The Invisible Black Woman

Loyalty is supposed to mean something. In healthy workplaces, it is a two-way street: trust met with trust, effort met with opportunity, commitment met with care. Loyalty in the right hands gets you mentorship, fair compensation, and a seat at the table that you earned.

But toxic workplaces? They rewrite the script.

In toxic cultures, loyalty is not rewarded, it is weaponized. The longer you stay, the more invisible you become. The harder you work, the more they take for granted. The more loyal you are, the easier you are to exploit. They call it “dedication” or “being a team player,” but what they really mean is, we know you won’t say no.

This is how it plays out: You stay late, they assume you always will. You take on the extra project, suddenly it is yours forever. You solve problems without complaint, and instead of respect, you get silence or worse, more problems. Your loyalty becomes a liability because toxic workplaces are not designed to honor it. They are designed to drain it.

And the cruelest part? They make you believe it is your fault. That you are not tough enough, patient enough, or “resilient” enough to handle it. That if you leave, you are quitting, but if you stay, you are proving yourself. That is not recognition. That is manipulation dressed up as culture.

The truth is, loyalty should never feel like chains. True loyalty is mutual. It thrives where respect, fairness, and accountability live. It is something you give freely because you are valued, not something that is extracted from you because they have figured out how to guilt-trip you into compliance.

So the next time someone tells you to “just be loyal,” take a hard look at what that really means in their mouth. Are they honoring your commitment, or are they exploiting it? Because if your loyalty is costing you peace, health, or dignity, that is not loyalty. That is captivity.

And captivity is not a career strategy.

Until next time, I wish you nothing but sunshine, rainbows, and unicorns, which are no less fictitious than the priceless creature you are.