Is Your Workplace Actually Toxic? Experts Share Their 8 Red Flags
The world of work has undergone rapid transformation – some of it for the better. The post-pandemic shift to working from home has seen many employers embrace flexibility, allowing workers some input into the hours and work patterns that best suit them.
At the same time, our workdays have been getting steadily longer – and arguably harder. According to a recent YouGov poll, one in five of us have needed to take time off work in the past year due to stress. While a large-scale survey by the Global Business Collaboration for Better Workplace Mental Health (GBC) concluded that work pressures are a significant contributor to the UK’s mental health crisis, with 28% of respondents saying that their workload is undermining their wellbeing.
For workers, the still-shifting terrain can be tricky to navigate. You might not want to ‘hustle harder’ and ‘rise and grind’ – but you probably can’t afford to check out entirely. And ‘quiet quitting’ or doing the bare minimum isn’t a solution either, if you’re seeking any kind of fulfilment.
In this time of flux, it can be hard to know what we can ask of our employers, or what is reasonable to expect. Is your workplace actually problematic, or is life just not always perfect? We put it to a panel of experts to identify eight common warning signs.
Red flag #1 The hiring process was – and remains – chaotic
A workplace that’s truly dysfunctional tends to let that slip even before the interview stage, explains Sarah-Jane Last, founder of The Work Psychologists. ‘It’s a bit like in a relationship: they are telling you every single thing you need to know from your first interactions.’
If the communication throughout the hiring process was poor, the role wasn’t clearly delineated, or the interview panel seemed ill-informed, it’s reflective of the organisation, says Last. ‘People I coach, who have been made redundant or left their job as a result of stress, often say that when they look back now, the writing was on the wall.’
If you’re at the start of your career, you might not have prior experience to compare it with – but you can still trust your instincts, says Carol Wilson, chief executive of Culture At Work. ‘If you’re feeling something’s wrong, you may not know what it is, but it’s a good idea to start looking.’
Red flag #2 You’re consistently overworked… as is your manager
It’s normal to go through busy periods at work, but if you feel under excessive pressure or prolonged stress, your employer may be to blame. ‘In a good workplace, you don’t get burnout,’ says Wilson. A consistently unmanageable workload can be an indicator of chronic under-staffing, poor people management or both.
‘We know that stress can be associated with a lack of autonomy or control over how you do your job,’ says Ben Willmott of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, the professional body for human resources. ‘It might be linked to your feeling that you haven’t been given training, or prepared properly to do the role.’
For further clues, look at those above you on the ladder. If your boss – and their boss – is also burning out, it suggests a systemic problem, Willmott says. ‘The culture reflects the leadership of the company… how they manage and lead their direct reports has a sort of trickle-down effect to people more broadly in the organisation.’
Red flag #3 You’re afraid to bring your whole self to work
You shouldn’t be afraid to go to your manager about any difficulties in your personal life. ‘Whether it be bereavement, a relationship breakdown or health issues, people have challenges outside work where there is a need for flexibility and support,’ says Willmott.
If your employer routinely denies reasonable requests to work from home or handle childcare, or fails to meet employees’ personal challenges with compassion, it can take root as a culture of overwork, presenteeism and even fear.
The recent GBC research found that nearly half (47%) of the UK’s employed population said they had experienced discrimination as a result of opening up to their line manager. The proportion was higher among employees from marginalised identities.
High staff turnover and frequent sickness-related absences can both be indicators that people are not being extended necessary flexibility. But even feeling afraid to speak up in meetings can be a sign that something’s wrong with the broader dynamic.
‘We call it “psychological safety”, and it’s absolutely crucial for a healthy workplace,’ says Last. Whether or not people feel comfortable to express confusion, objection or differing viewpoints at work is a reflection of an organisation’s commitment to innovation, inclusion and collaboration. ‘When people can’t have difficult and challenging conversations, so much stuff gets pushed under the rug or misinterpreted – it leaks out in all sorts of toxic ways.’
Red flag #4 You’re not progressing – or even getting praise
A good manager protects against stress, anxiety and burnout, while a bad manager makes them worse. If your contribution is consistently overlooked within your team – or, conversely, you’re micro-managed and not trusted to do your job – your boss may be to blame for your negative experience of work.
They might display openly bullying behaviour, such as singling out and shaming individuals or raising their voice. But often the signs are more subtle, such as taking credit for their team’s successes, showing some staff preferential treatment and consistently assigning the worst tasks to others. ‘It can be done in quite an underhand way, so that other people may not be aware,’ says Willmott. ‘You might even ask yourself, “Is this really happening?”’
A relationship breakdown with your manager isn’t necessarily cause to quit. If the issue can’t be resolved between you, Willmott suggests approaching human resources: they might be able to arrange mediation or further training for your boss. ‘If managers aren’t aware their behaviour is being perceived in a certain way, sometimes just by presenting that feedback to them, they’ll change.’
Last suggests sounding out the possibility of an internal transfer. ‘Within most organisations, there are really excellent managers,’ she says. ‘You have to be almost like a private investigator: figure them out and get on to their team.’
If there’s no one you’d like to work with, that’s another clue pointing to dysfunction. A well-functioning organisation would want to be informed about any bullying or developing burnout, Willmott points out. ‘If the culture is broadly positive, bad managers don’t tend to last very long – they get identified and the issues are addressed.’
Red flag #5 There’s plenty of gossip but little clarity
Often, toxic workplaces are characterised by poor communication. That doesn’t just mean that there’s no communication at all, says Last. ‘If there’s a lot of gossip and rumours going on, a lot of mixed messages or the strategy and vision are not really clear, it just screams of poor management.’
Some employers like to play on employees’ sense of belonging and personal attachment to their jobs by characterising the entire organisation as one big family. Not only is it patronising, it often suggests workers aren’t being listened to, says Last. ‘It has to come from the top: open communication is what builds trust.’
If no one is taking responsibility for dysfunction in the organisation – or even acknowledging its existence – the issue goes deeper. Wilson says that the most reliable indicator of a toxic workplace is ‘the blame game’, where people look to their colleagues, other teams or external factors to explain things going wrong. ‘It’s an invasive state of mind that, once it permeates an organisation, is very hard to dislodge.’ In fact, Wilson adds, ‘anyone trying to dislodge it is likely to be dislodged themselves’.
Red flag #6 Your days are packed but nothing gets done
If you routinely find yourself sitting through meetings that could have been emails, or being called into the office only to spend the whole day on Zoom, your organisation may be failing to adapt to the times. ‘That just says someone at the top is not thinking about this properly,’ says Last.
The best employers prioritise productivity over presenteeism. One chief executive Last recently worked with instructed the entire company to go through their diaries and scrap any meetings that they didn’t really need to attend.
She recommends assessing a company against its public messaging and values, what policies it has in place to support employees and its track record of listening to them. Smaller organisations tend to be more responsive than big ones, but if ‘they’re at least trying to do some good in the world’, it might be easier to hold them to practising what they preach, Last says.
Red flag #7 Your colleagues have the same complaints
Even an openly toxic workplace is not experienced uniformly by its staff. But that can make it hard to tell if your expectations need adjusting, or if you’d be better off in a different company.
Wilson suggests taking a longer-term view. By gaining clarity with yourself about where you want to be in a year’s (and five years’) time, it becomes easier to see how your current job is working for or against those goals. ‘You can’t always do something about people who treat you badly at work, but you can clarify what’s working for you,’ she says. ‘Then you start to see a way forwards.’
It can also be helpful to reflect on the attitudes and assumptions you bring with you to the office. They may not be obvious, says Last. ‘What was the mindset that you were taught when you were younger? What did school, your parents or culture teach you about work? That stuff is definitely worth looking at: what was your “script”, as we call it in therapy, around work.’
If you were raised to believe that all workplaces are equally bad, or that you’re lucky even to have a job, you may be slow to register that you are being routinely disrespected. On the other hand, by pinpointing what exactly frustrates you about work, you might discover room to move, even within your current position. It may be possible for particular tasks to be reassigned, or to formalise a flexible working arrangement that suits both you and your employer. ‘We call it “job crafting”: sometimes there’s a little bit of tweaking that can be done to make everything more effective,’ Last says.
If, however, you’ve taken steps to address your issues and nothing has changed – and your colleagues have similar complaints – the solution may be outside your control.
‘Can you see chaos around you, and not just you? Are lots of people saying the same thing? Did the company say they were going to do something but haven’t done it?’ All are really good indicators that your workplace is toxic and it’s time to look elsewhere, says Last.
Red flag #8 You get a feeling of dread on Sunday nights
Especially if you otherwise love your job, it’s easy to tell yourself it’s not that bad and to persevere in hope of change. But if you’re constantly stressed or anxious about work, and your mental health is suffering, that needs to be taken seriously, in and of itself.
Psychologist Ruth Cooper-Dixon says that people in toxic workplaces often develop strategies to cope, leading bad behaviour to become normalised. People she coaches will often tell her, ‘It was only when they got a different manager, or moved jobs, that they realised how desperately unhappy they’d been.’
It pays to tune into your feelings in the present, Cooper-Dixon continues. ‘When you wake up in the morning and you’re heading to work, how does that make you feel? On a Sunday night, how do you feel about the week ahead?’
The odd bad week at work, or even a bad month, is to be expected – but consistent feelings of dread, anxiety and being overwhelmed are a sign that something’s wrong. It can also manifest as feeling unmotivated, checked out or making thoughtless mistakes.
‘I always describe it as putting distance between you and your job – that withdrawal, or detachment,’ says Cooper-Dixon. Over time, it can corrode your self-confidence. That in itself is a reason to act to address your unhappiness, she points out. ‘It can take time to build that back up.’
You Might Also Like
