Are You Employed in a Toxic Work Culture?
There are few things more professionally devastating than hating your job. Every night you feel that twinge of anxiety before going to bed. Every morning you spend your commute (or walk to your home office) steeped in negativity dreading the day ahead.
But sometimes, leaving your job because you work in a toxic work culture is not an option. So, it is up to you to make the best of things – and try to improve them – until you can move to another company. Here are some of the most common issues within a toxic work culture and some advice on surviving them one day at a time.
One of the most important things to appreciate is to recognise when working in a toxic environment is that it is not a reflection of who you truly are. Often in a toxic workplace, there is plenty of tearing others down, passive-aggressive leadership, destructive gossip, conniving politics, and abundant negativity. When you are surrounded by this every day, it can really start to affect your self-worth. It is vital that you learn to separate the negativity you are swimming in daily from the reality of who you truly are. This demoralising effect is the biggest danger to staying long-term in any toxic environment, and to combat this, you will have to find ways to daily remind yourself that you are not a reflection of your current surroundings. Placing positive and uplifting quotes on the wall of your office or cubicle that will help keep your spirits lifted can be very helpful in these circumstances. Also, taking time out each workday to take a short walk by yourself is a great way to detach and allow for positive self-talk to remind yourself of the qualities you possess that make you amazing. Find ways to remind yourself of who you truly are. This is a good point to reflect on that those of us who work from home are not immune to the effects of a toxic work culture. Suddenly finding yourself “frozen” out of conversations, Zoom meetings and email correspondence can be a sign of toxicity aimed at you, and you need to do what you can to nip it in the bud. Unless you think it is coming from your Line Manager, approach them and openly discuss your fears.
It is also vital you stop giving toxic people your headspace. This is incredibly difficult, but you end up sabotaging your efforts if you are obsessing over what someone else is doing or what they might do next. You overthink your decisions and consider their feedback before it has even been offered (or thrust upon you). This is especially difficult in a home office situation where you are essentially working blind and can never be sure what is going on.
On the other hand, working in a bricks-and-mortar office presents plenty of opportunities for a toxic work culture to flourish. Do you feel on the outside looking in? Do the same group of people go to lunch every day, reference activities they did together on the weekends and text each other constantly, making it clear that they are the A-Group? Chances are that their behaviour makes you feel deflated and more than a little left out. Cliques can be extremely alienating and very hard to break into. Getting to know each person individually is your best bet for feeling less excluded. Think, ‘divide and conquer’. Target one person in the group to connect with – try inviting them out for coffee or offering to work on a project with them. Model your openness and interest in your colleagues. Chances are that your friendliness will rub off.
Take the emotion out of your reaction to toxic people. They are going to do what they are going to do, but you do not have to get upset about it. Get right with that reality and start taking your power back.
In Part Two, we will look at more signs and techniques to counter a toxic work culture.
