A toxic job should be avoided at all costs because the longer you are stuck in a stressful, backstabbing orexploitativework culture, the harder it is to escape it.

More than 1. 1 million people were laid off in the US in 2025, and there were more job cuts in January 2026 than any January since 2009, according to reports.

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Jennifer Schroeder had had enough. She was in her fifties, and she'd a long career as a technical consultant in systems, applications, and products software when she saw the promotion she wanted go to a "25-year-old with zero experience," she says.