A healthy professional environment produces satisfaction, well-being and good relationships between employees, but these circumstances do not always occur. Sometimes we may be frustrated, tired and unmotivated, in fact, you may want to quit, whether by a partner, a boss or even by the atmosphere of the place, a toxic work environment can have very negative consequences for us.
Given that a company or organization is a den of emotions, it would not be strange to think that there are conflicts and differences, the problem is not that they exist, but how they are managed and how far they can go, therefore, toxic work The environment is identified by degrading relationships, aggressive and highly competitive attitudes, and even by sullen and manipulative behaviors.
- Learning to identify toxicity in your work environment will help you protect yourself and avoid diving into it.
- Here are some of the most common features of this type of environment.
It’s normal for people to get sick, have medical appointments, or need to attend occasional activity that forces them to quit work, however, when this behavior becomes repetitive, it can be a warning sign.
Missing at least three times a month or more, or constantly asking permission to leave (participating in personal activities, medical appointments or illness) is a typical form of absenteeism. If there are no justified reasons, this may be a good indication that there is a toxic working environment.
Another form of absenteeism is mental absence. That is, when you’re in the work environment, most of the time, you’re doing activities that aren’t related to your work.
This type of behavior can be corrected if the leader is responsible for increasing employee motivation, achieving this goal is essential to prevent discouragement from spreading to everyone.
Another sign of a toxic work environment is a lack of respect for how superiors target other employees, which can also happen when they indiscriminately use cynicism and sarcasm to target employees.
This also results in derogatory comments, non-constructive criticisms, and peer-to-peer comparisons. Instead of encouraging teamwork, these behaviors encourage excessive competition and discomfort.
Communication problems at work usually occur when communication is not direct, incomplete or even when its content is not true, which generates situations of uncertainty, double meaning and confusion that create mental obstacles in those involved and, ultimately, errors or failures in professional activity. .
In many cases, bosses are unclear or precise about how they want certain tasks to be performed, waiting for their subordinates to do so or guess the details. So if this situation persists for some time, frustration, insecurity and demotion will surely appear.
This occurs when, in the company, the greatest concern is personal interests (customers, cost reduction, etc. ) Only with the interests of the workers. There is usually no possibility of advancing the race. No relevant training is available for the position or career plan.
In this context, people can spend ten years doing the same tasks, without being promoted or even considered; internal policies are unknown to employees and change without notice; in general, all of these behaviors create great employee discomfort and create a toxic work environment.
In this case, the leader makes all the decisions regardless of what his team thinks, does not listen and does not want to know the opinions of others, creating in employees the fear of manifesting dissatisf with the situation.
Dictatorial leaders tend to suspect because they feel they are the only ones who can do the job well and that no one knows as much as they do. This mistrust is often due to insecurities, especially when one of the employees excels and in one way or another, in the opinion of the manager, he or she may begin to be considered a threat.
This type of toxic work environment is compounded by the fact that employees cannot rely on the leader’s figure as someone who can help them solve a problem.
A person’s role in their role, while extremely complex, must be very well defined, otherwise the person may not be sure what their role is in the business.
When this happens, the person can perform tasks that do not belong to him or must face excessive, incompatible or incompatible demands and demands to perform the work.
Harassment is often one of the most common situations in a toxic work environment, this occurs when one or more colleagues obstruct each other’s work, placing professional and personal barriers. In addition, a bad relationship between co-workers can be a major cause. stress-generating.
As can be seen, all these problems can affect employees both physically and psychologically, reflecting on the general sense of well-being. It is therefore necessary to combat them in order to manage or avoid a toxic work environment.