Toxic Work Culture
Is There a Cure?
Let’s start off early in this blog tackling a major issue. Millions of people suffer daily from the effects of toxic work culture. However, it can be hard to know when you are in that situation. Because of how normalized this work culture is it can be difficult to spot the signs and could even lead you to quitting a career that you actually enjoy. A job that sounded perfect but the culture surrounding it ruined the experience for you. Sound familiar? Let’s dig into how to define toxic work culture and ways we can fight it.
The definition of work culture is a collection of attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of people that make up the atmosphere in a work environment. Now that we know that it is time to go over the differences in toxic work culture and positive work culture. Have you ever worked for a job that makes you feel as though you have no energy? Do you get home expecting to enjoy your time off only to want a nap? It is shocking at how mental stress in the workplace can wear someone down just as much as doing hours of yardwork. This is why it is frustrating to hear others say, “You have no reason to be tired! You are at a desk all day while I have to be on my feet!” The fact is any job can be stressful. I believe by addressing the issues at hand, any job can have a positive work culture.
Searching online you will find multiple perspectives on toxic work culture. There are even signs when applying for a job that can show the company may be toxic. APAC Entrepreneur does well at referencing buzzwords that you will find in multiple job postings such as fast-paced environment, family type atmosphere, and care deeply. I believe that if you must attempt to prove to others through job postings then there is probably an issue. Career Find brings up points of how fearing to give feedback is a red flag. This does not mean only from manager to employee, but also for those who are afraid to approach their leader. They also bring up absenteeism, turnover, and being expected to work more than you are scheduled. The Mom Project digs into lack of career growth, illegal practices, and poor communication. Have you ever worked at a job where they retaliate when employees share salary info with each other? If so, then you have experienced some of these illegal practices. Vantage Circle goes over bullying in the workplace and the data that shows 61% of it comes from bosses and 33% are from coworkers. Qualtrics XM has research showing just how much turnover has cost over $223 billion over the last five years. I will attach their image showing statistics under this paragraph. You may begin to wonder after me sharing this small percentage of articles that discuss toxic work culture, “If this knowledge is out in the open, then why is it still an issue and not fixed?” I have my own thoughts on this.
The reason I feel that this type of culture remains is that people are afraid of change. People are afraid to leave a toxic job. Employees fear bringing it up to their leaders. Leaders are afraid fighting for their employees to their leaders. The more this continues, the worse the culture will get. There are also situations where the company and leaders truly believe that things are best how they currently are. They worry if they cut too much slack the productivity will decline. It is a corrupt way of thinking to put numbers over your team. Sadly, this is a business practice that has been around long enough to become deeply engraved in work environment. There are some workers who enjoy this type of work culture. Part of me feels this is because they have never seen positive work culture to compare their experience to. So how do we go about finding a solution?
Everything starts with leadership. Us leaders are the front lines for making work culture better. I am sorry if you are reading this in hopes to fix an issue but are not currently in a leadership role. Your leaders may have let you down, or perhaps you are just searching for knowledge for an upcoming interview. The leader sets the tone and atmosphere in the workplace environment. What this means is the leader is key to making an employee feel respected and wanted. In larger companies it is easy for an employee to feel like they are just a number and not a valued individual. This is why 1 on 1 meetings are needed to talk about their current experience with the company, the results they have provided, areas they can grow, and what the future may have in store. This will also give leaders insight into what their teams goals and mindsets are. Perhaps they are interested in another department and now that you know you can schedule cross training to give them a better view before deciding. Employees need to feel that they can always trust their leader. You should have an open-door policy and be available for communication. This doesn’t mean that you should drop everything you are doing to talk to someone. You can still schedule meetings with your team if you are busy but just be honest and communicate that with them. Simply saying, “Sure thing, I am glad you want to discuss this! Let me get finished up with what I am currently on and let’s plan to talk after.” This means so much to them instead of just shooing them away with a “I don’t have time for this” mentality.
Just know that not everything can be fixed. You will run into walls that have been placed by people above you in the company, or team members who refuse change. Even if you have everything planned out, be prepared to be shut down. If you can make changes for the better then great, but if you are continuously being shut down idea after idea then it may be time to plan a job change. You will wear yourself down if you stay at a job that you can’t fix. This does not mean that we shouldn’t try though. There will also be times that you need to look deeper at the issues you and your team may face. What I mean by this is you can be an amazing leader, but due to company policies and poor compensation/benefits you can’t out-lead the toxic work culture. This is where things get difficult, but not impossible.
There are ways to ignite change in company policies. If you have the data ready, surveys and feedback from coworkers, and a projected view of what results could look like in the future. Some companies are willing to try things out if presented well. Sometimes upper management is just too focused on their goals to see what is happening in the background. This is why employee feedback is crucial. Let’s lay out the steps for positive work culture.
Communicate - Set expectations with your team so there are no misunderstandings of their role and what they bring to the company. Share updates with your team and make time to go over results.
Listen - While you are the leading voice for your team, they have voices too, so listen and see things from their point of view.
Act - If someone brings an issue to your attention, act on this sooner than later. Allowing poor behavior or practices of someone to continue shows you are afraid. This will make your team not trust you to take care of things.
Train - If there are opportunities for your team to cross train or experience another department they are interested in, set up training or meetings. Do not hold an employee from growing in a company just because you don’t want to lose them.
Provide - Ensure your team has the right skills and equipment to be able to do the job you are asking of them. Provide performance appraisals to discuss wage increases.
Use PTO - Your team and you all have paid time off. No one should be judged for using it. There are some companies that have periods where no one should plan a vacation, but NO ONE should be expected to save their PTO to get paid out after the year.
Compensation and Benefits - There should be fair wages and a healthy amount of PTO. Bonuses for when staff hits goals are necessary. Submit for wage increases when they are deserved.
Company Values - Review the company’s values with your team. Everyone should know the mission.
Thank you for reading this far. To finish this off I will say that fixing work culture is hard work. There is no guarantee that you will succeed. If you overcome and win, it will be easy to maintain. What you will have to decide for yourself is are you willing to stay in that environment until you see the change come into fruition. Staying in a toxic environment can severely affect your mental health. Take care of yourself.
If you enjoyed this read, there will be more to come! Subscribe to my blog to receive updates from me about future topics I will cover. Together we can make a difference.
You don’t change culture through emails and memos. You change it through relationships… one conversation at a time. - SteeleThoughts
Thank you so much for sharing! I agree people are more value than numbers. And I find people thrive when they know they are valued just for who they are. You did mention that if you are not in a leadership role, changing culture is actually for the leader. I do agree with this, I would also just like to point out that sometimes the leader in an organization is not the one who has the title but the one who people look to.
Great writing and insights as always. I am encouraged someone is facilitating us talking about how to make work better for everyone. 😁