You got your first tech job at a hot start up, or scored that internship at a big tech company. Congrats!! You’re probably feeling excited, proud, and maybe a little bit nervous, anxious, or scared. That’s totally normal.

Starting a career in a new industry can be hard, especially the tech industry where the rules seem to be different from other conventional companies and careers. These experiences can be even more isolating if you feel like you don’t look, feel, or think like everyone else.

Take this quiz from Empower Work to find out if your job aligns with your values, and how to connect with a trained peer counselor to handle any work issues that might arise.

At Empower Work, we’re focused on creating more positive, supportive pathways at work.

One of my favorite podcasts, NPR Politics, has a segment called “Can’t let it go” where they discuss a story they can’t stop thinking about. For me this week, it’s the new Pixar short that’s been making the rounds, directed by Kristen Lester and produced by Gillian Libbert-Duncan. It depicts Purl, a vivacious ball of yarn, trying to fit in at a toxic, male-dominated office, aptly named B.R.O. Capital.

Olivia Bland went through a mentally and emotionally exhausting, not to mention likely manipulative and abusive, interview where the CEO “tore [her] and [her] writing to shreds” and caused her to “cry at the bus stop,” only to receive notification the next day that she actually got the job.

Almost everyone has had bad interview. Sometimes it could be regret about the way you answered a particular question, or perhaps you felt a little unprepared or nervous. Other times it could feel like something deeper was off, signaling a misalignment in values, expectations, or something else.

Here are some strategies on what to do if you’ve had a bad interview.

Ever felt uneasy about a project at work? Something that didn’t sit well with you? You’re not alone. Competing pressures and incentives in the workplace can cause good people to do ethically questionable things. Worried you might be in that boat? We’re here to help with ethical issues in the workplace.

Imposter Syndrome is the feeling that you haven’t earned your success, you simply got lucky, and you’re a fraud or “imposter” around people who actually earned it and know what they’re doing. It makes one feel that they do not have the skills or expertise to hold their current job, but instead made it there “by chance;” they think if anyone found out how little they know about their job, they’d be fired immediately. Imposter Syndrome can cause people to doubt themselves and their ideas at work. This can lead people to avoid sharing their work, leading initiatives, or pursuing challenging tasks for fear of being discovered as an “imposter.”

Gaslighting is a manipulation strategy that makes someone question their self-worth and sanity. The term is derived from the 1930s play Gas Light, in which a husband makes his wife doubt her perception by manipulating the gas light but claiming to see nothing out of the ordinary himself. In a work environment, gaslighting can make someone feel incompetent or unimportant, like they can’t do anything right. They can feel like they don’t understand what’s going on around them or what’s expected of them. Gaslighting can come from a variety of people—a power-hungry manager, a competitive coworker, or a condescending client.

Microaggressions are harmful small, everyday phrases or actions that are targeted at a person based on their membership in a marginalized group. These actions are often not explicitly about someone’s identity, but implicitly insult and other someone’s race, gender, sexual orientation or disability status. At work, they can make people feel alienated, unsupported, vulnerable, disrespected, uncomfortable, and hurt. Microaggressions often reinforce a message to people from underrepresented groups of, “You are not one of us. You do not belong.”

Shannon Lubetich talks about committing microaggression, an action that does not necessarily reflect malicious intent but can nevertheless inflict insult or injury, typically to members of marginalized groups and often related to someone’s race, gender, sexual orientation or disability status. They repeatedly send a message to people from underrepresented groups of, “You are not one of us. You do not belong.”

Read about strategies for if you experience a microaggression in the workplace, witness a microaggression, or even commit a microaggression yourself.

Chris, one of our incredible volunteers, has generously chosen to share their story about reaching out to Empower Work as a texter. In this post they explore what the outcome was, and how it has changed they way they think about work.

Their issue: “I had just started a new job in a new industry and basically did a really bad job negotiating. I didn’t realize how much it was bothering me until a couple of months in. I feel like I struggle with salary a lot in several directions. Money should not be the way that people are valued. But also, in the world today, salary unfortunately represents the way your work is valued. I was struggling with feeling like my work wasn’t valued or respected.”

Ethical questions within workplaces are arising more frequently in the public dialogue. Ethical issues certainly aren’t exclusive to tech. They happen across every industry and field, from banking to nonprofit to healthcare. Most of these don’t make headlines, but can affect our day-to-day experience at work--and our careers. We can’t just switch off our personal values when we step into the office. As Yale professor Daylian Cain explains, “work is often the place where we have the most societal impact; if you can’t bring your ethical values to work, where can you bring them?”

"Professor Says the Workplace Is the Fifth Leading Cause of Death in the U.S."
"Pregnancy Discrimination Is Rampant Inside America’s Biggest Companies"
"78% of Employees in Tech Report Experiencing Unfair Behavior or Treatment"

These are just a few recent headlines about the American workplace. From microaggressions and gaslighting to being groped by customers to HR teams that retaliate against employees for reporting issues, there’s no shortage of toxic and unacceptable behavior.

The headlines paint a bleak picture. And prompt a critical question: “now what?”

At Empower Work, we’ve seen that people have incredible ability to navigate complex situations if they have trained, informed support to talk through what they know of themselves, their employer, their boss, the players involved. Our text line provides a non-judgemental space to think through the implications, and if needed, get connected to additional resources from reporting tools to legal referrals.

That’s why we’re here. Workplaces challenges are universal. Support to navigate them should be too.

Shannon Lubetich’s story about Snap highlights not just problems with culture and diversity, but the lack of resources available for employees. People face myriad toxic workplace situations across a broad spectrum including, but by no means limited to, bullying, microaggressions, power imbalances, harassment, unethical practices, gaslighting, and discrimination, to name a small subset. These situations are so prevalent, employees will almost certainly face at least one, if not a combination, while they’re in the workforce. What’s not certain is whether they’ll get the support they need to address these situations as they arise. Empower Work is here to provide that workplace support.

Last week, I noticed this popular Forbes video and article making the rounds on LinkedIn. It had accumulated nearly two thousand likes and donned a compelling title: ‘4 Ways to Manage a Difficult Boss.’ But there’s inherent risk in oversimplified recommendations. Issues in the workplace are rarely black and white, and context matters.

Those important details can help shape decisions and next steps. When it comes to challenges in the workplace — whether it’s a conflict with a manager, toxic work environment, or job transition — people need the space to reflect on their situation.

Empower Work provides this space. Anyone facing a work issue can reach out via text and be connected with a trained peer counselor within minutes. Rather than give advice, our goal is to help people reflect — and ultimately find a next step that feels right for them.

Every day, across every workplace in America, people face challenges that don’t necessarily fall into a legal category. Instead, they fall into a vast gray area where solutions are rarely black and white. Empower Work is a new resource that fills this gap by putting employees first. We provide free, anonymous, and immediate support for people facing non-legal work issues. Our approach is rooted in inquiry and empathy. We provide the space to talk about your experience and work toward an outcome that feels right to you. Our goal is for people to leave the conversation feeling empowered with the tools and support they need to move forward.