No matter the experience, education, skill, personality, or contribution to an organization, every human should have basic rights. Every worker should have a right to feel:

1. A sense of belonging. Workers should have a right to feel like we are included in an organization and part of a team.
2. Valued. Workers should have a right to feel like our contributions have worth and importance.
3. Respected. Workers should have a right to dignity and have our human needs and individual strengths and weaknesses honored.
4. Healthy. Workers should have a right to feel strong. We should have a right to work in environments that promote well-being.
5. Accomplished. Workers should have a right to information and resources necessary to do our jobs well so we can feel productive.
6. Supported. Workers should have a right to feel heard and receive appropriate responses when we voice concerns.
7. Fairly treated. Workers should have a right to reasonable...

A few years into my advocacy for workplace abuse legislation, I co-led a small business. I quickly realized that knowing what not to do didn’t necessarily translate well into what to do. What were best practices for bringing out the best in employees? How could I work to help workers feel fulfilled and strong? What did I need to gain self-awareness of to prevent a toxic culture? These questions led me to dive into what it took to create a healthy workplace.

The toxic culture
In his book The Bully’s Trap, Andrew Faas dissects the cultures that lead to abuse in the first place. He says that in toxic cultures, employers see employees as expendable. When employers consider workers a means to an end rather than associates, that’s exploitation. Here are some key factors in a toxic culture:

• Higher-ups are out of touch. They focus on short-term results at the expense of long-term performance. They focus on power to bring about those short-term...