A toxic work environment can have a significant impact on our health and wellness. Career Coach and Co-Founder of FIA NYC Employment, Lindsay Watson, defines a toxic work environment as a place that creates continuous stress, makes you feel small or belittled, and gives you the sense of not being able to grow. If you find yourself in such a situation, it’s important to take steps to protect your health and well-being.
In this interview, Lindsay provides three options for those who find themselves in a toxic work environment:
Stay and implement change: Partner with your HR team to see if any changes can be made within the department.
Move departments: If the toxicity is related to the department, consider moving to a different department within the company.
Leave: If the situation is extremely toxic, it may be necessary to leave the company and find a new job.
To avoid getting into a toxic work environment in the first place, Lindsay suggests seeking advice from a coach, mentor, or someone you trust. If you see red flags, talk to someone about them and get their opinion. This can help you make a decision about whether to stay, move departments, or leave the company.
Additionally, it’s important to consider your own role in creating a toxic work environment. If you find that you are responsible for creating a toxic environment, take a moment to pause, get quiet, and talk to someone about it. Express your intention to change and ask for advice on how to do so. This will not only help improve your work environment, but also show your co-workers and peers that you are committed to creating a positive and healthy workplace.
If you need to make a complaint, experts advise documenting everything.
In conclusion, a toxic work environment can have a significant impact on our physical and mental health, and it is essential to take steps to avoid or escape it. From recognizing the signs of toxicity to seeking advice and support, it’s important to prioritize our well-being and take charge of our professional lives. Remember, you have three options – stay and try to make changes, move to a different department, or leave the company. No matter what, it is crucial to stay mindful, reflective and proactive in your approach. By taking these steps and creating a positive and healthy work environment, we can safeguard our health, improve our quality of life, and reach our full potential in our careers.
Poor leadership can be defined as an inability or unwillingness to relinquish control and empower team members. A leader who is too focused on maintaining control can block creativity and innovation and create a negative work environment in the business.
Great leaders, however, understand the importance of trusting and relying on their teams. They empower their team members to take ownership of their work, fostering a sense of teamwork and collaboration. This type of leadership can lead to a higher level of job satisfaction and ultimately contribute to the success of the company’s business.
Trust is a crucial element in any team or organization, and it is important for leaders to establish and maintain trust in order to build and maintain a great company. By empowering their team members and fostering a culture of trust, leaders can create an environment where everyone feels valued and respected. This, in turn, can lead to better performance of employees, greater job satisfaction, and ultimately, a more successful company.
In addition, it is essential for leaders to prioritize DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) in the workplace. This means creating an environment where everyone feels safe, respected, and valued regardless of their background, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation. This can be achieved through various means such as by creating a diverse workforce, providing training and education on unconscious bias, and fostering an inclusive culture.
Workplace management is also important for leaders to consider. This means ensuring that the workplace is safe, healthy, and productive for all employees. This can be achieved by providing the necessary resources and tools, promoting clear communication and collaboration, and fostering a positive work-life balance.
By prioritizing DEI and workplace management, leaders can create a more inclusive, equitable, and productive work environment.
In conclusion, poor leadership is characterized by an inability or unwillingness to relinquish control and empower team members, while great leaders understand the importance of trusting and relying on their team to achieve their goals. A leader who trusts their team empowers them to take ownership of their work and prioritizes DEI and workplace management is more likely to foster a sense of teamwork and collaboration, which can lead to higher levels of job satisfaction and ultimately contribute to the success of the company.
For more information on our commitment to DEI, please contact us at:
FIA NYC Employment is an award-winning, 100% minority-owned staffing agency (MBE) headquartered in Lehigh Valley, PA. We specialize in diversity staffing and direct hire staffing for professional services, healthcare and education roles across all industries. Founded in 2012, our vision is to provide quality staffing services to clients across the United States. Our motto “Corporate service with a personal approach”, reflects the drive and commitment to quality that we strive to deliver each day.
William D. Brown’s path from aspiring New York City manager and producer to co-founder of a successful staffing firm was anything but conventional or predictable, but his journey led him to the Lehigh Valley and he has never looked back.
“If you want to be somewhere that has all the big corporate fanfare and benefits of a big city, but a very family atmosphere and environment where you can actually grow and be seen, this is the place,” he said. “It’s the best of Wall Street and Main Street. That’s what I love about it.”
William D. Brown, CEO & Co-Founder of FIA NYC, began his career as a manager and producer who segued into the management side of the entertainment industry. He discovered the Lehigh Valley almost by accident, after purchasing a few properties in the region to fix up and later re-sell.
But as he explored his various entrepreneurial ventures, he quickly realized the Lehigh Valley was exactly where he wanted to be.
“The first thing the Lehigh Valley has over New York by a landslide is a support system,” Brown said. “It’s like that show Cheers: everybody knows your name. The Lehigh Valley is very supportive of its people, like a family. It’s a great environment if you want to grow.”
When Brown became a manager and producer for musical artists in New York, he discovered he loved the business side of music, and also believed strongly in treating the artist fairly. This passion put him onto an entrepreneurial path, and when William first came to the Lehigh Valley in 2009, he started an encryption and storage solution company called SeKur Technology, Inc.
William D. Brown’s 20 years of experience working in information technology, on Wall Street, and for global firms, coupled with his experience in the music industry, led to SeKur Technology being developed to prevent digital piracy.
This in turn led him to join the Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania’s business incubation program. Brown quickly found in the Lehigh Valley a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem with plenty of resources and mentors to help startup companies grow and thrive.
“It’s a place where I can pick up the phone and call the CEO of a company and not have to go through a bunch of red tape,” he said. “That to me is something that makes the Lehigh Valley great. If you get a good reputation, everybody supports you, and that’s not something I was used to coming from New York City.”
As his business grew, William D. Brown called Lindsay Watson, a singer he mentored and worked on two albums with as a manager and producer. Like Brown, she also transitioned into the business side, and was working at a staffing agency in New York City, but Brown wanted her at his side in the Lehigh Valley.
He was so confident she would fall in love with the region, he offered to pay for six months of living expenses if she left the Big Apple and moved to the Lehigh Valley to work with him. She made the jump, and it’s a decision she didn’t regret.
While growing the tech company, Brown and Watson started a small staffing company as a “side thing” to help support it, but they quickly realized the staffing company was becoming the more profitable venture. They shifted their focus there, and 10 years later, FIA NYC is an award-winning, 100% minority-owned business providing staffing services to clients across the nation.
“With some staffing firms, it’s like a cattle call: they send you as many people as they can so hopefully you pick one, and that’s quantity over quality,” said Brown, who also founded 11Thirty Entertainment LLC as well as FIA NYC and SeKur Technology. “I decided I wouldn’t do that. I’d send quality. If I sent you people, you’d know they were the right people for you.”
William D. Brown still works on the production and management side of the entertainment industry, and also recently joined the Board of Directors for the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce, is a published book author, and is an expert speaker on the subject of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).
Brown said the Lehigh Valley has made great strides in the area of DEI, and while he feels there is still room for improvement, he believes the region could be a great leader in that area in the next 5 to 10 years if it stays on its current path.
“For this area to be growing the way it is and so progressive corporately, and still have that real family business, Main Street type of touch is huge,” Brown said. “It’s a beautiful thing.”
Looking for a new job can be an arduous process and going through the interview process can certainly be stressful, but nailing the job interview it’s an important part of landing that perfect job you’ve been hoping for. The more preparation you put in leading up to an interview, the greater your chances of landing the job.
In a recent interview with Career Coach and Co-Founder of FIA NYC Employment, Lindsay Watson, she discussed how to effectively communicate who you are and why you’re the right fit for the job. To help with this, Watson suggests 3 top tips with Nancy Werteen on WFMZ-69 News’ Workplace Lessons.
TIP #1: Stop and really look at what you’ve accomplished and the theme of your resume. This means taking the time to reflect on your past work experience, accomplishments, and skills. Look for patterns and themes in your work history. This will help you understand how you can communicate your strengths and qualifications in a way that is clear and easy for others to understand.
TIP #2: Practice and rehearse what your resume says. This will help you feel more confident and comfortable during the interview, and will also help you communicate your qualifications and skills more effectively. It’s also important to have examples from your past work experience that demonstrate your qualifications, so you can use them to answer any questions that the interviewer may ask.
TIP #3: Keep your resume with you during the interview. With so many phone and Zoom interviews happening these days, it’s a good idea to have your resume on hand in case you need to refer to it. This will help you stay calm during the interview and take the pressure off of you. Additionally, it will help you clearly communicate your qualifications and skills in case you forget something from your past work experience that you want to highlight.
By following these tips, you’ll be better prepared and more confident during your next job interview. Remember to be yourself and let your qualifications, skills, and experience shine through.
For more information, please contact us at: FIA NYC LLC DIVERSITY@fianyc.com 866-519-4446 x.1 www.fianyc.com
About FIA NYC Employment FIA NYC Employment is an award-winning, 100% minority-owned staffing agency (MBE) headquartered in Lehigh Valley, PA. We specialize in diversity staffing and direct hire staffing for professional services, healthcare and education roles across all industries. Founded in 2012, our vision is to provide quality staffing services to clients across the United States. Our motto “Corporate service with a personal approach”, reflects the drive and commitment to quality that we strive to deliver each day.
The divisions of FIA NYC are: ⁃ Staffing & Recruiting ⁃ Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Consulting (C-level Executives, HR & General Staff) ⁃ Career Coaching & Resume Writing Services
Learn more about FIA NYC Employment at www.fianyc.com
Faces International, a staff development, PR and Marketing firm based in Allentown PA have formed a formal partnership with FIA NYC Employment, an award-winning staffing agency to provide comprehensive Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Employment services across the region. Faces is a Black Owned company that recently committed $100k to encourage financial philanthropy, and is a longtime community driven organization who has recently done DEI work with global and regional powerhouses such as Olympus, East Penn Manufacturing, Air Products, Butz Family of Companies and PPL. FIA NYC Employment, also black-owned, is a 2022 Excellence in Business Award Winner headquartered in Allentown. FIA is a professional services staffing agency, with three divisions: Staffing/Diversity Staffing, DEI Consulting & Career Coaching. They support all industries, and staff for well known brands including PBS, Crayola and Liquid Interactive.
The two have combined to help organizations tackle some of the most pressing issues that hurt DEI within organizations; staff development, staff recruitment and staff retention.
Tyrone Russell, CEO of Faces said “When we are working with these companies to create a more inclusive environment where people of all walks of life feel they belong, we constantly hear about the struggles from leadership about their struggle with attracting and retaining talent from different backgrounds. FIA is a monster in recruitment and this partnership allow us to really assist our clients from A-Z”
William Brown, CEO/Co-Founder and Director of DEI commented “This is what it’s about, leveraging relationships to better support our community. From our first meeting with the Faces team, there was a strong synergy between us. Faces’ approach to DEI and dedication to excellence works perfectly with our commitment to supporting our clients’ goals for placement and retention of employees in any organization. The combination just makes sense”.
The two companies are entering year ten in existence and have continued to provide service while challenging clients to create systems and relationships that drive them to the 22nd century.
