The first thing to know about Toxic Workplaces is that they are not always easy to spot. Toxic behavior can be subtle and difficult to identify. Toxic behaviors will often take the form of verbal or nonverbal insults, sarcasm, put-downs, and even an unspoken atmosphere of intimidation. Toxic workplaces have been linked with higher levels of depression among employees.
Toxic work environments are characterized by constant anxiety and fear. Toxic coworkers can make you feel like you don’t matter, they will take credit for your ideas or sabotage them intentionally with no remorse whatsoever.
Toxic Workplace behaviors may seem harmless at first but over time the effects on employees can be severe: chronic stress, depression, PTSD, substance abuse, and heart disease. Toxic workplaces are a problem for everyone involved: the employer and employees alike.
If you work in an environment that feels toxic there are certain things to look out for like :
– Poor communication
– Toxic coworkers who are always spreading rumors
– Employees being humiliated or criticized in public settings. For example, a manager may say something about an employee’s work performance to others at a meeting. The employee is then left feeling embarrassed and degraded
– Too much pressure – the environment feels fast-paced and there’s always more to do
– Toxic bosses with a heavy hand
– Toxic culture of blame – the belief that someone is always at fault and others are never responsible.
If these signs sound familiar, then you may be working in a toxic environment. This can lead to depression or anxiety which will affect both your personal life and work productivity overall.
How To Deal With a Toxic Workplace?
Refuse to be part of the toxic
Refusal to bully or gossip might not make you many friends, but it should leave your conscience clear at night. If you work as a rank-and-file employee and can find an opportunity to jump ship, take the leap; the situation doesn’t change on its own.
Reform
Leadership is a powerful position that can make significant changes to an organization. If you are in charge, then other options exist for stopping toxic behavior. Leadership sets the tone of your company’s culture by establishing its values and behavioral norms through its own actions or lack thereof.
Whether they engage in bullying themselves, allow it to happen around them without punishing participants, or reward those who behave poorly with promotions; these behaviors will become what everyone does as well because “culture follows from leadership.”
In order to reform a toxic environment leaders need to change how things work at all levels of decision-making (e.g., employees) and model new ways for success while setting high expectations across the board so people know exactly what being successful looks like when fulfilling this role which hails a toxic workplace.
Leave
When you find yourself in a toxic workplace, it’s hard to make any headway. The people around you are belittling and demeaning each other with reckless abandon while management is too cowardly to step up and do anything about the situation.
And when things finally reach boiling point, they’ll just as likely focus their anger on the person who complained rather than address what was actually wrong at hand…and that means more trouble for those unfortunate enough not to know how bad the problem really is until after its gone on for months or even years longer than necessary – if ever noticed by anyone outside of an extremely small handful of employees!
Your first option is to hold your nose and stick it out for a year. After that, you can leave without anyone wondering about your short tenure. Toxic workplace can be draining, so after leaving take time to relax, enjoy a vacation before applying for another job. Hire a bus hire specialist to take you to your dream place.