Workplace Toxicity

We humans spend a quarter of our lives at work, and what happens at work does not necessarily stay at work. A bad workday spills into our personal space; we stay up at night wondering where we went wrong; an altercation at work takes a toll on our dinner plans; we crib instead of enjoying our time. A stern message from boss spoils our weekend; we replay its words in our head over and over again

Now imagine what being humiliated at work or being exposed to constant negativity at work could do to our lives.

A toxic workplace too can kill us, it can lead to heart attacks it can and does increase our blood pressure it reduces our immunity and makes us anxious, stressed, and depressed.

A toxic workplace is an unfriendly workplace where people don't work as a team but against one another. Workplace where people gossip, play blame game, where employees pull each other down or steal credit for another person's work, where there is groupism, favoritism also culture of overworking, where stress is glorified, where working through weekends is normalized, where spending extra hours in office is celebrated, where an employee is almost always given no credit for his work but mistakes are called out loud and clear, a workplace is toxic if the boss has a short fuse if he insults you, brands you as good for nothing, sometimes even questions your education and worth.

Does it sound like a place you may know?

Have you been told that such an environment at work is absolutely normal - You know it happens; there will be better days; offices are always like that; it's normal; well, guess what it's not. It's not normal; it is toxic.

Toxic work culture can ruin your career; it can ruin your health, mental well-being and your time outside work, so allow me to say aloud that why have we normalized toxic work culture, why haven't we cleaned our workplace?

Why haven't HR's done more to ensure that everyone at work is treated with respect irrespective of his or her position?

Studies say an organization is as much responsible for toxic work culture as its employees. Experts believe negativity at work flows from the top if the boss is toxic his subordinates are likely to follow.

If a manager abuses his authority, uses fear to maintain control, lacks empathy, humiliates people, embarrasses people, sets impossible deadlines, refuses to listen, sees constructive feedback as an attack, turns trivial things into a full-blown crisis, passes cruel comments and gets away with all of this then he sets the wrong example, he signs an unwritten code that toxicity will go unpunished.

Then mid-level managers start refusing to take ownership because they are scared of humiliation, juniors pin the blame on one another because they are scared of losing their jobs and the cycle continues and it starts another cycle of gossip rumors, peer pressure and backstabbing.

Employees start viewing each other as threats not collaborators, they become afraid to speak up or to ask for help.

People working in toxic environments do not grow just like our house plants. Keep them in a dark place and they will not bloom they will slowly wither and die. We humans too are a product of our environment, if we spend too much time in a toxic environment we come back home feeling anxious, we have nightmares about making mistakes at work, about being humiliated, we are anxious about going to work the next morning, eventually we start questioning our self-worth, we start believing that we really must be good for nothing.

A toxic work culture does all of this to you and sadly it has been normalized. A lot of offices have normalized the culture of an inner circle, it's called the clique culture and is one of the top signs of a toxic workplace.

Then there are some offices where favoritism is normalized, undeserving people are given the best of projects, rewarded more than others. For long we have accepted this as normal and here's what it has done to us, the journal of occupational health psychology says employees who had negative reactions to their bosses had high blood pressure and it lingered well into the night.

Toxicity at work has put people at the risk of heart attacks, reduces immunity, is more likely to be depressed, anxious or suffering from insomnia.

It also affects your social interaction because you become very negative in your outlook, it hurts your health and career.

78% of employees believe that toxic co-workers hit the morale of the entire team.

70% say such colleagues increase their stress and reduce their productivity.

It's not like people are not aware of this, today everyone knows that toxicity takes a toll on an employee's mental health but most top bosses have not done very much about it because their priority has always been deadlines and targets, how those targets are being met.

That does not matter much what employees are being subjected to.

Over the years as competition grew so did the toxic work culture. In 1998, 49% employees said that they were treated rudely at least once a month in 2011 it went to 55% , in 2016 it was 62%

There's another word for toxicity it's called workplace incivility, it refers to a subtle form of negative behavior mostly characterized by rudeness or disrespect. It's the accumulation of thoughtless actions that leave employees feeling disrespected.

An employee wrote on glassdoor - toxic work environment managers view employees as tools to produce client deliverables and nothing more. This is the reality of most workplaces today.

Today 75% of employees say that their work manager is the worst part of their day 65% of employees would rather have a new boss than a raise.

Employees should take a close look at these numbers they need to wake up to the problem of toxic work culture and I will show you why an unhappy workplace directly hits a company's output.

Harvard conducted a study where they found at least 25% of those who experienced bad behavior at work took it out on their clients. 48% employees intentionally decreased their work effort and spent less time at work, 78% employees said that their commitment to their organization had declined and 66% said that their performance had declined.

Earlier people would stay at toxic workplaces because there were limited opportunities and a long list of bills to pay, student loans to repay, families to feed. Today there are more vacancies than applicants, people are quitting their jobs more than ever before.

Let me now tell you what a recent survey has found, a company culture is likely to influence resignation 10.4 times more than salary.

Experts say toxicity driven by a highly competitive environment may be the reason but how long can you stay in this competition if talented workers leave you, the net output will fall and as attrition rises the company's reputation will also fall.

I know a lot of companies are doing their bit to maintain a friendly environment. They're conducting internal surveys, taking feedbacks but are these initiatives truly free of judgment and bias?

Weeding out work-place toxicity needs to be coded into HR policy as we enter the annual drill of reviews and appraisals. Companies must remember that getting rid of toxicity is only as important as counting punch-ins and punch-outs.