I had a programming job that had a toxic environment. I could not leave because I had a house and family. It was during the Dotcom busts so finding a job was di

I had a programming job that had a toxic environment. I could not leave because I had a house and family. It was during the Dotcom busts so finding a job was difficult to impossible. I worked for a law firm that didn't value their IT workers. While I wrote programs that saved them millions of dollars a year by eliminating waste and missing court dockets was eliminated by writing a docket calendar, they would only go by how much money we earned and how long it took to get projects done. A lot of the programmers rushed their code so it was sloppy and crashed the system and take down the database. I had to fix those programs and also work on my own programs. I got assigned Legacy Software Support and anything that broke became Legacy Software and assigned to me. I had over 134 projects to work on and had tight deadlines. I ended up stressed out and on short-term disability, and when I returned to work and had a panic attack I was fired for not snapping out of it. I ended up on disability. My best advice for you is to learn how to manage stress, no matter where you work there will always be a toxic element to it. The better a programmer the bigger the ego they have in some cases. Sure it is hard to get along with a jerk that management likes and is fire-proof. But if you can change your reactions and manage your stress better you can deal with it better. Don't make the mistake I did and let it get to you to the point that you make yourself sick.