15.
“Paraphrasing, but: It’s not your fault you were placed under a bad manager. I used to work at a well-known accounting/consulting firm when I was fresh out of college. About six months into the job, I was drafted onto a brand new project as an analyst. We were incredibly short staffed — working 12+ hour days, reporting to multiple managers at the same time, not allowed to take PTO, etc. One of my managers was a horrible woman who would constantly berate me instead of trying to help me improve, question my integrity when I did things wrong, and all around make my life living hell. This went on for months.”
“I became chronically stressed to the point of illness, and I decided to take some PTO because I couldn’t physically bear to clock in one day. She kicked me off the team, essentially told me I was worthless at my job, and single-handedly crushed my confidence in myself and my ability to do good work.
I dropped into a depression spiral and it took MONTHS for my therapist to help me climb out of it. She dropped that one-liner a few months into our sessions, while I was debating on whether to quit my job or not. I almost cried from the sheer relief of being told that being traumatized by another person wasn’t my fault. That my manager’s responsibility was to be a good manager and SHE failed first, not me. Even so, it still took another six months after that session to heal enough to realize that I was never going to fully recover from the sheer level of anxiety I had in that role.
So I quit, found a new job in a completely different industry, and haven’t looked back. I still get stressed out by old triggers on occasion, but I am so much happier in my new role. Thank God for good therapists!”
—Grey, 24
Source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/meganeliscomb/therapists-best-work-advice
