The Red Flags of a Toxic Workplace

Defining a toxic work environment can be tricky because the same environment can have different effects on people – based on their work history, triggers, temperament, and work styles. Toxic work environments do breed competition, low morale, negativity, bullying and high turnover. Typically, toxic work environments also follow you home. They take over your conversations with family, affect your sleep quality, and generally cause a lot of worry.

While this is not a comprehensive list, please find below the red flags to look out for – which will serve as a starting point.

• No boundaries around work – toxic work cultures often normalize and glorify a lack of healthy boundaries. You can find your manager expecting you to stay as late as he does in office or respond to email at all hours on the weekend.
• Employees do not trust each other – management may not trust employees and hence will constantly monitor them. Micromanagement typically makes employees doubt their own abilities.
• There is no room to make mistakes – Toxic workplaces usually have employees who are nervous to speak their minds, raise concerns or share thoughts because they are worried about being rejected or reprimanded and the atmosphere is heavily blame-ridden.
• No clarity on roles and responsibilities – Nobody is clear on their roles and responsibilities because of this lack of clarity it leads to conflict, mismanagement, and employees are left out of the communication loop.
• There is a lot of gossip and drama – “Disclaimer – a lit gossip is normal!” No one openly communicates, instead they opt for snide remarks, stares, passive aggressive comments. When employees gossip about each other the negative communication causes drama, distrust, distractions, and hurt feelings.
• There is no support for employee growth – Toxic workplaces may not seem to offer any mobility! Learning opportunities for advancing your career or skills or mentorship is not made available and hence employees are left to figure it out on their own. This indicates that the organization is not likely invested in the growth of their employees.
• Toxic workplaces have bad leadership – As the old saying goes – Employees don’t leave jobs; they leave a bad boss! There are many types of bad bosses – the two most common being – the micromanaging boss, who constantly corrects you and undermines your decisions. The second type is the blame shifting boss – who is quick to put the blame on anyone else but themselves when something goes wrong!
• Toxic workplaces leave you fighting burnout – Burnout is a sure sign of a toxic workplace as it involves a state of exhaustion that gives you a sense of reduced accomplishment and loss of personal identity. Burnout can be experienced in a couple of different ways
        i) As a committed employee you put a lot of energy into your work in the hope that it
            would be rewarded. But after prolonged dedicated efforts – you do not see any
            positive outcomes.
        ii) As an employee you feel under challenged and bored at work
       iii) You become resigned about your work after having experienced consistent work
             stress which causes you to feel disillusioned and uninspired.

So, how do you cope with and navigate a toxic workplace. More on this in my upcoming blogs…