"People don’t leave their jobs. They leave the toxic work culture."

Creating the Best Workplace on Earth - a recent article from Harvard Business Review highlighted work culture as one of the key ingredients for superior organizational health. Overall, it can be said that the workplace culture makes all the difference in ensuring meaningful values and work for the employees.

Despite understanding the importance of having a balanced and positive work culture, the one concerning problem that dominates in many organizations is – toxic work culture.

Despite understanding the importance of having a balanced and positive work culture, the one concerning problem that dominates in many organizations is – toxic work culture.

The important fact about toxic work culture –

Analysis of about 1.4 million Glassdoor reviews from employees across 600 reputed U.S. companies described a toxic workplace in 5 ways – disrespectful, unethical, abusive, cutthroat, and non-inclusive.

Thus, it can be clearly understood that every organization must pay close attention to a toxic workplace culture. Google, Netflix, and only a handful of other organizations cared about their employee satisfaction; just look at their performance now. If you are also looking for your dream job in a toxic-free work culture, Rozgar.com is your one-stop destination.

Since we want the same progress and productivity for you, we are here to cover every detail about the signs of toxic work culture and how to deal with them. Let us begin with the understanding of the basics.

What is a toxic work culture?

A toxic culture at work is way more than a job you hate. We all face challenges at work – bad Mondays, challenging weeks, and disappointing months. However, toxic work culture is above all these mentioned factors.

When your office culture starts affecting your life in a degrading way, it is one common sign that you face troubles with a toxic culture. The workplace disruptions caused by the toxicity also affect your physical and mental health.

It has been observed that prolonged exposure to a toxic work culture not only affects the employees performance but also degrades the organization’s productivity.

The top 5 signs of having a toxic work culture and how to deal with it –

Unhealthy work culture affects the employees overall morale, leaving a lasting impact on their minds, yet there are many alarming cases. Thus, it is essential to identify the various signs of organizational culture leading to toxicity.

To get you a better understanding, we are talking about the top 5 possible reasons for a workplace to turn toxic with their possible solution -

1. No Core Values:

A company culture becomes toxic when no focus is given to its core values. Organizations working with the only motive of maximizing their profit often create the most toxic surroundings for their employees.

Also, neglecting employee satisfaction contributes to enhancing workplace toxic culture. A company with no core values progresses in no profitable direction.

Solution – Define the core values you wish your organization should stand for. You can have brainstorming sessions with the team leaders and managers to create core values that can help keep the organization’s progress on the right track.

2. Non-caring managers:

This is another primary reason for having a toxic corporate culture. Be alert to the workplace toxicity if you often hear statements like –

“I don’t care how and when you do it; I need it to be completed by 11 today.”

“It doesn’t matter if its morning or evening; you will only leave when it is done.”

When the managers don’t care about the employees or their feelings/emotions, the workplace environment starts deteriorating. Further, if you aren’t getting creative freedom at your workplace, the working environment can turn utterly toxic.

Solution – In such situations, the top management should sit with the team leaders to make them understand their expectations. Along with this, the discussion should include all the areas where their behavior went wrong.

One of the suggestions is to conduct leadership sessions for the team to promote diversity and equality within the workplace.

3. Constant fear of failure:

If you are working in your office with a constant fear of failure, then take that as one of the signs of organizational culture toxicity. We, humans, are bound to make mistakes. Even the most attentive employees can make mistakes in the workplace.

It is okay to feel upset over a mistake but being petrified over the same indicates a different story altogether.

Solution – The management should encourage their employees to take calculated risks and learn from their mistakes. The employees should be confident that they will be guided and given a chance to rectify their mistakes.

However, the employees should also avoid going against any significant company policy that can land them into some serious trouble.

4. Unfriendly competition:

Working under healthy competition is good, in fact, great for the employees and the business. It encourages and motivates the employees to give their best performance. However, excessive focus on the competition can lead to a toxic workplace culture.

Too much competition hampers teamwork and often leads to dominating individualism amongst the employees. Rather than working towards the common goal of organizational growth, they tend to focus more on their growth, promoting toxicity.

Solution – If your employees are being too competitive, it could be a sign that you are focusing too much on value performance. To some extent, it can be good, but it is not beyond a certain level.

The management should rectify their ways of appreciating or awarding the employees. Along with appreciating them with monetary benefits, the employees can be appreciated for helping their colleagues, etc., to promote the feeling of togetherness in them.

5. Inappropriate Work Timings:

It has been observed that most employers often miss discussing work timings. If the office work timings are till 5 PM, it makes no sense for the employees to work late at night every day, unless there is anything urgent. One or maybe two late-night working is fine, but if it starts becoming a common practice, it can be one of the signs of a toxic work culture.

Solution – One of the main reasons employees have to work until an inappropriate time is because they are expected to fulfill unrealistic defined goals and duties. Thus, the best solution to control the toxic corporate culture in such a case is to have a detailed discussion with the team about the allotted task. Ask for the opinions of your employees to understand how and when they can complete their duties.

What makes a work culture toxic?

One of the prime reasons that make a work culture toxic is normalizing stress. Many other factors contribute to it, but when an organization promotes working in stressful surroundings, that becomes the primary reason for workplace toxicity.

So, who’s accountable for workplace toxicity? In simple words, a toxic work culture is because of the individuals, not groups. Individuals, at any level, can contribute to creating a toxic work culture through gossiping, office politics, rumors, etc.

To ensure a healthy office culture, organizations should communicate office values, beliefs, culture, etc., very clearly to the employees to act justly.

Conclusion

Employees working under toxic company culture often face high levels of stress, anxiety, depression, irritating behaviour, burnout, and unstable mental and physical health. Moreover, when an employee quits because of toxic business culture, it is as much of a human cost as a business.

Therefore, the signs of high toxicity in workplace culture should be identified and resolved as soon as possible. It ensures better employee health and a high level of productivity for the organization.

If you have any other concerns about toxic office culture, you can write to us in the comment section.

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