Toxic workplaces can harm people’s health and self-steam. Toxic culture in a job is more common than most think. According to the Sustainability 2019 study, there are two types of workplace environments: toxic and collaborative. We all want to be working on the bright side. The following are five signs that you might be working in a toxic environment and should make you consider a job change.
1. There is workplace harassment
Humiliation and intimidation of the individual at the workplace is a type of harassment. Also, not only sexual harassment can fall into this category, power and psychological harassment is part of it. Many supervisors take advantage of their power positions in companies to abuse their subordinates. If the culture of the organization is indeed not to avoid this type of behavior, the individuals can be subject to daily harassment. If an employee is subject to a type of harassment and nothing is done to solve it, the company is most likely to have a toxic environment.
2. Organization’s leaders are toxic
When a majority of the leaders in the organization are toxic, they will not respect the rest of the employees. They can be all friends with themselves only and will protect each other’s toxic behaviors. They are arrogant and will remind anyone beneath that they are the best bosses. They will never listen when having random conversations and will interrupt if anyone else is talking. Their superior attitude will make the rest of the employees feel less than them. This type of behavior does eventually affect the organization's work environment and performance.
3. People get to be promoted based on their relationship to management and not performance
People get promoted for being the boss’s friend and not a better employer is bad policy for any organization. If management rewords the ones that friend them in social media, more than a dedicated employee, quality of work is not a subject when promoting people. Eventually, the organization builds a web of toxic inefficient people on top of the leading chain.
4. Policies are not equally enforced
Just a few get to work from home and the rest is not allowed. The dress code applies to some and not to everyone. Work hours are flexible to some and not all. These are signs of equality in the enforcement of the organization’s policy. The unlucky people get upset about these types of unfair treatment and will lead to a toxic workplace.
5. Lack of communication
People don’t do well when there is a lack of communication at work. The gossip, the uncertainty, changes coming from nowhere, are some type of miscommunication signs. If the channel of communication for an organization is mainly the backchannel, there is then little room for transparency. Employees under this type of communication, work under a lot of stress. Productivity slows, and most of the worker's energy is dedicated to interpreting what is going on in their surroundings.
Toxic workplaces are the perfect recipe for low productivity and high employee turnover.
"I'd rather be a failure at something I love than succeed at something I hate." George Burns