The Signs of a Toxic Culture at Work
Bernard Marr
?? Internationally Best-selling #Author?? #KeynoteSpeaker?? #Futurist?? #Business, #Tech & #Strategy Advisor
Do you dread your job as much on Friday as you do on Monday? Do you dread going into the office or interacting with a particular co-worker? Are you chronically stressed out or anxious at work?
We often continue working in a job even when the culture is making us unhappy. It's like that old analogy of frogs in hot water: If you put a frog into hot water, it would jump out. But if you put it into cold water that slowly starts to boil it would happily sit there until it is cooked.
What started out as a good job and a positive work environment can change over time. Maybe a boss changes or the environment changes and before we know it, the water is boiling and we are getting cooked in a toxic stew.
If you’re feeling stressed or unhappy, it can be good to take a check and look for signs of a toxic culture at work. Some of these warning signs are immediate red flags — you should never stick around in a job that is illegal or dangerous to your health — but others might be easier to miss, and could signal you need to take another look.
- Immoral or illegal activities. This is a huge red flag. If something the company or an individual is doing is wrong, you don’t have to be a part of it. If actions don’t sit well with your moral code — or worse, are patently illegal — get out as soon as possible. The person watching a crime happen can be just as culpable as the person committing it.
- Physical danger. If you or others are put at risk due to unsafe working conditions, you should leave ASAP. No job is worth your life or long term health.
- Blatant unfairness. As a kid, you probably heard, “Nobody ever said life was fair,” which is true, but you should expect some amount of fairness in the workplace. If employees are treated radically differently, coworkers steal your ideas or work and claim credit, or failures are blamed on others, this could be a sign of a very toxic work environment.
- Abusive bosses or coworkers. Sexual harassment, racism, sexism, ageism, or any other kind of discrimination should not have to be tolerated. This might also include high aggression or bullying, intimidation, unreasonable expectations, or blatant lack of empathy.
- Dysfunctional relationships. Sometimes the combination of personalities in a company can result in a toxic environment, creating gossip, cliquish behaviours, favouritism, grudges, back-biting, and unwarranted criticisms.
- Pervasive poor communication. If you get little or no feedback, only negative feedback, you get left out of the loop on important information, or bosses and coworkers are excessively cold and distant, that can also contribute to a toxic workplace.
- Chronic high stress. Some jobs are innately more stressful than others, but if you are routinely exposed to high stress situations with no opportunity for “down time” or a fear of bullying if you need to recover from stressful situations, that too can be toxic. If you are constantly expected to work more than 40 hours per week without extra compensation and have no opportunity for work/life balance, you might want to consider a move.
Sometimes you can address these problems with a supervisor to try to remedy the situation — and sometimes the supervisor is part of the problem. If your requests for intervention or suggestions to improve the work environment repeatedly fall on deaf ears, it’s certainly time to find a healthier workplace. Because another truth of toxic work environments is that they are rarely as successful in the long term as healthier ones.
Have you had experience in a toxic work environment? Did you leave right away or try to stick it out? I’d love to hear your experiences in the comments below.
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About : Bernard Marr is a globally recognized expert in strategy, performance management, analytics, KPIs and big data. He helps companies and executive teams manage, measure and improve performance. His latest books are ’25 Need-to-Know Key Performance Indicators’ and 'Doing More with Less'.
Here are some other recent articles by Bernard:
- How Successful People Deal With Stress
- What Successful Managers Never Do In Public
- The 8 Signs Of A Bad Leader
- The One Thing Successful People Never Do
- 5 Sad Truths About Success And Happiness
- The 25 KPIs Every Manager Needs to Know
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Well Connected. In Style.
6 年“Do not be deceived, bad company corrupts good morals.”
Happy to share that I’m moving to our portable HVAC company Airnetik
6 年Sadly, so much of this becomes “the norm”
Principal & Founder | Injured Employee Advisor & Advocate | disAbility Advocate | Trainer | Speaker
7 年In July 2015, I relocated to another city for a state position I thought I would add value to my own advocacy firm. I left my family with the commitment of 5 years. My husband knew my greatest passion was to serve the abject of society and sent me with his blessing. Within 2 weeks I witnessed extreme disparagining and maligning comments about the people we service, individuals with disabilities. Outside of the toxic commentary, I "am" those people, because "I" have a neurological disability, I internalized the negative behavior. Due to being in an enclosed office of only 4 people, I felt like I was breathing their nasty and destructive energy. Initially I would speak up and try to redirect the conversation from degrading statements to empathic statements. This action turned me into enemy number one. Because I shared my 20 plus year serving and advocating for the disabled population, and having a disability, the team lead "demanded" I tell her my specific disability. I know my ADA rights and declined. This was a defining moment, I knew I would never last. Within 6 months I experienced the greatest bullying and harassment I could ever imagine. I was physically assaulted (pushed, shoved, snatched mouse & phone out of my hands), intimidated, denied parking in handicapped parking despite having disabled parking plates, yelled at for moving too slowly, caught team leader going through my purse, denied pertinent information vital to job and received harassing emails to job email and personal email. I stopped eating, I barely slept, I was constantly getting migraines, my peripheral neuropathy was so bad I would stumble and fall almost daily, extremely dangerous hypertension, and broke out in severe hives all over my body. I was in such a dark place there were days I cried begging God to let me die. By the 7 month I was in full depression and anxiety. I utilized EAP service hoping to save my sanity. I cried literally and figuratively to my manager, commissioner and civil rights office. Each of them only suggested I find another job. I felt defeated and helpless. The unethical behavior was deemed common and acceptable, accept it of find another job? I took sick leave for 2 months. I returned hoping things would have gotten better, the retaliation began almost immediately. One month later I could no longer go on and resigned. I submitted my resignation one day, the following day I was fired. I felt like a failure and blamed myself. It's been 4 months since I left that dreadful place. I was evicted from my apartment I deeply loved, incurred great debt from breaking my lease, returning home, and other bills. Fortunately I have a home to return to, but many don't and stay because they don't have options. I'm still struggling emotionally and it feels like I may never recover. If I had it to do over, the first act of intimidation, bullying, harassment, physical and/or verbal assault I would have immediately contacted state officials not manager or HR. No one should EVER feel pressured to disclose their disability. No one should EVER allow anyone to physically or psychologically attack or abuse them, and if the employer doesn't take your legitimate violations seriously, involve state officials. I hope my experience will not be in vain and I may be able to educate, equip and empower others to know their rights and responsibilities in the workplace. No matter what you life matters.