Toxic Workplace Signs
By Greg Harms, LCPC, CADC
All of us have good days and bad days on the job. It’s just a fact of life. But if you dread going to work and are filled with feeling of anxiety, it may be an indication that you are employed at a toxic workplace. While the term toxic workplace may sound overly dramatic, rest assured it’s a very real concern for many and is being discussed more and more in the literature.
Several of the clients I work with in my role as a Chicago therapist have shared their real life stories with me and it seems like the frequency of those stories is on the rise. I suppose that it was inspired me to write this post and share it with you as a website visitor.
Toxic workplaces can drain your mental and physical energy faster than a bad commute, outside obligations, or financial stressors. The problem is that once a workplace becomes toxic, it just engenders increasing negativity as employees react in predictable but increasingly unhealthy ways to the environment.
Toxic Workplace Defined
So, what is a toxic workplace? In a nutshell, it is a work environment that goes beyond dysfunction and typically involves a culture of hostility, unhealthy competition, and unethical behavior. A general lack of employee recognition marked with high stress is also part of the dynamic.
Toxic Workplace Symptoms
While all jobs have their unpleasant aspects, toxic workplaces often literally have you feeling ill as you clock in every morning. Here, we are talking about intense feelings of anxiety marked with soul sucking nausea.
If you suffer from an anxiety disorder like GAD, these feelings can become exacerbated. Some people even find that they “depersonalize”, which is a fancy way of saying they detach from themselves momentarily while preparing for work.
And so if your feelings about your job go beyond the normal dislike to a sense of loathing, you likely are in a toxic workplace. It’s not uncommon for people who are employed in these kinds of environments to feign illness or even engage in self-harming behaviors as a way of avoiding work. Yes – this may seem extreme but it also happens to be true.
So what are the tell-tale signs that you work at a toxic workplace? What follows are five strong indicators you should pay attention to. It is important to reflect upon all that appears below as a way of gauging your situation. Remember to take into account your entire workplace history in order to arrive at a proper conclusion.
Check these out:
1) Culture of micromanagement
Unless you’re the CEO, you are going to have a boss that from time to time you disagree with. That is normal. Micromanagers through constantly look over your shoulder, second guess you, and make mountains out of molehills.
If you constantly get emails that you filled out your timecard saying you came in at 8:30 but someone saw you walk in at 8:35, you’re dealing with micromanagement a-hole whose singular purpose is to stomp out any life signs of autonomy.
Micromanagement extends to all sorts of policies around attendance (if you need a doctor’s note when you use sick time, your HR is micromanaging), dress codes, what you can have on your desk or in your office, record keeping, and work processes. If you find your ability to do your job hampered by policies that were clearly written by people that have no idea of what the job involves, you are likely in a toxic work environment.
FYI: These kinds of environments often have a high degree of mistrust with an “us against them” dynamic between front line workers and management. If you work for an airline for example, you can likely relate big time.
2) Special rules for certain people
You and your co-workers bend over backwards to fill out redundant forms, make sure you stay until 5:02 if you walked in the door at 8:32, attend every pointless meeting that reiterates clueless policies, and generally follow the rules no matter how silly or constricting they are.
Yet, there’s one person who comes in late and leaves early, always seems to take a day off every week, fills out forms incorrectly, if at all, turns in substandard work, and wears clothing that does not remotely conform to the dress code.
There often seems to be an unwritten rule around mentioning how this person flouts the rules, but if you do, perhaps if you get written up for doing something that the other person is doing, you get told how that person is a special case because he or she is having a rough time lately, or they have some sort of specialized knowledge that outweighs their personal quirks (although not that you’d know it from the quality of the work you’ve seen of theirs), or “it’s been addressed” yet two years later nothing has changed.
What’s likely going on is that your employer is a weenie who would rather have discord and resentment than risk a possible confrontation and have to come across as “not nice.” So, they keep increasing their micromanaging hoping that the problem employee will “get it” and start following the rules, yet they never do while you and your co-workers are the ones that suffer.
3) Constant “Cheerleader” emails that are total BS
For a few years now there have been rounds of layoffs, divisions shut down, customers disappearing, yet the constant message from the executive team is that everything is great and there is a strategy in place to turn things around.
Interestingly enough, the turnaround never happens, nothing changes for the better, and your employer seems to be drifting farther and farther away from what its competitors are doing to manage a challenging economy and business landscape.
This blatant obliviousness is both frustrating and scary. When the writing on the wall seems clear to everyone except the people in charge, that’s a toxic workplace.
4) Unhealthy Workplace Relationships
Everyone in the office is having relationships with each other, and they never work out.
In a toxic workplace, there are often a lot of polarizing personalities. These personalities often succumb to the phenomenon of opposites attracting. For about three weeks, two people who could not be more different start having lunch together, taking coffee breaks together, leaving together, and possibly doing more together outside of work (regardless if one or both happen to be married).
Then, someone says the wrong thing and it’s World War III. While this can happen in any workplace, in a toxic workplace, it happens all the time, it’s worse than Melrose Place.
Bad couples are constantly forming left and right and it’s impossible to tell who’s aligned with who, who hates who, and what anybody knows about who’s doing what with who.
Perhaps there’s an entertainment value when there’s so little work because management has not responded to changing conditions (see #3 above), so the time has to be filled somehow, but these constantly shifting alliances are draining.
5) Your boss expects you to do something illegal
If you get asked to do something illegal, it’s a toxic workplace, period. Whether it is billing for services that were not provided, slight accounting adjustments to magnify losses or push income into later periods, falsifying records, or anything else, these requests often come in the guise of being asked to be a team player in order to help right the ship.
Yes it’s wrong, but it will keep the company going, so the greater good outweighs the wrong. If you get this message, it can be easy to give in, after all, it’s about time someone did something to change things for the better But doing so only ties your further to this toxic environment, making it even harder to get away.
Random Thoughts on a Toxic Workplace
So, you’ve identified one or more of these situations in your workplace. What can you do? First, figure out if the situation can be fixed or not. If there is hope, maybe not even for the whole company but for your department, do what you can.
Avoid the drama, rally like-minded colleagues, and be assertive. Also, know how to pick your battles. That co-worker in #4, as frustrating as it may be, may not be the biggest problem. Work with who you can and see what changes may happen. If there is no hope, it may be time to move on, and there is no shame in doing so.
Oftentimes it can feel like you are giving up or that you could have done if you had really tried. However, at a certain point, a toxic workplace is a sinking ship and its best to jump while you have options. Do some networking, volunteer for special projects to increase your knowledge and fatten your resume, take a class (again, as much for the networking as for increasing your knowledge), or volunteer somewhere. Open as many doors as you can think of, and when you find a good fit, take the opportunity.
Don’t feel guilty about packing up and moving on. You’re keeping yourself physically and mentally healthy by getting out of the toxic environment. You want your efforts to go to someone who deserves them, not someone who sucks your soul out day by day every time you walk in the door.
Remember too, it may take time. The economy is still recovering and unfortunately a lot of the remaining companies turned toxic during the recession, often in a misguided belief that it would help them survive. You may want to consider talking to a career counselor or coach if your efforts seem to be hitting brick walls after a few months.
You may also want to consider talking to a professional counselor that specializes in He or she might help you find some coping skills that you can use, and just venting to someone can often help. Whatever you do, choose to do something to address the situation, don’t become part of the problem yourself.