Do you work in a toxic workplace? Here's what you can do about it

Analysis: if organisations won't create safe, welcoming and positive workplaces, they shouldn't be surprised if employees won't put up with it

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Most of us have spent some time in a toxic workplace where employees are unhappy, supervisors are abusive, work roles are poorly defined and poorly integrated, or where bad treatment is the norm. These workplaces can become cesspools of gossip, backstabbing, harassment and abuse. They contribute to stress, lower levels of physical and mental health, turnover and general organisational dysfunction. What should you do if you find yourself in a toxic workplace?

There are four common strategies for dealing with a toxic workplace: (i) ignore, (ii) adapt, (iii) improve things or (iv) leave. The first two strategies are dysfunctional, sometimes deeply so, while the second two can present unique challenges.

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From RTÉ Radio 1's Today with Claire Byrne, when should you leave a toxic work environment?

First, you can try to ignore the toxic environment of your workplace. In jobs where people work alone, with little interaction with other employees, it might be possible to just keep your head down and let the dysfunction wash over you. The price you pay for following this strategy is isolation, but it might be possible to simply ignore the toxicity of the workplace and focus on your own work if you can put up with being shut off from your co-workers.

The opposite strategy is to embrace and become a participant in the toxicity rather than being its victim. Sometimes this is a personal choice, but there is often pressure on employees to go along with and even participate in hazing, abuse, and negative behaviours. The 1973 film Serpico tells the tale of a rookie policeman who refuses to take bribes despite pressure from his peers and even superiors to go along with the corruption then rampart in the New York City police force, whose life is eventually endangered by his corrupt partners.

From RTÉ Radio 1's The Business, how does an organisation get rid of a toxic culture?

Even when there is not explicit pressure to participate in the gossip, backstabbing, finger-pointing, and chaos that makes so many workplaces toxic, the experience of this sort of behaviour can have harmful effects. For example, there is evidence that victims of childhood bullying sometimes become bullies themselves and it is reasonable to believe that similar dynamics play out in the workplace. People are often strongly motivated to fit in at work, and they may adopt a dysfunction set of behaviours by observing and imitating what it tolerated and even what is encouraged in the workplace.

A healthier response to a toxic workplace is to take steps to make it less toxic. However, your ability to meaningfully influence your work environment is probably limited unless you are a member of senior management. It is often argued that a toxic work environment represents a failure at the top, either because the top executives in an organisation directly encourage toxic or unhealthy behaviour in the workplace (Elon Musk has created significant problems for employees by setting unrealistic expectations and by creating chaotic work conditions) or by tolerating or overlooking bad behaviours.

Leaders can repair toxic work cultures by taking responsibility, instituting policies that make managers, supervisors and employees liable for persistent misbehaviour and by creating a safe environment for employees to discuss and report toxic behaviours. However, they rarely take the steps needed to change a toxic culture. Lower-level employees can contribute to changing toxic cultures, for example by refusing to cooperate with behaviours that harm other employees. But without strong and visible support from the top, it is very difficult to change a toxic work environment.

From RTÉ 2fm's Jennifer Zamparelli show, author Whitney Goodman on her book Toxic Positivity: Keeping It Real in a World Obsessed with Being Happy

Finally, workers might leave a toxic workplace. Your ability to leave might depend on the alternates that are open to you, but when employees have valuable skills, or when they work in a very tight labour market, leaving might be a very practical alternative. In the last several years, many workers have shown an increasing willingness to leave bad jobs. The recent "great resignation" was largely (but not exclusively) fueled by the pandemic, but its effects are likely to outlast the pandemic. The willingness of employees to pull up stakes and leave jobs that are not tolerable may help diminish the power of toxic work cultures.

But employees do not need to leave their jobs to escape toxic work environments. Remote work has the potential to significantly diminish toxic work environments. There are many reasons why Irish workers have shown strong support for and interest in remote work, including less time and money spent on commuting and greater flexibility, but one of the unrecognised advantages of remote work is that it makes it easier to disengage from toxic work cultures.

From RTÉ Brainstorm, has working from home killed off such unloveable toxic workplace characters as slackers, bullies and self-promoters?

Many employers are pressuring employees to come back to the office and are reducing opportunities for remote work. I believe this is a significant, and largely unforced error. Before the pandemic, many workers simply resigned themselves to toxic work environments. But once employees get used to working remotely (and thus avoiding the drama and stress a toxic workplace can create), they will find it very difficult to put up with the toxicity they once accepted as normal.

Executives who are pressuring employees to return to the office should be careful what they wish for. If the work environment is in any way toxic, forcing workers who have largely escaped this toxicity for the last year or more to return is almost certain to lead to strongly negative reactions. If organisations cannot create a positive environment for employees, executives who are pushing employees to come back to the office might be sowing the seeds for disaster. If you can't or won’t create safe, welcoming and positive work environments, don’t force employees to come back to a toxic workplace. They won’t put up with it any more.

The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ

Do you work in a toxic workplace? Here's what you can do about it

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