“How Do I Deal With a Toxic Work Environment Even Though I Like My Job?”

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"How do I deal with a toxic work environment even though I like my job?"

Nataly Kogan is a successful entrepreneur, sought-after keynote speaker, and the founder and CEO of Happier Inc., a global learning platform that has helped more than one million people live happier lives. She and her work have been featured in hundreds of media outlets, including the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, TEDx, and The Dr. Oz Show. For more, visit natalykogan.com. Here's her advice.

First, get really clear what makes your workplace toxic. Is it bad or non-existent communication? Gaslighting? A culture of overwork that leads to burnout? Relentless micro-managing? This will help you decide if you can do anything about directly reducing the impact this has on you or if you need to change jobs, flat out.

A few questions to consider: What are the top three specific things that make you feel like this is a toxic environment? (Here, be sure to get really specific: is it a certain colleague? The team environment? Your boss? The overall culture in the organization?)

Now, think about whether there is there anything you can do to reduce the toxic impact these people or things have on you. For example, if it's your boss, can you consider changing teams? If it's a colleague, can you seek out ways to interact less with that person?

Still, if you find that you can't control or change the factors that are making this a toxic workplace, you will need to look for a new job. In fact, creating a healthier work environment shouldn't be up to you entirely—in a perfect world, anyway!

We're here to tell you that, yes, you *can* find a similar—or better—role in a different company without a toxic, draining, or negative culture. And if you do go the job-search route, you'll be equipped with the right questions to ask in the interview and recruiting process to hopefully prevent history from repeating itself.