Recovering from a Toxic Workplace: 

This course is for anyone who has experienced a toxic workplace. Whether you're still in that environment or whether you have left but still impacted by what happened to you, this course can help you heal and move forward. 

The course is delivered as a series of six short videos, accompanied by a comprehensive written guide. This format allows you to learn at your own pace and refer back to the material as needed. It provides flexibility, confidentiality and privacy and helps you make more informed decisions as you take your next steps forward.

Jo Tarnawsky is the former Chief of Staff to the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia. She worked for the Australian government for more than two decades, including in multiple locations overseas as a diplomat and for the Governor-General of Australia.

In 2024, she made a life-changing decision: to speak out publicly about what was happening to her behind closed doors at Parliament House.

Her experience came on the back of years of well-documented problems on the Hill. More than 1,700 people had already come forward to share their own stories as part of a parliamentary workplace review. In 2022, Australia’s now-Prime Minister promised to “set the standard” for change, after acknowledging how parliament had particularly failed to keep women and staffers safe at work. But that promise was not kept. And as the most senior female staffer on the Hill at the time, she became a casualty of that failure.

The public parts of her story - when she first spoke up, when she launched legal action in the Federal Court, when the case was finally settled - are covered in various news reports. Those headlines form part of the record, but only tell fragments of the story. What they don’t capture is the parts that may be more familiar to you: the deep trauma, confusion and exhaustion of living it every day; the moral injury; and the grief of being cast aside by the institution and people she had given so much to.

Jo has found her way to the other side of this toxic workplace experience and now works with leaders and organisations to live and lead with clarity, courage and purpose.

You can find out more about Jo at www.jotarnawsky.com or connect with her on LinkedIn and Instagram.

The Companion Guide contains more than 80 beautifully-designed pages of insights, gentle encouragement, personal reflections, case examples, and additional resources to help guide you.

Some of the topics Jo covers includes:

• Why I made this for you 
• My Story
• Global statistics: A quiet epidemic
• Guides to accompany video episodes 1-5 
• Recognising a toxic workplace
• Who gets targeted - and why 
• A Toxic Workplace Checklist 
• Terminology
• Practical Steps
• Finding Your People
• Pathways to Support
• Looking ahead with hope
• Extra Resources: short videos, podcasts, social media accounts to follow, articles, books, and other helpful sources
• Staying connected

Each video is less than 10 minutes long and is personally hosted by Jo.

There are 6 short self-guided videos in the series:

• INTRODUCTION - From Me to You
• EPISODE 1: What just happened? Understanding the impact of a toxic workplace
• EPISODE 2: Stabilise before you strategise: The first recovery steps from a toxic workplace
• EPISODE 3: Rebuilding your confidence: Identity, self-worth, and learning to trust again
• EPISODE 4: Letting go and moving on: Releasing the weight without excusing the harm
• EPISODE 5: Your next chapter: Turning recovery into power and purpose