Is the only good thing about your workday the end of the day? If the people, work environment and/or the work is causing disruptions in the rest if your life, and you’re not finding joy in going into work, you may be in a toxic work environment.  Being in a toxic workplace is not uncommon, and there are a few factors that those kinds of work environments have in common. There are also some things you can do to improve your workday if you find yourself in this situation.
Causes of a toxic work environment
Poor leadership: Leaders and managers who act as if they are always right and expect employees to meet certain standards while they don’t apply those same standards to themselves will cause a toxic workplace.
Poor communication: This ties in with poor leadership as well. Poor communication about not only what’s going on day to day in the organization, necessary information to do your job, or feedback from management. Other examples of poor communication also include poorly communicating about decisions that have been made, using indirect communication through others or giving misleading information.
Policies and Procedures: Lacking procedures and policies will lead to nobody knowing the right answers and employees doing what they think is right. This will in turn lead to poor and confusing communication to clients and customers and result in them feeling frustrated when doing business with your organization. Have you ever been a customer in a situation where nobody seemed to have any answers, or you get different answers from different people? This will lead to a lot of frustration both from customers as well as employees.
Signs of being in a toxic work environment
No enthusiasm in the office: Before you start a job, ask to be shown around the office. Does it look like people are happy to be working there? Are people having positive conversations and interactions? Are people smiling? If you answer no to these questions, it’s a strong sign that it’s an unhappy and toxic work environment.
Employee health issues: If people are regularly calling in sick or even working sick, these are signs that they’re burned out and fatigued. Toxic workplaces lead to stress that take a toll on our bodies which leads to more health-related issues in the workplace.
Personal life and relationships: Other signs include not being able to sleep, high anxiety, depression and other resulting medical problems. If friends and family are starting to notice a difference in your personality and commenting on you seeming to be more stressed or that your demeanor has changed, you know that work is having a negative impact on your life. If you are in the process of interviewing for new jobs, ask about work-life balance.
High turnover: When a company has nothing good to offer, people will look for new opportunities. In a job interview, ask about the average tenure of their employees if you suspect they might have an issue with high turn-over. If you find certain companies seem to be doing a lot of hiring for their company size, it’s also a sign of high turnover.
Gossips and rumors: If it seems like people in the workplace aren’t genuine friends, and there’s a lot of gossiping and spreading of rumors going on, that’s also a sign that something isn’t right.
What you can do
If you find yourself in a toxic work environment and quitting your job on the spot isn’t an option, there are some other things you can do to make coming into work a little bit easier until you find something better.
Manage stress: Stay healthy and work out to relive stress or take on other activities outside of work that you find enjoyable.
Resolve internally: If there’s a specific individual causing you problems at work, try to have a gentle conversation with them about any specific actions they’re taking that are making your job more difficult. If that doesn’t work, you can try to have a conversation with your or their superiors to find out how they can help you with conflict resolution to resolve the issue.
Think about your next career move: Although there’s a chance that the situation could improve at your workplace; maybe you suspect a bad manager might be on the way out, or other reasons to anticipate positive change, in which case it would make sense to stay. On the other hand, some organizations have a culture of dysfunction coming from the top down. While you’re waiting, it doesn’t hurt to start looking for a new job. If the situation is really bad and you need to be out immediately, consider taking on a short-term contract position while you find your next permanent role. Working with a staffing agency can help you find a short-term solution quicker than it might take to get into a permanent full-time position.
Before we start working with a client, we will research them, have in-depth conversations with their hiring team and visit their facilities to get to know them and what makes a candidate successful in their company culture. To connect with a recruiter and find out about our currently available opportunities in Information Technology, Accounting/Finance, Engineering and Business Administration/Process, please visit our job board. Or, submit your resume here for consideration to connect with one of our experienced recruiters in either our Grand Rapids, Michigan or Tampa, Florida location.
