Welcome

This is the first in a series of articles devoted to the topic of toxic workplaces, their impact, how we end up staying in them, and how to recover from them.

I could write a book on the topic of toxic workplaces. Actually, I could probably write several books, and that’s not a good thing.

I originally started the draft of this blog thinking it would be a one-and-done. However, as I started to outline it, I realized that it would longer than War and Peace.  

There are so many aspects of toxic workplaces and I want to give each one the space it deserves. When it comes to toxic workplaces, and their impact on those of us who are living or have lived them, it’s not necessarily the policies or behaviors themselves that are inherently toxic, but the intent behind them.

What Constitutes A Toxic Workplace

Not all bad policies are toxic, and not all bad workplaces are toxic.

Here’s how to tell the diff:

Things like poor communication, ineffective leadership and turnover rate are often cited as being red flags of a toxic workplace. However, I argue that these in and of themselves aren’t necessarily toxic.    

Some companies and leaders just don’t know better, and their crappy communication and silly policies are due to ignorance, not malicious intent.

The key is: how is the company acknowledging their shortcomings when employees bring them up or question them, and what do they intend to do about them?

• Companies that have recently gone through a growth spurt might not understand how to effectively communicate if they’ve gone from 12 employees to 100 in the span of a few months. A healthy company will acknowledge the changes and give insight into how they are planning on improving the communication so that everyone is up to date with what’s going on.

• Ditto for leadership. Leading a small team of people you’ve worked with for years is easier than leading a large team of new folks. A good leader will welcome feedback, take concerns seriously and show a good faith effort at improving their leadership skills to better support their team.

• Turnover could be due to a poor work environment or, it could be due to low pay due to budget constraints, entry-level employees like new college grads finding jobs in their fields of study, part-time employees finding full-time jobs elsewhere, etc. It’s important to research the company, read reviews, and ask questions around turnover during interviews to ensure that it’s not due to red flags of a toxic workplace.  

Things get toxic when…

• Companies that do not acknowledge or underplay feedback on their pain points are often run by arrogant people who think they know better than everyone else. They are the only ones who have good ideas, and anyone that doesn’t agree with their “genius” is basically fast-tracked out of company. They dismiss criticism, (if people even feel comfortable speaking up at all) and believe employees should be grateful to be employed there. Nothing you do is good enough, and everything the company does is diamonds and unicorns. This is toxicity at it’s finest.  

• Ineffective leaders become toxic when not only do they not recognize employees’ contributions, but they are dismissive, demand perfection, don’t communicate the information necessary for people to do their jobs effectively, and punish people for asking questions or giving suggestions.

Healthy companies operate with the intent to make things better for everyone, to the best of their ability. Toxic companies operate with the intent of control, one-upmanship, and achieving a level of perfection from their employees that is as realistic as a Disney movie.

Other Elements of a Toxic Workplace:

• Management that gets offended when someone suggests a different way of doing things, cannot handle criticism, make up answers and refuse to admit they are wrong, are never available to support their teams. Not to mention berated people, giving harsh criticism under the guise of “I’m just being honest” or “you need to develop thicker skin”.

• Yelling and shouting is tolerated and considered “passion” vs. inappropriate workplace behavior.

• Disregard for work-life balance. Expecting for employees to be available evenings, weekends, holidays, etc. without providing compensation (common for managers who are not eligible for OT pay).

• Continuously criticizing employees and almost never providing positive feedback on performance.

• Continuously jumping to new processes or tech. Always looking for “the next best thing” and never being satisfied with anything (unmeetable perfectionism).

• High turnover due to lack of work-life balance.

• Propping people out for never taking vacations or for answering emails when they’re in the hospital (true story: I once worked with a CEO that sent a company-wide email praising a VP who was answering her emails while in active labor).

• Favoritism of the people that work 24/7 or are “yes” people.

• Low morale that shows up as people refusing to help others, withholding key information, gossiping and spreading rumors, forming cliques, etc.

• People getting fired for no-cause. “They just didn’t fit our culture”

• People joking about needing anti-anxiety meds, sleeping meds, anti-depressants, just to make it through the day.

Key Phrases to Look Out for in Job Descriptions and Interviews

Avoiding a toxic workplace completely is the best defense. A lot of companies actually call themselves out in the job descriptions and here are some key statements I’d flag as a sign of workplace you probably don’t want to take your talents to:

“We’re a family”

“We’re a work-hard play-hard company”

“We’re ALL IN”

“Driven to succeed at all costs”

“Is never satisfied with good-enough”

“Fast-paced, driven, high expectation company”

“Looking for people who are hungry to prove themselves”

“Takes full accountability for themselves”

“Can handle feedback and is always looking for ways to improve themselves”

“Extremely dedicated”

“Understands the need to be available for their team”

I could go on and on, and if you’ve got examples, please drop them in the comments below!

To Sum It All Up

From my perspective, even if your company doesn’t seem toxic on the surface the KEY thing to ask yourself is:  

Do YOU feel like your workplace is toxic?

Do you feel like you’re empowered and able to do your job effectively with the support given to you?

Or do you feel like you’re being set up to fail with expectations that are constantly moving and never obtainable, a boss that treats you like you’re an idiot, co-workers that are negative and vindictive, and HR and the company at large don’t see anything wrong with this?

If you feel paranoid about who you can and cannot talk to, if you feel constant stress and pressure when you’re not at work, if you’re constantly worried about being blamed for something, or that you’ll be fired if you dare suggest things need to change, then your workplace is toxic for YOU, and you should look to exit stage left as soon as possible.  

Don’t try and sell yourself on staying on the hope that things might get better (they will not) or because the salary or benefits are solid.

As we’ll talk about in Part 2, those are not enough to offset the damage staying in a toxic workplace does to us on the mental, emotional, and physical levels.

Let me know your thoughts or experiences in the comments below so we can help and support each other.

Hugs,

Elena