By: Kathryn Davis
The Devil Wears Prada: A Look Into Toxic Work Environments
The Devil Wears Prada may seem like an overly dramatized experience of a toxic workplace. But beneath the glitz and glamour of fashion, money, and fame, is a real truth of some workplaces today.
The Plot as a Mirror to Real Life
The Devil Wears Prada, is a movie about a young college graduate, Andy Sachs, with big dreams. After failing to find a job within the journalism field, she decides to apply for a job at a prestigious fashion magazine. She ends up finding herself as an assistant to the editor, Miranda Priestly. Miranda is immediately seen as cold-hearted and cutthroat. Andy starts with confidence-but we see her change throughout the movie.
We start to see Andy battle for her sense of self. After so many comments about her clothes and appearance, she starts dressing differently. She cuts her hair and applies makeup to fit in. Then, her tune starts to shift about fashion and the magazine. When her friends poke fun at the job and her dedication to her boss, she gets extremely upset. This is out of character compared to how we saw her at the beginning of the movie, also poking fun at the girls who worked at the magazine. You can see Andy’s moral compass waiver as she is offered a promotion to a trip to Paris, which comes at the cost of a trusted colleague.
Why Stay at a Toxic Job?
At the end of the movie, Andy realizes she does not want to turn into Miranda, cutting everyone off and stabbing them in the back in order to achieve success. Andy quitting was healthy; she realized staying there any longer wasn’t sustainable. While I personally don’t condone quitting without notice, I think this case deserves its own special exemption. As the job had caused Andy to lose everything that made her, her. Stephanie McKee Wright shares, “Chronic workplace toxicity erodes an employee’s identity, self-worth, and motivation little by little – it’s as insidious as the toxicity itself.” Andy’s changes in relationship, morals, wardrobe, and appearance all reflect this erosion. Andy’s burnout and decision to quit mirrors what Stephanie has seen in real life, “People become snippy, intolerant, and unfriendly… their working life and personal life are in tatters.” I don’t think there is a better description to show the transformation that Andy has from her time working with Miranda, to when she quits.
Others may not take this same perspective of leaving a job that is unhealthy for you and choose to stay due to a variety of reasons, the most prominent I feel at the moment, is the declining job market. This causes employees to internally suffer, and eventually fall into the same fate as Andy, complete loss of self. Stephanie McKee Wright agrees and advances the topic,
In a poor labour market, people who might have otherwise left the company, will feel forced to stay. Toxic work environments are bad for employee wellbeing, and no amount of wellness seminars, fitness apps or free ‘flu vaccinations are going to turn this kind of poor wellbeing around.
Signs of a Toxic Leader
Let’s set the scene of what a toxic boss or leader looks like, these are not only items that I have seen but also an expert on the subject matter, Stephanie McKee Wright:
- Passive-aggressive
- Exclusion behavior
- Withholding of information, then to be used against you
- Overly harsh performance reviews
- Personal critiques (nothing work related)
- Public humiliation
- Cynicism
- No acknowledgement of something done right, but noticed when something is wrong
As an expert in building leadership and better workplaces, Stephanie McKee Wright puts it, “Workplace toxicity is insidious. It often begins with a feeling that something’s not quite right…Then you might start to hear cynical talk about the company and managers, or even colleagues slipping in derogatory comments about each other.” Andy’s character sees these exact red flags in the work environment and through her boss, Miranda Priestly. Priestly hits every single criteria for a toxic leader.
Passive Aggression
In one scene, Miranda shows up to the officer earlier than usual and she expresses her distaste that things aren’t moving at the normal pace, such as her coat not being taken fast enough, her coffee just not quite hot enough. She then proceeds to say, “By all means, move at a glacial pace. You know how that thrills me.” We see her passive aggressiveness come out.
Exclusion & Withholding Information
Miranda excludes people from important conversations, like editorial pieces and important decisions that need to be made. She also withholds information and expects her employees to “just know.” When someone (particularly Andy in this movie) doesn’t meet these expectations, they are scolded. These are invisible and unspoken rules, yet, very much real.
Critique to Personal Attacks
Miranda is extremely hard on everyone around her. We see Andy try to defend herself after struggling with some of the parts of the job and Miranda just says, “You have no style or sense of fashion.” This also bridges into personal critiques that have nothing to do with work. The way Andy is dressed (appropriately) has nothing to do with her work. Since she is working at a prestigious fashion magazine, there was an expectation of her dressing in designer clothes. But since she wasn’t, she is constantly critiqued for it.
Too Much Shame, Not Enough Praise
Mrs. Priestly is familiar with public humiliation. All of her comments and critiques are done in front of audiences. A pivotal moment in the movie is when Miranda tasks Andy with getting a copy of the new Harry Potter unpublished manuscript. Miranda knows this is impossible and that’s the exact reason she assigns it. In a surprising turn, Andy does get the manuscript. And what does Miranda do? She says nothing. She doesn’t say thank you or give her any praise for completing the impossible errand. There is no reward for success, but there is all punishment for failure.
The Effects Outside of the Job
Andy completely loses herself. She is seen flirting with a prominent journalist and even gets caught by her best friend when he kisses Andy on the cheek. Her best friend is stunned and even says along the lines of, “The old Andy is obsessed and madly in love with her boyfriend. This Andy? I don’t know her.” Andy pulls away from her boyfriend, and even misses her boyfriend’s birthday to suit Miranda’s needs. They eventually end up breaking up due to the amount of time Andy spends at the magazine and catering to Miranda.
This isn’t something out of the ordinary for people working at toxic jobs. It’s not only their own life that starts to be affected, but everyone else around them as well. Even if it’s not as far as Andy took it. Sometimes it just comes as subtle character changes like how one talks, how they dress, how they react to pressure. When you start dreading Monday’s, and that dread starts to seep in your life, is when you know something is wrong. Stephanie McKee Wright wraps concept up perfectly,
At home, there’s the Sunday evening slump, when a person realises that the weekend is nearly over and they must go back to ‘that awful place’ for another week. Getting out of bed becomes harder. I’ve seen first-hand the impact that a toxic environment has on a person when they’re outside of work – they become snippy, intolerant and unfriendly. They might get angry over small things and appear to have a short temper. Anyone who doesn’t know them well might perceive that they’re a horrible person, when in fact they’re a great person affected by a toxic working environment. These behaviours impact their relationships and friendships … then suddenly their working life and personal life are in tatters.
Next Steps
The Devil Wears Prada is fiction, however, the lessons are real. Toxic leadership may not be as obvious as the signs in the movie. It’s not always screaming in your face and belittling you in public. It’s sometimes quiet and subtle. It’s small remarks when no one is around or pressure to change to fit the environment you’re in. Miranda Priestly shows us the exact outcome of prioritizing product and delivery over employees.
If you see yourself in Andy, let this be a kind voice in your ear telling you that you deserve better. If you are in leadership, self reflect. Please ask yourself what kind of workplace environment you are creating and contributing to. Stephanie McKee Wright powerfully puts it, ‘Ignore these symptoms and those negative business outcomes will persist- and they could destroy your business.”
Work shouldn’t be someplace where you have to change everything about yourself to fit in. Work should be a place where you can grow into the person you’re meant to be.
Expert Spotlight:
Stephanie McKee Wright is the Director of Epic People where they “Build better bosses.” They work with businesses on their HR compliance and building employee culture and engagement programs. She is “passionate about building workplaces that people love to go to.” We are similar in this belief and passion! She offered valuable insight into this topic and I could not be more thankful.
Please check out her company, Epic People and LinkedIn below:
The Human Workplace 
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