Field Note № 19: Part Two: The Workplace Abuse Survival Kit

Know your rights! Here's a tactical playbook for leaving a toxic workplace with receipts, dignity, and your next paycheque lined up.

If you’re dealing with workplace abuse – gaslighting, retaliation, subtle (or blatant) cruelty – the whole enchilada, I’m sorry. I know how it feels from a first-person perspective. I also know how disorienting, devastating, and isolating it feels. And while it may seem like you’re trapped or running out of options, you’re not.

Let’s also get one thing straight: you’re not going to fix a toxic workplace from the inside. You’re not going to heal a culture that’s rooted in dysfunction. And you’re never going to thrive in a place that punishes competence and rewards compliance.

If you’re experiencing workplace abuse, the goal is not to endure it. The goal is always to exit it – with your power, dignity, money, and future intact.

This playbook isn’t about surviving in chaos. It’s about preparing for your strategic, well-documented, and unforgettable exit. Because staying in a place that harms you is not noble. It’s unnecessary.

You don’t need permission to walk away from a place that’s destr…