Have you ever been part of a work environment that ACTUALLY felt like a family?

The Toxic Work Environment

My coworker blackmailed me into sending my best friend back to her abuser. So, I destroyed his life and got her out. Two years later, he’s back knocking at my door.

Back when I was a nurse, it was hard to find a staff member who wasn’t an effing beach. One time, my husband came to our staff party as my plus one. I saw multiple of the girls try to flirt with him.

He told me one of them even told him, “You know, you’d have a better time with me.” Like, who even says something like that?

So, when I met Sakura, a newbie who was extremely kind and empathetic, I was ultra grateful. She was a small Japanese woman, one who was kind and smiled a lot. When I told her I loved sushi, she brought in an entire roll of homemade California rolls that she had made just for me.

And half of the paramedics were practically in love with her because she would bring in homemade personalized lunch boxes for them, all filled with their favorite types of food. I honestly don’t know how she did it.

Needless to say, we were all very protective of her. When the nurses would steal my food from the cubicles or spread rumors about me around the hospital, I couldn’t care less.

But Sakura, that was a different story. One time, this girl called Clare, who was the exact opposite of Sakura, tried to spread a rumor that Sakura was the comfort woman for the paramedics, which is why they loved her so much.

This rumor was particularly evil. You see, the comfort women were Japanese women who were kidnapped during World War II and abused by dozens of soldiers a day for pleasure.

So, when she came to me crying with what she had heard, Clare said, I bit back. I didn’t want any patients to get harmed during our feud.

So, I waited until our staff training day at a separate location. In the morning, when everyone had dropped their lunches off at their cubicles, I went on a bathroom break. But really, I snuck in and shoved the remnants of a crushed laxative into her sandwich.

Lol. Fast forward an hour later when our manager was talking. Suddenly, one of the nurses screamed, “Oh my gosh, what the heck?” Halfway across the room, I looked over and Clare had herself so much her scrubs were soaking with the forbidden brown river.

It was going down her legs. It was even filling her shoes. She ran out and after that, no one took her rumors seriously anymore.

I think the most heartbreaking part was that through it all, whenever anyone made jokes about it, Sakura would always try to shut it down to tell them accidents can happen to anyone. She truly had the most golden heart I’d ever met.

So, one day when she came in with a black eye, I was pushing her for answers because there’s no way she got into a fight. We were with the paramedics when I asked, and when she didn’t answer, I forced them to get involved so she’d finally spill.

“Guys, I just walked into a glass door. I’m just clumsy sometimes, you know me.” Well, Sakura with a woman of many talents, but lying was not one of them. The entire room went silent, but I pretended to believe her.

“OMG, that’s so funny. Was your boyfriend there when it happened?” She gulped and her face turned ghost white.

“Yes, I mean, kind of. I mean, not really,” she stammered before immediately changing topic, but me and the paramedics weren’t buying it. We glanced at each other, and I knew they wanted to do something about this just as much as I did.

One of the guys managed to swiftly switch the topic to the 4th of July, and Sakura chimed in, “Oh, that’s something I’ve never really celebrated. Let’s have a barbecue at your house.”

James immediately interrupted her. He was taking advantage of her because he knew she was too nice to say no, but it was for her own good.

So, fast forward to the day. We all hopped in the car with liquor and beer bottles in our hands out for blood. As they all forced their way into Sakura’s home, I couldn’t help but smile.

All the paramedics are 6 foot or above, and all of them are very muscular. So, the look on her boyfriend’s face was priceless. It was like an insect looking at the bottom of a shoe, knowing death is imminent.

One of them, Luke, grabbed his shoulder and playfully shook him. “Hey, hope you don’t mind us being here, buddy.”

I could see the panic in his face, but when he turned to lock eyes with Sakura, that panic turned to anger. She shook her head as if to say, “No, I didn’t tell them, and he breathed a sigh of relief.”

I wanted to clock him right then and there, but I knew we had to play the long game. As the day went on, I noticed James was handing bottle after bottle to her boyfriend. Meanwhile, all the paramedics were drinking 0% beer.

So, after just a few hours, he was drunk, like stumbling everywhere, sounding like an R word, drunk. That’s when he let the mask slip.

Sakura got in his way by accident, and he shoved her over the coffee table before sitting back down on the sofa. That’s when I heard it. Her boyfriend pleading with Luke to stop hitting him. It was actually a little satisfying. TBH.

Eventually, her boyfriend promised to never do it again, so he stopped and they broke up and he moved out the next day. That day, Sakura came to work with a huge smile on her face.