Signs You’re in a Toxic Work Environment

A toxic work environment is like having all of these challenges on repeat, without a break. Toxic work environments breed unrest, competition, low morale, constant stressors, negativity, sickness, high turnover, and even bullying. Even worse? Toxic workplaces rarely stay at work. They typically follow you home. They take over your conversations with loved ones, steal away much-needed sleep, and generally cause worry and stress.

Toxic workplaces can lead to stress, burnout, and serious disruptions in your normal life.

Bad Communication

Insufficient, confusing, or scattered communication is the culprit of so many problems in the workplace. In fact, communication skills are the most important skills needed in any successful organization. Why? So much falls under the communication umbrella—including listening (both as a manager and an employee), verbal communication, written communication, preferences on how to communicate—the list goes on!

So, how do you tell if bad communication is leading to workplace toxicity? Here are a few examples of bad communication.

Constant lack of clarity around projects

Different employees receiving different messages

Passive-aggressive communication

Failure to listen

Constant “off-hours” communication

Communication is the root cause of bad organizations—or good organizations operating poorly. Bad communication often leads to confusion and a lack of purpose for employees. From here, problems arise and compound, often leading to the next nine items on our list.

Cliques, Exclusion + Gossipy Behaviour

We all know what a clique looks like. It’s the group of people—whether or at work or at school—that sticks together, grabs each other coffee, laughs at inside jokes (of which they somehow have roughly one million) and generally excludes anyone outside of their tight-knit ring. And, while we are all adults here, it can feel extremely alienating to exist on the outside of an active clique.

Simply put, cliques are counterproductive in the workplace. While having workplace friends and acquaintances is good, any behavior that can be described as “clique-ish” is best to be avoided. Here are a few warning signs you’ve got some Heathers in your office:

Constant feeling of exclusion from a group of people

A particular group that lunches, grabs coffee, and organizes happy hours together

Projects often are offered to a particular group, regardless of talent or experience

Large parts of the workday spent whispering or chatting on messaging platforms

General outward disinterest from the group in anyone else—unless it involves gossip or “drama”

Bad Leadership

Sometimes a bad boss is the product of her bad boss—and so on. It’s this hierarchy of bad bosses that make the overall workplace—you guessed it—downright toxic.

Bad bosses wear a variety of hats, You have the micromanager, who constantly corrects you, undermines your decisions, and ultimately disallows you from doing your job. You might have the “Blame Game” boss, who is quick to pass mistakes on to anyone but themselves. Or, you might be lucky enough to have the “No Respect” boss, who emails at all hours, forgets how to spell your name, and likely doesn’t even know what you do.

Unmotivated Coworkers

We’re not saying that you should judge your work on the quality (or lack of quality) of those around you. However, when you find yourself in a workplace full of unmotivated co-workers, it’s going to take its toll on you. You might have two reactions to unmotivated co-workers.

You’re going to shoulder a ton of work that they aren’t handling—and find yourself burnt out

Their lack of motivation is going to bum you out—and burn you out with a type of underchallenged burnout

Just like your co-workers can inspire you to work harder, be better, and incubate new ideas, they can wear you down. Unmotivated employees are usually a result of a much larger organizational problem. Perhaps it’s bad communication from the top? It might be disorganization, disenfranchisement with leadership, or general distrust. Whatever it is, if everyone around you is unmotivated, you’re in a toxic work environment.

Rapid Employee Turnover

Rapid employee turnover is a sign that a workplace is toxic. Leaving a job is a tough decision to make. When you notice that several people are making that decision, then something is really rotten.

Conversely, if employees are constantly being laid off or fired, this can be a sign of a few other toxic elements. High employee turnover usually means there’s disorganization, lack of direction, bad leadership, or little opportunity. Pay attention to the turnover rate in your company.

Feeling Burnout

We’ve touched upon burnout a little bit in this article. Burnout is more than a buzzword you may have heard around workplace jargon. Workplace burnout is recognized by the World Health Organization as a legitimate medical diagnosis.

Burnout can be a sure-fire sign of a toxic work environment—or at least a work environment that doesn’t “work” for you. Here are three types of burnout. Do any of these sound familiar to you?

Frenetic Burnout: Frenetic burnout is experienced by employees who put a ton of energy into their work in the hopes that the output will be rewarding. After a sustained period of dedicated work, the frenetic worker does not find positive outcomes.

Underchallenged Burnout: This type of burnout occurs when an employee feels underchallenged and bored at work. Being unable to find any satisfaction in a job, the underchallenged employees find themselves in a lowered mood.

Worn-out Burnout: The worn-out employee is someone who is resigned about their work after experiencing consistent work stress over a long period of time. Having experienced negligible rewards, the worn-out employee feels disillusioned and uninspired by the job at hand.