My current job is great about leave requests, but it’s taken me three years to finally get comfortable using it. Every other job I had would either make a fuss or guilt workers for using leave.

On top of that, I had the idea that you have to go to school or work sick unless you can’t get up passed down to me from my parents. They meant well. They were teaching me how to deal with the types of work environments they knew.

Toxic work culture can be so widespread that it sticks with you.