If you want deeper support, join the live Toxic Culture workshop https://www.lizjolley.com/toxic.

Interested in diving deep with us in the School of Courage? More info here: https://lizjolley.com/membership

If work feels draining, political, or emotionally exhausting, you’re not alone.

In this episode, we’re talking about what people really mean when they say they work in a toxic culture — and why the stress often follows you home, affects your mood, and drains your energy.

You may be experiencing:

• office politics and decisions made behind closed doors

• gossip, tension, or difficult personalities

• feeling invisible despite working hard

• performance reviews that feel personal

• Sunday-night dread and constant mental replay

• irritability at home because work stress won’t turn off

But before you assume quitting is the only solution, there’s something important to understand.

A toxic culture doesn’t just impact your workload — it impacts your nervous system, your identity, and how you feel about yourself.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

✔ what actually makes a workplace feel “toxic”

✔ why high-performing women feel especially drained by difficult cultures

✔ how workplace stress affects your energy, confidence, and presence at home

✔ the difference between what is happening and the story your brain tells about it

✔ how to stay grounded and self-trusting even in a difficult environment

✔ how to make clear decisions from strength instead of exhaustion

You don’t have to let a difficult workplace steal your joy, your energy, or your sense of self.

This episode will help you feel calmer, clearer, and more in control — no matter what’s happening around you.

Do you have that person at work — the one whose name on your calendar instantly makes your body tense?

They don’t even have to say anything overt. It’s the tone. The side comments. The questions that feel slightly off. And before you know it, you’re replaying the meeting, venting to coworkers, thinking about them at home, and letting one person quietly run your entire day.

In this episode of The Great Leader, Great Mom Podcast, we’re talking about why certain people feel so powerful at work — and the uncomfortable truth most of us miss: they didn’t take your power. You handed it over.

I walk you through what “giving someone power” actually looks like in real life, why trying to control, avoid, or eliminate difficult people never works, and how to show up calm, grounded, and confident even when someone is pushing your buttons.

You’ll learn practical tools to stop the mental replay loop, stay regulated in meetings, and respond with clarity instead of defensiveness. We talk about separating what someone actually says from the story your brain adds, deciding who you want to be before the meeting even starts, and using thoughtful questions to take your power back without aggression.

This episode is for you if you’re tired of letting one person dictate your mood, your confidence, or how you show up at work.

The goal isn’t to win against them.
The goal is to stop losing yourself around them.

There’s a unique tension that can show up when your boss is a woman who doesn’t have kids — especially if her version of success looks nothing like the life you’re trying to build.

Maybe she works late most nights and expects the same.

Maybe she seems irritated by school calls, sick days, or schedule changes.

Maybe you feel like you’re constantly proving you’re still “serious” about your career.

And underneath it all, you hear the quiet thought:

“I don’t want her life. But I also don’t want to disappoint her.”

In this episode of the Great Leader, Great Mom Podcast, Liz Jolley unpacks what happens when you work for a child-free female leader and you’re a mom who wants a rich life outside of work.

This is not an attack on women without kids.

It’s an honest look at:

• Why this dynamic can feel more charged than working for a man
• How unspoken values and identity choices show up in expectations
• The subtle ways you start editing yourself to avoid judgment
• How to respect her path without betraying your own
• Practical ways to set expectations and lead yourself with quiet confidence

You don’t need your boss to want your life in order to lead well in it.

If you’ve ever felt like your family makes you “less” in the eyes of a female leader you used to admire, this conversation will help you untangle that knot and come back to yourself.

https://lizjolley.com/membership