Early on in my career it was nearly impossible to have psychological safety because I was constantly worried I'd be risking my physical safety if I did anything that could put my job at risk.

I attribute a lot of this to weak social safety nets and at-will employment in the US. I constantly feared that I would be fired for some statement, personality clash, or mistake (or for no reason at all, which is entirely legal)... so I kept my head down and was lightly abused (frequent overtime without pay, tolerating verbal abuse, etc).

I was living paycheck to paycheck and without a job I'd rapidly lose housing and healthcare. It took me nearly a decade to attain financial security while racking up psychological damage.