Who are your work-at-home office buddies? In a very early blog post I introduced you to my non-human co-workers who are the best office mates ever. Having my animals at work with me all day has got to be one of the best perks of working at home, but there have been some changes in my non-human office staff, so I need to update you on who has left and make some introductions.

Meet Our Newest Staf Members:

I have two new office buddies to introduce to you. First, meet Noodle.

Noodle is a young Kenyan Sand Boa. I have always loved snakes and had several pet snakes throughout my life. Noodle is a new species to me, and I think he is absolutely amazing. It is wonderful to get him out and interact with him when I need to give my eyes, hands, and shoulders a break from the computer. He is a great addition to my workplace.

Next, I’d like to introduce my 9th Guide Dog Puppy in Training and newest staff member, Miss Frankie. Frankie is an 10-week-old yellow lab who came to Colorado just last week. Right now, she’s still learning how to be a good officemate, but I’m sure she will master the basics in no time. I’ve already fallen head over heels in love with her. Just look at that face!

Patty, my yellow lab, and Arlo, my rescue mini poodle came to Colorado with me and are still part of my staff, and they keep me company every day.

Patty, of course, is an excellent mentor and makes sure Frankie knows her place in the office hierarchy.

No Longer on Staff at Norman Transcription:

You may remember Mr. Cat, my lovely red betta fish, who lived on my desk. He is no longer on our staff. When I moved to Colorado from Arizona, I didn’t think he would enjoy or perhaps even survive the long drive, so he went to live with my daughter. I miss watching him swim around and look handsome when my eyes need a break from the screen.

Fate and Tera were the two Guide Dog puppies I was raising when I last blogged about my officemates. Fate was not meant to be a guide and was “career changed”. She is now a beloved pet, training to be a therapy dog. She was adopted by my co-raiser and stayed in Arizona. Tera became a Guide! She and her partner live in British Columbia. I miss both of these beautiful, special dogs.

Are you non-human office buddies an important part of your workday? I’d love to hear about them in the comments below.

For years, I worked in toxic work places, and I didn’t even realize that was what was going on. I just knew that I dreaded going to work much of the time or I had terrible anxiety every morning when I woke up. Now that I work as an independent contractor, I do not dread going to work, and I rarely wake up with anxiety. (When I do, it is not work related.)

As I was reflecting on this, I did some reading and learned about toxic work environments. I realized, in retrospect, that I experienced all of these in one job or another. Do I have to even say that I DON’T MISS any of these things, AT ALL? If you are someone I worked with in the past, please don’t take this personally. What was a toxic environment for me may not have been or may not be a toxic environment for you, and that is okay. Everyone’s needs and experiences are different, right?

If you are experiencing any of these things in your current job, maybe it will be helpful to at least understand that these things can be indicators of a toxic workplace, a place that is not healthy for you to work in.

1. Low morale.
   When the entire staff of a workplace has low morale, this is a bad sign. I may have days where I feel less motivated to work, but I don’t have low moral. I no longer spend any of my precious time complaining about my workplace or listening to others complain about it. In fact, I often find myself talking about something interesting I learned because of a transcript I’m working on.

2. Lack of communication.
   In an workplace with an unhealthy or toxic culture, there may be a lack of communication, confusing or conflicting communication from leadership, or passive-aggressive communication between employees. Often employee input is not sought out or valued in a toxic workplace. As an independent contractor running my own transcription business, I am 100% in control of communication with my clients and the contractors I work for. It is awesome! 
   
3. Fear of failure.
   I have been doing transcription successfully for over year. Because I am well-trained and can control what jobs I take on, I never have to worry about a project failing because of scope creep or lack of support from managers or … you get the idea. Nor am I surrounded by others who are working from a place of fear. I’ve been there. I don’t want that in my life anymore.
   
4. High turnover.
   At one school I were I taught, I was the teacher with the longest tenure – at only five years! Most teachers stayed there 1-2 years. Such high turnover clearly indicates that it was not a place where people wanted to work. Now that I have my own business, I don’t ever have to worry about my work being affected negatively by high staff turnover.
   
5. Cliques.
   The presence of cliques is a sure indication of a toxic workplace. I hated cliques when I was in school as a kid and continue to hate them in the workplace.  Somehow, I was always the one who was not mainstream enough and not in the clique. While this didn’t bother me much because I didn’t want to be in the clique, I was fascinated to learn that this is a trait of toxic work environments. Since I’m the sole proprietor of my transcription business, so this is a total non-issue as a transcriptionist. 

If you are reading through the  list of traits of a toxic workplace and recognize that you are dealing with some of all of these issues in your current job, I hope that you can find your way out. I am so much happier and healthier now that I have left all of that behind.

If you are interested in learning more about being a transcriptionist, I recommend the free course that I took at transcribeanywhere.com. If you are ready to take the leap and become a transcriptionist, I think the best training you can get is the General Transcription Course from transcribeanywhere.com.

I’ve been reflecting lately on workplace culture and feeling like the “other”. Since starting my own transcription business I have been free from all of that, and it is so much healthier for me.

Being the “Other”

Recently I was thinking back to my graduate school experience as a young woman getting a PhD in science 30 years ago. (Interestingly, what prompted this reflection was an interview I transcribed. I’m always getting to learn and think about new things because of my work as a general transcriptionist.) With a few exceptions, I did not deal with overt discrimination or harassment, but I felt like the “other” much of the time I was there. I could not have identified that feeling as such at the time, and I only recently have come to understand that the issue was not me. The problem was that the program as a whole was not a good fit for women. 

My PhD advisor was a kind man and very supportive of me. As far as I can remember, there were no women on the faculty in my department when I started grad school. There were quite a few women who were the spouses of faculty members, who had PhDs and their own research programs, but they were not full-fledged faculty members. I didn’t see any women who were successfully pursuing a faculty career and a marriage or children. It seemed to me that I could either do science or get married and have a family, but not both. I truly felt it was either oe or the other for me. While I was in graduate school, I figured it was science that I would end up dong. None of the male graduate students seemed to be worried about these things. All of that made me feel like I didn’t belong, that I wasn’t smart enough or driven enough or whatever enough.  I was an “other” in that place, and I ultimately chose a teaching-focused career rather than a research-focused career, in part because there were women role-models for me in the more teaching-oriented types of positions. I now wonder if I would or could have pursued a career in research if I had felt more like I belonged or if I had had women role models. At the time, all I knew was that I didn’t feel comfortable, happy, or successful in that academic environment, in that workplace culture.

Workplace Culture

Fast forward 20 years — when my children reached middle school, I decided to return to work full time, as a middle school science and math teacher. In education, where a vast majority of the employees are women, wouldn’t you expect the workplace culture to be friendly for women? Sadly, that was not my experience. Teaching, particularly at the elementary and middle school level, is dominated by women, but when you get to the administrative level — principals, superintendents, school boards — it is still male-dominated. This was certainly the case in both public school districts I worked in. Upper level administration was and is dominated by men, White men. So guess what? I was still the other. I still worked in an environment where as a woman taking care of yourself, setting appropriate boundaries, asking for a fair wage for your work was not supported. Again, it wasn’t until I left teaching that I came to understand that the problem wasn’t me. It was the culture of the whole system. 

My New Workplace Culture

Working for myself, as a general transcriptionist, has freed me from feeling like I am the other. Any workplace culture that exists is of my own creation. I can’t even begin to tell you how healthy this is for me! 

How about you?  

If any of this has resonated with you, I offer my empathy and support. I’d love to hear from you about your experiences with workplace culture. Please share your story in the comments below.

If you are interested in learning more about being a transcriptionist, I recommend the free course that I took at transcribeanywhere.com. If you are ready to take the leap and become a transcriptionist, I think the best training you can get is the General Transcription Course from transcribeanywhere.com.