What Brings About Toxicity in the Workplace

Experiencing toxicity in the workplace is more than just disliking your employment.

We have all had a lousy Monday, a difficult week, or perhaps a disappointing month.

That is just how the career cycle is.

However, you can usually get through a horrible Monday or a difficult week and learn useful lessons from an awful quarter.

It is quite different when you operate in an atmosphere that oozes toxicity.

It’s as though you’re always faced with these challenges.

Every day feels difficult.

Every week is bad.

Each month you grow more tired, withdrawn, and sick of it all.

Workplace culture does not become toxic because of a few rotten apples.

The toxicity is a result of leadership failing to notice or blatantly ignoring warning indicators that something was wrong.

It’s even worse, though very possible, when the leadership is what is wrong with the workplace.

Toxicity in the workplace can ruin professional reputations or even cause the company’s demise.

Many managers ignore the issue. Employees fear bringing office drama to their boss, worried about backlash.

5 Situations That Cause Workplace Toxicity

Employees typically struggle with productivity and motivation in a toxic work environment.

A toxic workplace can cause physical and mental health issues that significantly impact employees’ lives.

Is your work environment toxic due to poor management and lack of culture?

Or has workplace toxicity become such a norm that you can’t even identify it?

Check out these top 5 situations that cause employees to lose focus and drive in work and life.

Harassment and Discrimination

Any time your workplace belittles or targets people of a certain gender, religion or ethnicity, tensions might arise.

So many women face sexual harassment in the workplace.

Women may be denied promotions and overlooked for certain jobs or tasks unless they get jiggy with the manager or CEO and that is just wrong.

In Nigeria, some companies owned by foreigners employ Nigerians who are paid as little as half what their foreign colleagues are.

Imagine being an intern in a company, earning minimum wage while your fellow intern, just because they share the same ethnicity with the owner of the company, gets 3 times your pay!

If that isn’t toxicity at its peak, I don’t know what is.

This phenomenon is all too common in workplaces around the world.

Most of the time, the victims have no one to complain or report to within the organization because everyone else is either in on it, a victim as well or just does not care.

The victim then has to deal with the constant harassment on their own as well as the plethora of mental, emotional and psychological damage that would ensue.

Read: Mental Health and Work: Strategies for Managing Workplace Stress

Office Drama

Workplace drama can have a significant influence.

There are those toxic employees who gossip, spread terrible rumours or cause issues.

Before you see them, you’ll hear them.

These people spend most of their time expressing negative feelings or remarks about their coworkers.

This can lead to a drop in productivity throughout the workplace.

Office drama can arise from intra-office romances, employee disputes, or management team members that appear to have a grudge against other team members.

Ongoing office drama can lead to an unproductive workplace, not to mention a workplace where employees do not feel protected.

Read: The Art of Saying No: How to Set Boundaries in the Workplace

Poor Communication

So many workplace issues are caused by insufficient, confused, or dispersed communication.

Employees in a stable workplace environment know who to contact if they have an issue, and they believe that the problem will be resolved immediately.

In the workplace, communication must be two-way.

Managers must interact with employees not only to keep them informed about workplace changes, such as policy changes and prospective issues, but also to check in on their staff to make sure all is well and work is getting done efficiently.

Employees must also be able to communicate with their management team.

The structure of the organization should allow for open and honest dialogue without fear of retaliation or destroyed reputations.

However, in a toxic workplace environment, communication is either fuzzy or just non-existent.

For some, it is so bad that employees can’t speak to other employees for fear the issue may become rumour or gossip and they can’t speak to management either because the management is as responsive as a brick wall.

All that pent up frustration can really do a number on a person’s mental health.

Read: How to Improve Your Communication Skills in the Workplace

High Employee Turnover

A toxic work environment might encourage individuals to leave fast in order to escape their existing situations.

Hence, high employee turnover is one quick symptom of a toxic work environment.

Leaving a job is a difficult decision, so when you discover that multiple people are doing so, you know something is seriously wrong.

A high turnover rate indicates disorder, a lack of direction, poor leadership, or a lack of opportunity.

High amounts of staff turnover, on the other hand, can create a toxic work environment for the remaining employees who choose to stay as the management would impose unreasonable targets and have excessive expectations of them.

Their workload would increase to cover for the loss of those that left but of course salary would remain the same.

This could lead to burnout, loss of motivation and stress.

Read: Top 10 Ways to Boost Employee Productivity in the Workplace

Lack of HR Support

The HR department of a firm may be instrumental in providing the assistance that employees require to flourish.

For most businesses, human resources is a key investment.

Employee training should be handled by HR, which should include giving employees both the resources they need to achieve in their chosen professions and the resources they need to prevent a toxic workplace.

Any toxic situations will be dealt with as quickly and effectively as possible by an effective HR team.

However, HR may sometimes overlook issues until they become much more serious, causing resentment to fester and people to struggle in their jobs.

If those conditions are allowed to persist, repairing the damage will be far more difficult.

The HR is supposed to be a friend to the members of staff.

A problem solver, mediator and fierce advocate for all employees.

So, when HR fails to perform its duty, who else can the employees turn to?

They are left with their unresolved issues and that would definitely take its toll.

Conclusion

Minor setbacks at work might cause a significant increase in employee stress.

Working in a toxic environment, on the other hand, can present significant difficulties for employees, including deterioration of mental and physical health.

Even while toxic workplaces are a prevalent problem, that doesn’t make it any less important for you to address it.

Be sure to look out for toxic traits in your workplace and do all you can to make sure they do not affect you.

However, if it gets too much, no job is worth more than your mental health and inner peace. Be safe out there.

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