Navigating Toxic Workplaces: My Journey Through Four Companies
- Andrea Fryett
- Jun 27
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 27
Understanding the Challenges
In my career, I faced numerous challenges that stemmed from toxic workplace environments. Each experience taught me valuable lessons about resilience and self-advocacy. I want to share these lessons with you.
Company A
Public shaming of difference masked as professionalism
I was one of a handful of women in a male-dominated 3D department. I was also an anglophone in a French-dominated office. My work was strong praised by clients and integrated into top-tier productions but my identity never quite “fit.” Outside of work, I was a successful, publicly visible belly dancer. I had media presence. Prestige. But in performance reviews, my passion was cited as a lack of seriousness while male colleagues shared their car-rebuilds and hockey obsessions without consequence.
📊 SMART performance reality:
Specific: Met production targets with clarity
Measurable: Delivered assets with minimal revision
Achievable: Juggled multiple assignments with professionalism
Relevant: Contributed directly to team and project outcomes
Time-bound: Consistently on deadline
🎯 My mistake? Having a life they didn’t understand and a visibility they couldn’t control.
Company B
Unverified rumor weaponized through hierarchy
A false, uninvestigated accusation was made about me on Facebook by someone I didn’t even know. Just a random internet troll. But that one post triggered a senior colleague, who quietly began building an internal campaign against me. I was never informed. Never given the chance to explain or respond. It was only later, through the timing and pattern of events, that I pieced together what had happened. Leadership stayed silent. My reputation built through genuine allyship with students and collaboration with peers was quietly unraveled. And then, weaponized.
📊 SMART performance reality:
Specific: Delivered curriculum-aligned instruction and mentorship
Measurable: High student engagement and outcomes
Achievable: Maintained high performance through systemic changes
Relevant: Prioritized student success and institutional goals
Time-bound: Delivered results within semester timelines
🎯 My mistake? Trusting a system that rewards silence over truth and becoming vulnerable to character assassination because I didn’t fit the whisper network.
Company C
Scapegoated for solving problems too well
I was under a director who was critically ill and barely present. Tools were broken. Project instructions were vague. Yet I delivered high-quality results on time using professional judgment and creative workarounds where needed. The client was happy. But my director was not.
📊 SMART performance reality:
Specific: Delivered required outputs according to brief
Measurable: Consistently met client expectations and deadlines
Achievable: Resolved technical and creative challenges independently
Relevant: Adapted work to actual client priorities, not internal assumptions
Time-bound: Maintained reliable delivery pace under pressure
🎯 My mistake? Being effective without his input which he interpreted as insubordination, rather than a sign of ability or professionalism.
Company D
When disclosure became a weapon, and standards became moving targets
I disclosed my ADHD during onboarding in response to a question about my employment history. It was framed as part of a transparent conversation until months later, when it was used against me in a performance review. Without my consent, the disclosure resurfaced as evidence of “difficulty,” despite no prior accommodation efforts. My deliverables were consistently strong. In fact, I often completed my assignments faster than my peers, based on the company’s own tracking data. When QA was conducted by neutral reviewers, I passed easily. But under a hostile supervisor the same one I eventually requested be removed my work was suddenly “insufficient.” Nothing else had changed except the reviewer. Client feedback was consistently positive. They praised my sense of composition and artistic sensitivity. But internally, my competence became a threat.
📊 SMART performance reality:
Specific: Delivered visual assets aligned with briefs
Measurable: Outpaced peers in speed and QA success under fair conditions
Achievable: Managed shifting requirements without support
Relevant: Produced work that directly supported brand and client goals
Time-bound: Met clear deadlines; retroactively blamed for one undocumented timeline change
🎯 My mistake? Trusting that transparency and professionalism would be rewarded instead of weaponized.
The Real Pattern
When you zoom out, a different picture emerges. I wasn’t targeted for underperforming not by any honest metric. I was targeted because I was visible, conscientious, independent, neuro-divergent, and unwilling to quietly absorb dysfunction. What made me a target wasn’t failure it was operating with integrity in systems that weren’t designed for it.
Lessons Learned
Here’s what I’ve learned to name:
🌀 I lived in the gap between expectations and empowerment where I was expected to “own” outcomes but not given decision-making power.
🌀 I lived in the gap between presentation and permission where my passions, visibility, and assertiveness were seen as disruptive.
🌀 I lived in the gap between compliance and creativity where the ability to solve problems without handholding was punished, not praised.
🌀 I lived in the gap between honesty and HR protocol where speaking up became its own liability.
🌀 I lived in the gap between vulnerability and retaliation where personal truths (like ADHD) were seen not as data for support, but as fodder for control.
Moving Forward
If you’ve experienced something like this, you are not alone. You don’t need to make yourself smaller to stay safe. But you do need to understand the systems you’re in and the rules they say they follow versus the ones they actually enforce. I’m building tools for that now. Tactical. Measurable. Empowering. For people like us who’ve spent too long questioning whether we were the problem, when we were actually the evidence.
Comments