Identifying and Avoiding Toxic Workplaces: Signs to Watch Out For” or “Navigating Workplace Toxicity.
A toxic workplace can be very stressful and is a major cause of employee resignations. Such a work environment can make employees feel humiliated, stressed, and defensive, affecting their overall well-being. The negative behaviour from management and other employees, such as bullying, belittling, yelling, and manipulating, makes it very difficult to work effectively.
Such an environment makes employees scared of sharing their thoughts or raising concerns due to fear of reprimand or rejection. It creates a culture of silence and fear, hindering open communication and collaboration.
Signs of a Toxic Workplace
Some common characteristics point towards a toxic environment. Watch for these signs before joining such an organization so that you don’t regret your decision later.
Confusion in work profile – Lack of clarity in roles and responsibilities is a major reason for dysfunction at a workplace. If the job profiles are not clearly defined, it gives rise to conflict among coworkers.
No Room for Errors – No one wants to commit mistakes but a threatening environment where employees are always scared of making mistakes can be detrimental to the growth of an organization. People avoid stepping out of their comfort zone to try something new as they fear punishment.
Excessive Stress – Various factors can cause stress among employees such as disagreement with colleagues or management, fear of failure, anxiety over performance and targets and above all, uncertainty about job expectations. All these cause major burnout in an organization.
Lack Of Trust – Watch out for places where the management does not trust their employees and constantly monitors their daily schedule. Such type of micromanagement instils a state of low self-confidence among employees as they are always on their guard.
Overtime – Some employers expect their workers to stay back late on most days, reply to emails at odd hours and even work from home on weekends. This culture of unhealthy work environment is a cause of mass burnout.
Bottomline
A toxic environment adversely affects both the employees and the organization. As the employees are likely to suffer from stress, anxiety and depression, their productivity goes down and consequently slows down the organization’s growth.
