Is Your Company Culture Getting “Toxic’?

Everyone is talking about workplaces being “toxic” these days, but what does that even mean? And what can leaders do about it?

Imagine you’re in yet another meeting (that could have been an email) and your team is assigned a last-minute project. You skim the project details, forward them to your team, and move on. But before you can make any progress on your own massive to-do list, you get a response to your email. Your team doesn’t understand why this project is being sprung on everyone at the last minute and they’re unsure how to prioritize with these extra tasks piled on. They want to meet with you to discuss it further.

Ugh, this is the last thing you need during an already jampacked week. Sure, it’s a little last minute, but your team should be able to figure this out on their own — it’s their job, right? You run into another manager who was in the meeting too. It turns out their team had a similar reaction and the two of you end up venting your frustrations to each other over coffee in the break room.  

Did you notice any red flags in this story? If you didn’t, you’re not alone. Many of us have probably experienced something similar, either as a leader ourselves or as an employee, and shrugged it off. But what happens when these situations start happening more and more around your office? How would you feel if days like that started to become the norm? You’d likely start dreading coming to work each day. 

The word “toxic” is everywhere these days, but it’s more than just the latest buzzword. Toxic work environments are the number one reason driving people to resign from their jobs. But what does that even mean? When does a workplace go from just frustrating to truly toxic? According to a massive study by the MIT Sloan Management Review, there are five main attributes of toxic work environments. And once we start breaking them down, they might start to sound a little too familiar…

Non-inclusive

A non-inclusive workplace is one that discriminates against employees on the basis of gender, race, sexual identity and orientation, disability, or age. Employees described non-inclusive workplaces as ones where minority groups were regularly excluded from important projects or decisions, passed over for promotions, or made to feel unwelcome. It’s important to remember that discrimination includes much more than obvious harassment. Workplaces where managers exercise favoritism or where employees divide themselves into cliques can become breeding grounds for a non-inclusive culture.

Disrespectful

Disrespect can show up in many ways. It’s the broadest category on this list and one of the biggest contributors to a toxic environment. Some examples include unclear job roles and expectations, poor communication, or lack of transparency from leadership. Disregarding employees’ time and contributions is another major signal of disrespect. This could look like expecting regular overtime work, requiring employees to be available outside working hours, a lack of flexibility when it comes to scheduling, or failing to recognize employees who go above and beyond. No one wants to feel like just another cog in the machine at their company and treating employees that way is what disrespect boils down to.

Unethical

It should come as no surprise that things like harassment, sexism, and racism are considered toxic and unethical. In the research, employees also spoke about their companies not adhering to workplace safety regulations, such as those outlined by the Occupational Safety and Health Adminitration (OSHA), or to industry-specific regulations like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). While we might typically think of unethical behavior as being isolated to a single person’s poor choices, these sorts of practices can quickly become a workplace norm if they’re modeled by leadership without appropriate consequences. And it’s not just these more serious offenses that can result in a toxic culture. A general lack of integrity from leadership – things like widespread dishonestly, deception, or making false promises – can lead employees to question the ethics of their company.

Cutthroat

This goes way beyond healthy competition. In cutthroat work environments, employees work against each other instead of collaborating. MIT Sloan’s research describes hostile environments where colleagues regularly throw each other under the bus, undermine each other, or stab each other in the back. It’s not clear from the study if this kind of behavior comes from working in an overly competitive environment or if it’s caused by employees simply trying to avoid punishment from toxic managers. Either way, no one can perform their best while constantly looking over their shoulder.

Abusive

Abusive work environments develop when toxic leadership is allowed to run wild. Things like harassment, sexism, racism, bullying, making threats, shouting and verbal abuse, or humiliation of employees fall under this category. Abusive management also includes things like regularly holding employees to extreme workloads, long hours, or unrealistic deadlines under the threat of being fired. Manipulative behavior, such as deliberately setting employees up to fail and then punishing them for it, is another example of the abusive management practices described in MIT Sloan’s research. 

Where do leaders go from here?

That was a really depressing list with a lot of scary words on it, right? As a leader, you might be tempted to skim over these findings because things like this don’t happen at your company. But when broken down, these five attributes all start as things many of us have probably done, even if it wasn’t one of our proudest moments. Remember the story from the beginning? Unmanageable workloads, issuing last-minute deadlines with no context, failing to communicate important details, gossiping about an employee in the break room – all of these practices can take on a life of their own, eventually creating an environment people can’t stand to work in. 

Yikes! Is there any good news here? Well, yes, but it’s kind of a double-edged sword. Research shows leadership is the number one predictor of whether or not a workplace becomes toxic. So, while leaders are usually the cause of toxic cultures, they also have the power to prevent or change them. Not only can leaders like yourself implement far-reaching changes through inclusive company policies, DEI initiatives, and better working conditions, but your communication as a leader sets the tone for the entire company.

Skilled leaders create thriving cultures.

As experts have pointed out, it’s not enough to be merely “nontoxic.” A company that’s not proactive about maintaining a healthy culture will likely fall prey to at least some toxic behaviors. But repairing an entire culture, or creating one from scratch, feels overwhelming, doesn’t it? Leaders are often understandably stumped on how to begin. 

This is why leadership training for managers and supervisors can be a lifesaver. The right leadership training program will leave you well-equipped to fight for the highest good of others, Don’t waste valuable time trying to reinvent the wheel when you can start cultivating the qualities of a good leader now, using a research-driven program that’s already been vetted by some of the world’s biggest companies. 

Book a free consult call with me today to start transforming your company through effective leadership. We’ll talk about the specific problems your workplace is facing and how leadership training with the GiANT platform can help you create a company culture that thrives.