as in traditional business offices?

-Nikki Rataj Casady, DMSc, PA-C     email@appcolleague.org