8 Signs of a Toxic Work Environment

Having a supportive work environment can have many benefits. Some include providing employees with greater professional satisfaction, increased commitment, and increased productivity. The opposite is true of a toxic work environment. In it, you see more complacency from your employees, high turnover rates, poor customer service, and less than optimal productivity and efficiency. Unfortunately, many workplaces subscribe to one or more of these signs of a toxic work environment:

1. Engaging In Poor Communication: In any organization, effective communication should have a top to bottom and bottom to top approach. Employees should have a constant flow of communication from management to employees and from employees to management. Communication can be greatly impacted when this is taking place. Ineffective communication can also happen horizontally as in the case of siloed departments. When there is no communication between the parts of an organization, it can be difficult to work effectively.

2. Experiencing High Turnover: When a company or perhaps a certain department is always in need of replacing employees, you can say that it is experiencing high turnover. This sign is often a result of employees that feel under-appreciated or who feel like they lack the proper training. In the face of these challenges, people leave their jobs for better treatment and greater support. Often times when people quit their jobs it is not due to the job itself but rather due to a lack of onboarding training and poor management.

3. Having Ineffective Leadership: It is not uncommon to find managers lacking the proper leadership and technical skills to do their job. Oftentimes these managers do not follow proper rules and procedures or seem to subscribe to the company’s mission and values. Furthermore their lack of skills and knowledge and lead to poor hiring decisions which lead to employees who also lack the proper skills.

4. Having a Culture Stifles Ideas and Change: This sign usually presents itself when employees share ideas to improve the workplace but are shut down by management. In these situations, you will always hear leaders make comments such as “this is how it’s always been” or “it is what it is” in response to new ideas. This sign also presents itself in the form of outdated policies and procedures for things such as vacation time, hiring procedures, and managing employee disputes.

5. Displaying Unclear Values: This looks like staff members being unable to list a company’s mission and values. The unclearness can come from a lack of communicating these values or from a lack of management setting an example. Even when employees are aware of company values they are not likely to respect them if management does not.

6. Having Complacent Employees: When employees become complacent they are happy with just doing the bare minimum. This looks like providing average customer service, failure to reach company goals, and a lack of organizational growth.

7. Using a Fear-based Approach to Leadership: This looks like management yelling at people to motivate them to improve. But it is also part of a larger loop. It starts with a toxic work environment which leads to poor performance, which in turn leads to management not meeting their goals. When this happens top leadership gets involved, managers get into trouble, and in turn, they yell at employees for their performance which in turn leads to worse job performance.

8. Lack of Employee Recognition: Employees who receive very little “thanks” for their contributions to the workplace. Particularly, very little recognition from management. This can look like a lack of celebration after a tough project or season. It can also look like management’s unwillingness to notice good work and only focusing on the bad.

If any of these signs resonate with your experience in your work environment, I encourage you to work with others to create a plan that affects change.

If they don't resonate, dig a little bit deeper and ask yourself if that is true for everyone else. Maybe male co-workers don't experience this at work but women and other gender-minorities do. Perhaps your white employees don't face these challenges but the People of Color in your organization do.

Remember that a work environment isn't truly healthy if it is only healthy for some of its employees.

Have you worked in a toxic work environment? Have you noticed any other signs? If so, drop a comment below!

Learn how to create a more inclusive work environment for your employees by checking our Ultimate Guide to Queer and Trans Inclusion in the Workplace.