Do you feel drained after a long day of work? Do you wake up and dread going into the office? If yes, your work may be a toxic environment. A toxic work environment doesn’t just affect you at work. It can cause unnecessary stress that can affect your mental health and personal life. This is why it’s important to be aware of the signs.
Here are 9 signs that you work in a toxic environment.
- There’s poor communication. Communication skills are a must in the workplace. If your boss or coworkers lack communication skills, that’s a major sign that your workplace is toxic. Your boss may also give you little to no feedback on your work.
- Passive aggressive behavior is common. Problems are inevitable in business. The importance lies in how they are handled, not whether they happen. If your boss and/or coworkers use passive aggressive behavior to express their problems, this is a red flag to a toxic environment.
- Low team morale. If the majority of your coworkers lack enthusiasm for their work, it may be a result of a toxic environment. They lack motivation because their workplace doesn’t foster a healthy environment for them to succeed.
- Lack of transparency. Withholding important information creates mistrust in the workplace and brings down morale. It also leads to a high turnover rate.
- High turnover rate. Employees are more likely to stay longer in a healthy work environment. If an employee is not in the right environment for work, they will find a more suitable workplace elsewhere.
- No work-life balance. A sure sign of a toxic workplace is their lack of boundaries. Expecting you to work and be available 24/7 is a major no-no.
- Cultivates burnout. Burnout may be caused by a lack of work-life balance or negative culture. Sometimes toxic environments can leave us feeling emotionally exhausted.
- Poor leadership. Management sets the tone for the company. They are a great role model of what behaviors are acceptable. If they are acting out of line this gives the message that negative behaviors are okay in the workplace.
- There are cliques and gossipy behavior. Work should be a united front. If there are cliques, people will feel left out.
No place of work will be perfect and may check off some of these points. Yet, there is a difference between a couple of mistakes and a toxic work environment. If you resonate with any of these points it is likely your work environment is toxic. If you are the boss the good news is that this can be changed. If you’re an employee, know that this isn’t a normal work culture and there are plenty of other jobs out there that will foster the right environment for you.