Client Resource Center

As economic uncertainty persists in the wake of the pandemic and last year’s widespread layoffs in the technology sector, the word toxic is being deployed more and more frequently to describe workplace culture. It’s fairly normal for most people to describe their workplaces as stressful or annoying some of the time. What isn’t normal—or at least, shouldn’t be normal—is when the negative aspects of a workplace are so prominent that it can be described as toxic. But what exactly does that term mean?

Defining Characteristics and Causes

One helpful definition is found in a study of over 1.3 million employee reviews on Glassdoor that identified a toxic workplace as one exhibiting “the Toxic Five attributes—disrespectful, noninclusive, unethical, cutthroat, and abusive.” ¹ Drawing on this research, one recent survey found that many technology sector workplaces described by their employees as “toxic” showed high rates of the “Toxic Five”:²

• Disrespectful: Even though employees want their managers to respect them, 42% of respondents frequently receive the opposite treatment from their managers.
• Noninclusive: Forty percent of respondents experienced or witnessed “discrimination and unfair treatment—because of employees’ age, race, or gender” in their workplaces. 
• Unethical: Significant numbers of respondents reported being expected to work while off the clock (43%) or not receiving appropriate recognition for their accomplishments (44%). 
• Cutthroat: This type of hypercompetitive environment can take the form of “cutting [employees] out of key meetings and decisions” (reported by 44% of respondents), for example, or “antagonism and territoriality between different teams” (42%). 
• Abusive: A staggering 40% of survey respondents claim that abuse at work happens regularly, and13% even reported that they “encountered workplace aggression on a weekly basis.” 

In spite of these clear indications of toxicity in workplaces, 29% of the employees surveyed take no action about it because they think their efforts would be ineffective, and 20% remain silent because they fear retribution.³  

Many toxic workplaces have roots in one or more of the following factors: “off-the-clock work,” poor communication from and with leaders, and “a lack of consideration” (and empathy) for others. ⁴ But because each organization has its own unique culture, and different people respond differently to various factors, it’s important for leaders to ask their employees about their workplace culture. The people who actually work in that environment are the ones best positioned to identify the problems in it—and the causes of those problems.

The Role of Leadership

Because they have considerable influence over employees, leaders play a critical role in shaping culture at work: “when leaders are honest, accountable, kind, and considerate, employees will strive to embody those characteristics.” ⁵ Unfortunately, many leaders fail to exhibit those traits and instead either ignore or foster the behaviors that create a toxic workplace. Their positions of authority make them role models who can have both positive and negative influences. When leaders don’t work to eliminate toxicity, their actions can shape the culture and norms of the rest of the organization—and their leadership becomes toxic.

Toxic leaders aren’t motivated by concern for their employees or their companies but instead prioritize their own goals and ambitions. One leadership development organization has identified six characteristics of toxic leaders: 

• Autocratic: “They impose their will without stopping to consider the ideas and opinions that come from their team. They are focused on maintaining tight control and are intolerant of mistakes.” ⁶
• Narcissistic: They “have an exaggerated sense of their own importance. . . . They have an excessive need for admiration from other people and lack empathy when dealing with others.” 
• Manipulative: “These individuals will abuse their position, relationships, and organizational systems for their own gain.”
• Intimidating: They “will bully their subordinates and those around them to achieve their aim.” 
• Overly competitive: They have “a ‘win at all costs’ attitude often leaving a trail of damaged and broken individuals who have failed to keep up with their pace.” 
• Discriminatory: “They do not value diversity and surround themselves with people of the same ilk.”

Most toxic leaders exhibit more than one (and sometimes many or even all) of these traits. In all cases, though, toxic leaders focus on personal gain rather than prioritize their teams and the organization. 

Solutions

Because leaders are ultimately responsible for the creation of toxic workplaces, they are also the ones who must take action to fix them. It isn’t easy to change ingrained behaviors, though, but that goal can be accomplished through leader-specific training that helps leaders better understand their own and their team members’ behaviors and motivators.

By actively working to combat toxicity—and modeling positive behaviors themselves—leaders can not only inspire their own team members but pave the way for a company-wide transformation. An organization that eliminates toxicity (or never lets it gain a foothold there in the first place) will create a workplace that motivates and engages employees to achieve their best for themselves, for each other, and for the company.