You spend most of your waking hours devoted to your work. Your co-workers and team may be the people you interact with the most in life, after family or spouse. There are a multitude of factors that can contribute to toxic behaviors in the workplace. It can be terrible corporate values that completely disregard work-life balance, or bad bosses that contribute to a toxic work environment. Whatever the reason, a toxic workplace can quickly destroy your motivation, attitude, and performance.
It may be hard for independent contractors or freelancers to file a lawsuit regarding a toxic work environment. It is not impossible, but toxic work environment laws in most states protect traditional employees and not independent workers.
In this article, we will discuss signs of a toxic work environment and 3 strategies to get rid of a toxic work environment.
Symptoms of a toxic environment
If you are experiencing 3 or more of these situations, you are undoubtedly working in a negative environment:
- Your boss harasses you and others
- There is no teamwork, when something goes wrong you look for a culprit, not a solution
- Your boss or colleagues often take credit for your work.
- You are doing the work of two or more people without recognition or additional compensation
- There are established rules and procedures, but no one follows them.
- Rumors, gossip and accusations circulate
- The boss is absent or does not take care of his tasks
- It seems that incompetent people will never be fired, instead valuable elements are fired or quit
- Your colleagues have aggressive behavior or are easily irritated, people do not communicate with cordiality and respect
- There is no development, integration or training plan
- Less suitable people get promoted.
- Communication is poor, people do not know their roles and therefore do not know what is expected of them.
How to deal with a toxic work environment?
Currently, the corporate environment is increasingly competitive, which can affect both the professional and personal lives of employees. The development of a competitive culture, which aims at productivity, aiming at goals, makes the climate a little more rigid, and creates tension “in the air”.
It is possible that the work environment is stressful to the point that it affects our well-being in general, employees have problems with sleep, health, mood instability, among other problems.
The importance of understanding how to deal with this type of work environment is very important, so that you can maintain your health, both physical and mental.
How to improve and prevent toxic work environments?
Change in organizational culture needs to come from above! Managers need to be aligned in the purpose of creating a courteous and harmonious environment, without exaggeration.
The first step in ending a toxic work environment is having the courage to change and the discipline to implement the necessary changes in the company’s culture. A thriving work environment must be built and cultivated and it is the leader’s responsibility to make everyone believe and strive for it.
Create a new organizational culture with employees
Include your collaborators in the elaboration of the new organizational culture. Having your opinions heard and valued is a great start to the end of workplace toxicity.
Take care of your troubled employees
Every company has an employee who always seems to be involved in problems. This comes from negativity and lack of ethics.
Instead of firing him, try to educate him. Talk openly with the employee, listen to their complaints and offer a kind of coaching so that they adjust their attitudes to what is expected of them.
Always look for a little more
The manager must always be prepared to bring out the best in each person he encounters during the workday: employees, analysts, managers, etc. Trying to rouse them to seek a little more is good for business and for boosting team morale.
Recognize the improvement
Even if the improvement in the work environment is small, recognize the effort of everyone involved. Employees who feel valued are loyal, dedicated and work hard for the company’s success. In this way, new ideas, positivity and increased production will be natural consequences of the work done.