Is Your Workplace TOXIC?

By Kym Krey

We’ve all heard the horror stories from staff about working in ‘toxic’ environments. The lack of encouragement and appreciation. The absence of recognition and reward. The constant negativity or perceived mistreatment or even the blatant favouritism and inequality in who gets away with what.

No Manager or Business Owner believes their workplace is toxic… yet plenty of employees would beg to differ, so let’s take a look at what constitutes a toxic or unhealthy environment, the impact this has on your people and your business and what we can do to ensure that our environment is supportive and healthy.

What is ‘toxic’?

The term ‘toxic’ is typically used to describe behaviours that are negative, antagonistic, stressful, or even bullying. Think name-calling, sarcasm or cruel jokes at other’s expense, raised angry voices and short tempers, constant gossip and ‘office politics’, excessive micromanagement right through to verbal abuse, belittling and intimidation. In these rather unpleasant environments, employees can be constantly in ‘fight or flight’ mode due to a lack of trust in what might happen next, communication between management and team is limited, guarded or nonexistent, blame culture is rife, and people consistently get away with behaviour that is harmful, dishonest, or unethical, or even downright nasty and disrespectful.

Why does this happen?

When we employ a team, we often bring together a group of very different people, who come from very different backgrounds and previous work experiences. If 1 or 2 of your team previously worked in environments (or came from families) where this behaviour happened consistently, it can seem very familiar, if not completely ‘normal’ to them, so of course, they bring it with them into your business when they join the team.

“Of course, I’m going to give her a mouthful if she talks back to me. That’s what you do!”

“You have to teach these young ones a bit of discipline early on, otherwise they’ll never respect authority.”

“Nobody tells me what to do. I just tell them exactly what I think, and if they don’t like it, well, tough!”

“That’s just how I speak. They’re just going to have to get used to it”

I’m sure you’ve heard it all before. Unless you have clear and open conversations right from the start about values, expectations and what you’ll need from them in terms of behaviour in your workplace, and you act on it at the first sign of trouble, you can bet that you’ll get a few of these ‘nasty surprises’ as you welcome new team members to your business.

Combine that with a Manager who hesitates or avoids dealing with it, won’t have the necessary conversations for fear of losing a staff member or worse, contributes to the behaviour by laughing along or joining in and things can get out of control very rapidly.

Is it really that bad?

An unhealthy work environment is bad news for both managers and staff, having significant negative impacts on employees’ well-being and mental health as well as engagement, retention, and productivity.

Motivation and morale plummet, sick leave and absenteeism increases and the rate of stress, burnout, anxiety, and depression surge. Eventually, staff turnover starts to escalate as employees find themselves new jobs and as we know, in the current market, they’re not so easy to replace. Wages costs skyrocket.

No one is going to perform well under those conditions so of course, productivity and performance plummet. Employees begin to resent their Manager/Employer, conflict among the team increases due to infighting and a general feeling of unsafety, and interestingly…. shrinkage (or theft) tends to rise. (Think ‘I deserve this’ or ‘You owe me’.) Another cost we don’t always consider is the damage to your ‘brand’ as an employer. People talk, and the grapevine is very real! There are even websites dedicated to reviews from former staff who rate their experience in working for you. If things aren’t great within your workplace, you can bet that word will get around and… you’ll wonder why you’re getting very few responses to your recruitment ads, month after month, while other salons seem to find the ‘gems’.

How can you prevent or recover a toxic workplace?

Toxic behaviour will occur in any workplace to the extent that it’s allowed to happen. This is a real reflection of the values and priorities of the people in charge and their willingness to either condone or stamp out the behaviour. If you now recognise some of these symptoms in your environment, here’s how to begin to clean it up and turn it around:

1. Recognise and acknowledge the problem: The first step is to own it by acknowledging that a toxic environment exists and that there will have been an impact on all involved. It’s time for some open and honest conversations initially between owners, leaders, and managers and then with the full team about what has occurred and how you can move forward from here.

2. Listen. For employees to rebuild trust there will need to be an element of forgiveness, which won’t occur until they genuinely believe that you get it, you’re listening and you’re willing to do what it takes to do better. If they have felt wronged, they will want to have their voice heard and their pain acknowledged and respected. Plus, you must truly understand what was not OK, how it got this far, and what needs to be very different from this day on.

3. Define clear behavioural expectations and values: It’s time to create your Team Code (of conduct). This will be 8-10 behavioural agreements created in collaboration with your team, that define ‘How we do things here’. A list of commitments that promote responsibility, respect, communication, fairness, and a supportive work culture. These become your ‘Rules of the Game’ with each team member signing on to live and breathe them every day within these walls. Then it’s up to management to ensure these are upheld and reinforced at all times. These will be tested, and they will be watching to see what you do. Will it be all talk, or do these values really mean something to you and are you be willing to be the leader they need you to be?

4. Guide their behaviours. Remember that some of your people will go home to exactly the kinds of behaviours that you’re trying to stamp out or may be in such an entrenched pattern, that they’ll easily slip back into old habits. Remember that while this is very serious, it may be the first time that someone has addressed these habits with them, and they may never have witnessed healthier ways to resolve problems or deal with frustration. They can’t be it if they can’t see it. Demonstrate the behaviours you want to see from them. Yes, correct unacceptable actions and do it quickly, but also guide them with better alternatives: ‘Here’s how you could have dealt with that issue’. ‘I would have preferred if you said something like this’.

5. Separate their emotion from their choice of action. Some will struggle accepting responsibility for the way they reacted, blaming their behaviour on the person they’re annoyed with. ‘I did that because he did this. It’s not my fault.’ Acknowledge their annoyance but show them where they could have made better choices.

“I get that you’re annoyed, and I understand why, but the way you responded to it is not OK and cannot happen again. This is what you could have done in that situation to have stayed within our values and shown more respect.”

6. Reward behaviours you want repeated. When you see staff demonstrating healthy, respectful, and supportive behaviour, acknowledge it and thank them for it. Praise them for contributing to a positive workplace and upholding your team values. When someone comes to you to say, “Listen, I think you need to know about this’, and tells you about a concerning behaviour or nasty comment they overheard from a team mate, make them feel like a hero for not engaging in the gossipy behaviour and coming to you instead. That shows real maturity and takes courage. And it also reinforces that it’s not who we are or what we do around here. That’s walking the talk!

Remove the weeds!

Dealing with toxic behaviour is like ridding your prized garden of weeds. All your hard work will quickly be undone if you allow them to remain, as they’ll rapidly overtake the garden and suffocate the plants (team) you’ve taken such care to grow.

Don’t just stand there and complain about the weeds, while you allow them to take hold. Pull them out, roots and all, at the first sign and keep doing it to ensure your workplace is weed-free from here on.

Kym Krey is a true Manager’s mentor with a fascination for human behaviour. She excels in the area of developing strong leaders and healthy, high-performing cultures and she’ll show you how to build positive, productive relationships, clarify expectations and instil accountability, plus tackle those tricky conversations that we tend to avoid! Get in touch at kymkrey.com.au