Eight Signs You Might Be Working in a Toxic Workplace

In first grade, I eagerly stayed after school to help my teacher. I erased the chalkboard but instead of appreciation, I got an angry response. After indicating another classmate was copying the words on the board, my teacher spanked me. Ever since I have been sensitive to someone getting angry when I am only trying to help.

Fast forward to a toxic encounter with my boss. The CEO had asked us to work on a strategic document, and my version had sat in my boss' in box for weeks. Suddenly he asked if I could clean it up and turn it around immediately, so I jumped on it.?

When he received my edits, he flipped out. He was furious I had reworked his contributions for clarity. (His writing was difficult to understand, and I was doing what he hired me to do as a communications manager.) I asked him if he had opened the document and seen my changes. He admitted he had not; however, that did not dim his anger. Hanging up the phone, I felt truly shaken at his tone of voice and accusations.

He followed up the phone call with a hostile, shaming email, telling me that now he was going to have to work on the weekend and not be able to spend time with his daughter, even though he had been sitting on the document for weeks…not to mention the fact I’d vastly improved it.

How Do You Know When You’re in a Toxic Environment?

If you feel shaken by the way someone reacts, especially when you are trying to help, you are in a toxic environment. There is no excuse to treat another person that way…especially when they report to you.?Leaders must keep their emotions in check and always treat other people with respect and dignity.

Case in point of a toxic workplace: Cards Against Humanity

"Sell good values," said deposed Cards Against Humanity cofounder Matt Temkin.

In 2020 the irreverent game Cards Against Humanity was in the news for the horrific way they were treating their employees, especially women, people of color, and LBGTQIA+ folks.

Reading about the company, founded by eight young, privileged white men, makes me regret ever playing Cards Against Humanity. One of its founders, Max Temkin, was accused of rape even before former employees came forward to allege discrimination. I will no longer be complicit in promoting this toxic culture by playing this game.

If your workplace is not recruiting, respecting, welcoming, embracing, honoring, and finding leadership opportunities for Black people or other minorities, LBGTQIA+ folks, women, or the disabled, it could be toxic to anyone who falls into one of these categories.?

Here are eight signs you are working in a toxic environment:

1. Leaders communicate poorly—or not at all

Honest, transparent communication is the only way to create a healthy work environment and an engaged workforce. Whether you are communicating about company finances, a big win, an unfortunate loss, or necessary cutbacks, respectful and authentic communication is paramount. If you don’t have healthy communication channels (not only top-down but also upward and across), the rumor mill will work overtime, damaging morale and creating a toxic workplace.

2. Your boss is verbally abusive and disrespectful

There is no excuse to treat coworkers disrespectfully. If leaders are unable to control their tempers, they should not be in leadership roles. Years ago in my company's Honolulu office, a Chinese-American woman bullied her Japanese-American subordinate, because her daughter had been bullied by Japanese-American classmates.?

A workplace is toxic “when one or more people—often leaders in power, but not always—lack social and personal awareness to understand that their behavior is disrespectful, dismissive, hurtful, or even illegal,” says my friend and client Julie Jensen of Moxie HR Strategies.??

3. You don’t feel safe speaking up

A few years ago, my brilliant Latina coworker was bullied by our bosses. I’m sure her ethnicity and youth contributed to her poor treatment. She filed a harassment claim with HR, but that turned the outright abuse into disdain and dismissal after the claim was investigated. I was one of many who shared the truth with HR, but the abuse report only seemed to make things worse.?

Is your work environment affecting your mental or physical health? If you don’t feel safe speaking up, or you do speak up and it results in no improvement, you should document the situation like crazy and make a plan to get out of there.

4. Asshole behavior is tolerated or enabled

In my last few years in the corporate world, I repeatedly saw assholes get away with bad behavior. If leaders fail to act decisively to protect employees who are being victimized, they send the message that bad behavior is tolerated. If the bully is asked to apologize to their victim but there is no discipline or behavior correction, the company is enabling their behavior. This most often happens when the bully is in an executive position or is a rain maker. It is impossible to build a positive employee culture when bully behavior is tolerated or enabled.

In managing teams and forming my own company, I am committed to a “No Asshole Rule,” where toxicity is never allowed. Every company should have such a rule. Leaders who engage in toxic behaviors should be immediately given a warning and if they continue, removed from their leadership role. No excuses.?

5. A leader or coworker who engages in gaslighting

Gaslighting is emotional abuse. It is defined as manipulating someone psychologically into questioning their own sanity and worth. If your boss throws you under the bus or fails to have your back, it can feel like gaslighting.

Do you feel like you can never do anything right, are constantly second-guessing yourself, are not being listened to, or feel like you should stay quiet rather than speak up? Has your boss taken credit for your work? Gaslighters minimize, trivialize, and fail to take concerns seriously.

As I mentioned in "Don't Let BLMWashing Become the New Greenwashing," when my former coworker "Lisa" (a woman of color) talked to her white female leader about the racism she was experiencing in her office, her boss cried and told her how hurt she felt, completely derailing the meeting and gaslighting Lisa.

Julie Jensen continued, “If someone is brave enough to point out poor behavior or a toxic workplace, and it's justified as ‘a joke’ or in the spirit of ‘fun’ and 'humor,’ run as fast as you can because it's likely to be a really bumpy employment ride. Nobody deserves to be treated poorly!”

6. You experience low morale and high turnover in your workforce

Are your coworkers unhappy, not supporting each other, and saying “that’s not my job”? These are more symptoms of a toxic workplace.

Companies lack cultures of appreciation and support when they lack role modeling from their leaders.?To build a healthy environment, employees need to be able to trust that their leaders will have their backs, advocate for them, and find ways to help them advance. When morale suffers, people are more likely to be cutthroat, triangulate communications, and have to pick up other people’s work when they don’t do their jobs.?

7. It’s an old boys’ club

Cards Against Humanity is an extreme example. But almost every woman in the workforce has a story of two white guys ganging up against her, overtly or covertly. A culture of sexual harassment or discrimination is full of microaggressions, which can be difficult for white men to spot. The “guys” think they are being friendly and joking with each other, having no clue that they are leaving people out or making them feel devalued.

Until we have more women and people of color in the board room and throughout our organizations—and fierce, authentic white male allies to help us get there—most workplaces will continue to be old boys’ clubs.

8. Your workplace has weak or inconsistent policies to protect employees

Both of my previous workplaces had policies in place, but they were not consistently upheld by the leaders in charge. When my friend made her hostile workplace claim, HR investigated it but then management swept it under the rug…and my friend’s situation was only made worse. So an organization needs more than strong HR policies—they also need leaders’ commitments to uphold them.

Stay tuned for the next article, "How to Combat a Toxic Workplace."

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I help purpose-driven companies avoid BORING by making communications painless and boosting employee engagement, productivity, and brand recognition. I turn lackluster, jargon-filled or technical prose into clear dynamic narrative. I help companies create unleavable leaders. More information at www.fertilegroundcommunications.com.