Toxicity in the workplace culture is a significant flaw or limitation in an organization’s advancements that results from faulty managerial policies, negative employee behavior, and a lack of many other ethical, moral, and social components.
A toxic work culture disrupts a healthy work environment and is more likely to cause harm to employees’ emotional, mental, and professional well-being.
Furthermore, toxicity in company culture can have detrimental effects on the team dynamics of your company which as a result lead to a lack of trust and understanding among your employees. It not only diminishes your company’s productivity but will also jeopardize the company’s reputation.
A famous example of a toxic workplace culture is “the Great Resignation” or “Big Quit” which occurred in the American economy in 2021 during the pandemic mostly due to hostile work environments. During the great resignation, most of the American professionals resigned from their jobs citing the reason of toxic work culture. This caused a rise in awareness of prevailing toxicity in the workplace and became the talk of the town among others.
Let us know more about a toxic environment in the workplace and what are the dos and don’ts to be followed.
What is Toxic Work Culture?
A toxic work culture in an unhealthy workplace that is deprived of trust, adequate communication, and proper management. It fosters a punitive culture where mistakes are acknowledged with blame, punishments, and criticism rather than constructive feedback and learning.
This toxic work culture gradually leads to an increase in attrition rate due to a lack of recognition hence yielding to loss of talent. Additionally, one of the whacking traits of a toxic work environment is it diminishes the dynamicity and team spirit of employees, giving rise to jealousy and unhealthy work competition.
The process of toxicity fostering in an organization’s work culture is gradual and expands over time. The reasoning can be multiple including:
➔ Lack of accountability
This occurs due to poor leadership and weak managerial presence. This gives a legacy to do the wrong with comfort repetitively.
➔ Normalizing the Negatives
When negative behaviors such as bullying, gossiping, harassment, favoritism, biases, etc. become normalized and condoned, and none of it is condemned by the management, it leads to a toxic work culture, and the workplace environment gets tainted with negativity.
➔ Conflicts Escalation
No addressal or acknowledgment of conflicts can lead to serious problems which can cause seizure of the company’s operations and can even land the organization in legal trouble.
➔ Emotional Propagation
Emotional propagations or contagions such as frustration, anxiety, stress, etc. which are caused by a toxic work environment can lead to fueling the cycle of toxicity and negativity in the workplace.
➔ Detrimental Processes
Detrimental processes such as negative reinforcement where people with toxic traits are rewarded and promoted without possessing adequate talent and skills, trigger the toxicity and instigate others to do the same to gain rewards and recognition in the company. It sets an example of wrongdoers being rewarded and promoted and makes it an accepted behavior in the work culture.
10 Signs of a Toxic Work Culture
The signs of a toxic work environment or toxic work culture are evident and give an unpleasant experience to your workforce.
Yet, at certain times, the top management becomes clueless about the toxicity fueling within the organization, and the mediocre, or ground staff are the ones either involved or enduring the same.
Let us understand the signs of a toxic workplace culture and how to recognize the toxicity.
1. Active Blame Game
A toxic workplace culture is actively involved in blame game strategies where the failure of task non-completion or adverse situations are blamed on one another. Leadership majorly fails and a lack of trust fosters which results in the blame game process.
Here no one takes accountability for their work and are more likely to ignore the problems as well that arise due to non-accomplishments.
A toxic culture or workplace culture of toxic traits is prone to a blame game process where employees are reluctant to perform efficiently and refrain from being accountable for their tasks. This is dangerous as well as destructive as it can lead to serious issues that can be toxic and put the company in legal issues to deal with.
2. Favoritism Wins
Favoritism is an unprofessional way of favoring and advancing undeserving employees with bigger opportunities, recognition, rewards, promotions, and more irrespective of lesser proficiency, restricted capabilities, basic competence, and moderate to lower skills.
Toxic workplaces are the hub for biased personnel and individuals. Biases can be seen significantly in toxic workplaces in the form of favoritism or preferences for undeserving employees.
The negative reinforcement is also evident in toxic workplaces where employees with a few or no proficiency are rewarded, preferred, given undue advantages, and recognized for having a good affiliation with the management.
3. Bullying, Gossiping and Harassment
Bullying, gossiping, and harassment are the outcome of a toxic workplace. You can feel the toxicity in the employees as most of them will be engaged in gossiping, harassing others, and keeping involvement in bad office politics rather than focusing on work.
The toxic work environments are prone to mental harassment as it causes frustrations, stress, and anxiety in employees to stay unstable while performing.
There are various signs to recognize the mental stress in employees of your company and the most vibrant way is being vigilant on their performance graph which will gradually downgrade with time.
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4. Micromanagement Round the corner
Other signs of a toxic workplace culture include micromanaging. Employees are micromanaged by the supervisors and managers which makes the situation adversely critical for employees to work in strain.
Micromanagement refers to the excessive control of supervisors or managers over the employees which is unnecessary and strenuous for the employees.
It includes extracting per-minute reports of work from the employees to ensure working hours’ utilization, frequent detailed reports, updates, etc. In this process, the manager closely observes and controls the work of employees at the workplace and makes it difficult for the employees to work freely.
5. Disturbed Work-life Balance
Non-equilibrated work-life balance is a major sign of toxic work environments as teamwork becomes a dream work and except for a few, most get engaged in gossip and politics.
A few proficient employees end up taking the burden of entire tasks which hampers their personal and professional space.
6. Losing the Strengths
In a toxic company culture, the problem that persists long is the loss of talent from the company due to bad company culture. The consequence of a toxic culture is significant and the worse it does is, either it makes good employees leave your company or affect their creativity and shape their efficiency adversely.
The attrition rate surges in a toxic environment due to an increase in stress and workload. Not only do top talents resign but also fresh candidates refrain from joining such a work culture and the company’s image goes on a toss.
7. Unprofessional Etiquette
Manners and etiquette are the soul of a healthy workplace. However, a toxic workplace impacts the mannerisms and etiquettes of employees as a result of which the cordial relationship between employees and the management goes for a toss. This also impacts the reporting hierarchy and creates problems in the functioning of the business operations.
8. Unhealthy Competition
Unhealthy competition is another significant sign in a toxic work environment. The traits of unhealthy competition includes jealousy, biases, discrimination among employees based on their religion, political preferences, education, socio-economic background and so.
It also includes conflicts among employees and using of illegitimate tactics to downgrade the tasks and professional career of employees, bad mouth and so.
9. Degrading Employee Attendance
The employee attendance takes a toss in a toxic work place. The attendance of employees degrades and productivity lessens as well in a toxic work culture.
The attendance management system generates reports of employees which showcases the health of the workplace and the requirements for its detoxification.
10. Rigid Operations
Last but not least, the sign of a toxic work culture and workplace is the rigidity in its operations. It signifies that you are more likely to work in a strict and traditional work process that doesn’t embrace changes.
For example, pandemic market trends demand providing flexible work locations to employees, but the operations of a toxic work culture remain intact without any changes and require its employees to work from the office irrespective of any constraint. This leads to a loss of proficiency in employees and looking for alternatives in jobs which in corporate is termed a “job switch”.
Threats associated with a Toxic Work culture?
The risks or threats that you can face in a toxic workplace culture include the following:
➔ Talents Attrition
The attrition rate surges in a toxic work culture causing a loss of talent and efficient employees. In addition, fresh candidates refrain from joining a company culture where toxicity majorly prevails. Furthermore, it affects the productivity of the company and degrades its reputation in the market.
➔ Productivity Depletion
Creativity and innovation in employees take a backseat due to toxicity which causes biases, discrimination, favoritism, etc. This triggers the problem of frustration, stress, and anxiety among employees and builds negative attitudes in them, which ultimately depletes the productivity of the company.
➔ Damage to Company’s Reputation
An organization significantly depends on its employees and resources for functioning. A negative workplace culture is a bane to organization’s growth as it adversely affects the emotional and mental health of employees. As a result the creativity and innovation of employees degrades which affects the company’s productivity as well as as losing of talents become frequent creating negative image of the company in the market.
In some cases, not only the the company’s reputation degrades but it also brings along bad name for the organization for which no other company or fresh talents come forward to join hands with such organization. This sometimes cause the company to dissolve completely.
➔ Legal Complications
The toxic culture can put the company in legal complicacies as it is mandatory for the companies to follow certain labor laws and regulations as well as comply it. In a negative work culture, compliance of legal requirements becomes difficult leading to increase in conflicts and other non-ethical procedures which not only ruins the company culture but also put the company in legal danger.
➔ Employees Morale Degradation
An adverse work life balance in a toxic workplace, often causes degradation of employees morale due to burdened workload, stress, frustration, anxiety and depression.
Toxic work environments adapts unfair practices of advancing the non-proficient individuals due to biases and favoritism. The proficient ones irrespective of hard work, dedication and knowledge has to face the rage of toxicity in the workplace. This leads to degradation in their morale.
Furthermore, in toxic workplaces, punishments and harassments are served in case of mistakes rather than constructive feedback or training. This kills the morale of employees and instigate them to resign.
➔ Adversities in Associations
Businesses needs associations and integrations to sustain in the cut throat market competition. It also needs fresh talents and retention of expert individuals to function in the long run. A toxic work culture is adverse to all these and becomes the problem of non-associations due to a lack of trust in the market sphere.
➔ Slashed Employee’s Innovation
Employees’ innovation and creativity step into the background due to non-recognition and partialities. Employees’ morale and productivity diminish with time and either they become toxic or they choose to quit at work.
Dos and Don’ts in a Toxic Work Environment
The Dos
The Dos in a toxic work environment include:
1. Concrete Documents Records
The best process to follow in a gloomy work environment is to keep or maintain proper documentation of your work, to refrain from the blame-game process. You can keep a record of the total work accomplished and the amount of work left to avoid disputes or falsework claims from others.
Documentation is always considered as concrete proof to highlight your accomplishments and so it is significant to be maintained properly with utter care and caution, specifically in a toxic culture.
2. Set Boundaries
Limit your boundaries with colleagues and others in your professional workspace where the problem of toxicity exists.
It will help keep your personal space secured from being the subject of gossip in a toxic culture and prevent you from being involved in unnecessary conflicts, bullying, and gossip.
3. Focus on Self-Learning
Self-learning is the ultimate solution to combat toxic workplace difficulties. A toxic environment refrains from training and development activities which nullifies the changes in learning and advancements. To combat such a hindrance you should always focus on self-learning to grow and look for better opportunities rather than staying struck in toxicity.
4. Stay Attentive & Alert
Gloomy work space require cautioness and attentiveness for prevention from getting into the bad office politics. Staying cautious can save you from many unpleasant circumstances that can ruin your reputation. So, it is always advisable to stay alert in a toxic workspace.
5. Preserve your Mental Health
Prioritize your mental health. Remember you can certainly get another job but not your health again. So, take time off to avoid burnout, and frustrations, search for opportunities where you can see yourself flourish, practice doing meditation and yoga, and try your best to keep away from office politics for the presevance of your mental health.
The Don’ts
The Don’ts associated with a toxic work environment include:
1. Retaliate to Toxicity
Do not retaliate at work specifically when toxicity prevails as it may harm your reputation and make you a subject of bullying and gossip. Remember, the bad ones have nothing to lose but retaliation can cost you your reputation which is hard to earn.
2. Being the Black sheep
Don’t be the black sheep in the yard to follow the negatives and be one of them. Be your self and refrain from involvement in toxicities. That will not only create an impact but will also throw a direct message to wrong-doers to not mess with your mental health.
3. Silent Spectator
Do not be a silent spectator if questions arise about your self-respect or work. If you are true to your work, then maintain proper documentation and submit it before management in case of necessity. Furthermore, seek and provide support to colleagues and peers in need to maintain a healthy work environment.
4. Ignore the Reds’
Do not neglect the unfair practices that promote non-proficient employees. try speaking to your management if no adequate solution comes, then look for better opportunities where your skills and knowledge will be acknowledged and your growth can be achievable.
5. Adapt to the Toxicity
Do not adapt to toxic traits in a toxic culture. Focus on self-learning and growth rather than becoming toxic and ruining your mental health. Try keeping calm in stress and plan out your strategies to combat the complexities in a toxic workplace.
Prevention is Better Than Cure!
As the saying goes “prevention is better than cure” which signifies doing the right before the wrong takes on you. Toxicity is preventable with adequate skills, managerial strategies, and vigilance.
So, if your workplace is inclining towards toxicity, you need to be cautious and pay attention to minor inconveniences that are causing the problem.
Other ways of preventing toxicity in workplaces include:
- Paying attention to employees engagement and welfare .
- Open communication and feedback from employees and managers regarding workplace operations and their job satisfaction.
- Staying open towards suggestions.
- Addressing issues of employees.
- Adequate training and development programs to nurture and nourish their skills.
- Positive reinforcement and recognition to employees performing exceptional and more.
There is always a “way to your will” so, you can not only prevent toxicity from ruining your workplace but can also sort things in toxic workplaces. It just needs stronger dedication, determination, honesty and of course proficient leadership to combat the hardship of a toxic work culture.
FAQs on Toxic Work Culture
1. Can you go to HR for a Toxic Work Culture?
Yes, you can always give your suggestions and feedback on the toxic work culture and the factors bothering your productivity.
2. What Qualifies as a Toxic Work Environment?
The workplace inclusive of discrimination, biases, favoritism, conflicts, differences, office politics, zero-support mechanisms, bad work-life balance, miscommunications, false commitments and more qualifies as a toxic environment.
3. How does a bad Work Environment affect Employees?
The effects of a bad environment on the employees are as follows:
- Downgraded productivity.
- Adverse mental health.
- Zero work-life balance.
- Surging anxiety, frustration and stress.
- Degrading attendance.
- Increased employee turnover.
- surging office politics and more.
4. Is it OK to Leave a Toxic Boss?
Yes, it is completely ok to leave a toxic boss as your productivity and caliber will be affected by politics and it will only enhance adverse mental health conditions leading to frustration and stress.
5. How do You Know if Your Job is Toxic?
Certain factors gives you a sign to understand that your workplace is toxic:
- No opportunities for career growth and development
- Blame-game is primary in the work culture
- No recognition or reward for efforts and hard works
- Criticism and humiliation are prevalent
- The feeling of isolation
- Surging gossip and office politics
- Biases and favoritism are included in the work culture
- Turn to one’s advantage (credit-taking culture), etc.
6. Is Quitting a Toxic Job Brave?
Yes, quitting toxic a job is always brave. It is good to stand for harmony and peace rather than just toiling under a toxic work environment.
