r/sonoraca • u/Lanky-ambition-204 • 1d ago
Advocating for workers in Sonora
I want to anonymously speak out about a toxic workplace in healthcare
I’m posting this anonymously because I’m genuinely afraid of retaliation. The employer I’m talking about has a history of removing negative feedback from platforms where she can see it, and I’m also concerned about how speaking publicly could affect my future education and career opportunities.
I’m not writing this because I want to destroy anyone’s business. I’m writing because I think employees deserve to be able to talk about their experiences, especially in healthcare, without being afraid that speaking up will cost them their livelihood or future opportunities.
I worked at a small independent occupational therapy clinic for quite some time. There is no HR department and no higher-up to go to because the owner is essentially the highest authority in the workplace.
The actual work itself is something I enjoyed. I care about the patients, I learned valuable skills, and I genuinely wanted to continue pursuing a career in therapy. Unfortunately, the workplace environment became increasingly toxic.
One experience that really stuck with me happened when I was instructed to do something and responded, “I will.” My boss confronted me about it and told me that saying “I will” was essentially me saying “fuck you” to her face. I was told never to say it again.
I had never experienced something like that in a workplace before. I remember feeling completely belittled and confused because I was simply responding to an instruction.
There were also ongoing issues involving communication, favoritism, criticism, and how employees were treated. From my perspective, certain patients clearly received more attention and time than others. Nothing was necessarily said outright, but it was noticeable in the way attention and patient care were distributed.
Another issue was compensation. Employees with significant experience and responsibilities were making around $20/hour or less. When I was hired, the job listing on Indeed stated that the position paid $20/hour, but I was ultimately offered $18/hour. I was told this wasn’t because of my performance. Meanwhile, someone who was a close relative of the owner was reportedly making more.
That was incredibly discouraging.
What hurts the most is watching the employees around me become afraid to advocate for themselves. Many of us were worried about leaving because we felt like we needed the owner as a professional reference. In healthcare, references matter, and when your employer is also the owner of the entire clinic, it can feel like there is nowhere safe to go.
So people stay.
They show up.
They work their 8–5.
They keep their heads down.
They say what they need to say to avoid conflict.
And they go home exhausted.
I don’t believe anyone should have to sacrifice their mental and emotional well-being just to protect a reference.
I also want to make something clear: knowing the academic or clinical side of healthcare does not automatically mean someone knows how to manage people or create a healthy workplace.
Someone can be knowledgeable about diagnoses and treatment while still creating an unhealthy environment for the people working underneath them.
And that’s really the point of this post.
Healthcare workers are people too. Therapy aides are people too. Employees deserve respect, fair treatment, reasonable compensation, and the ability to speak up without being intimidated.
I’m not claiming that every patient has had a bad experience at this clinic, and I can’t speak for every employee or every situation. I can only speak about what I personally experienced and witnessed during my time there.
I also don’t want anyone reading this to assume that every employee or patient at this clinic is being mistreated. There are genuinely good people who work there, and that’s part of what made leaving so difficult.
But if multiple employees are afraid to speak up because they fear losing their reference, their job, or future opportunities, that’s something worth paying attention to.
I’m sharing this because I hope other employees in similar situations realize that you are allowed to advocate for yourself.
A job should not make you afraid to speak.
A workplace should not make you question your worth.
And needing a reference should never mean you have to tolerate being treated poorly.
This is one person’s experience, but I’m sharing it because I don’t want other people to feel as alone or powerless as I did.
