toxicworkplace101

[toxicworkplace101]

What exactly is a toxic workplace?

In this article we are taught what a toxic workplace truly looks like, how it’s not exactly what everyone thinks of when they think of anything being toxic. It explains that a toxic workplace doesn’t just mean it’s a place where you simply dislike the people or where there is conflict, as conflict is normal anywhere. A toxic workplace is actually more like a place where you feel uninspired or anxiety before arriving. A place you are constantly dreading to be at and have zero motivation. If you can not advance yourself or have any success much further from where you began it is a high chance you are in a Toxic work environment.

It goes into depth about how toxic workplaces do have a lot to do with the people who are in charge and how that affects the employees, being a systematic issue. Often in a toxic environment those that aren’t willing to go above and beyond with harsh requests they are not taken seriously, are ignored, or even harassed until they leave. Basically, whoever isn’t willing to accept a toxic culture and turn a blind eye is slowly pushed out. Places like these don’t usually have a proper way to report abuse or inappropriate behavior due to the way it is structured or the lack of actually qualified people in charge. Instead of it being because a few people it is the environment in itself, toxic places can be racist, abusive, lack effectiveness and lack boundaries.

The article ends with the question “What do you do about a toxic workplace?” and explains how you have to understand what it means to be a toxic workplace first. It stresses how it is mainly a systematic problem and is much harder to help change. In order to help change a toxic workplace and create a healthy and motivating place to work you have to start from within the institution. Unfortunately, it’s made clear that institutional changes are really difficult to come by unless you are a person of institutional power to create change. If you are not a person that has that power or the ability to buy in then it is best to work on your own well being before trying to make a huge change you have almost no power to do so.

How does the article apply to other workplaces? If it does not, why not? This article definitely applies to other workplaces as it’s something commonly know all around the world, it explains ways about what a toxic workplace is, how it came to be and what you can do to fix it. Just like it says at the end about institutional changes being difficult is very accurate to real life workplaces as changes can not be made if not from high up and within. Changes can not be made if those with power do not care. It is a truly real issue that applies to different workplaces everywhere.

Relate the article to yourself personally. This can be sharing a similar experience, something to think about in your future business career or your personal thoughts and opinions on the content. Out of the places I’ve worked, 3 of those places have been call/contact centres and they were all incredibly toxic in the eyes of this article. At the beginning of the article, it mentions that a true example of a toxic workplace is when an employee experiences anxiety and just uninspired. At each one of those places, I dreaded going in it was a genuine rage every morning having to get ready to go there. It was not because of my fellow coworkers or supervisors but simply the company in itself, we were forced to deal with some customer service that was poor and created many escalations with customers. Fairly so due to the rules being ridiculously made. It is something that I’ve always been frustrated about that has driven me to not care about my work or improving because a saw it as a need to pay my rent and that’s it. It was easy to quit each time. My opinion is that a lot of situations like this can be fixed when you change management training and actually caring enough about employees to properly train employees to deal with situations and back up your employees. That alone alleviates the toxic environment and improves overall performance by the employees.

Berman, N. (2021, September 27). What Exactly is a Toxic Workplace? Fractured Atlas. https://blog.fracturedatlas.org/what-is-a-toxic-workplace

[toxicworkplace101]

Signs of a toxic workplace and how to deal with it

In this article it explains the popularity of the word “toxic” in recent times and has made it unhealthy for everyone as it encourages negativity. This word is heard everywhere, in different aspects of people’s lives but it is particularly spoken a lot within the business world. It is important especially for business owners to be careful with their businesses and pay extra attention to these details before their business becomes a place employees dread. The point of this article is specifically for these business owners that do not notice certain behaviours or are too proud of their success they are blinded to it. This offer gives examples of different signs to a toxic workplace and solution ideas.

Some examples given to express what a toxic workplace looks like are Incentives to stay in the office, Lack of employee privacy, and Micromanagement. Often when you work somewhere that is constantly trying to keep you in the office whether it be something that seems amazing is a big sign of toxicity. It is a way of controlling the employees by always keeping them in with incentives. An example they provided is google, google often has crazy fun things like pool tables, ball pits, comfy rooms and more but it is likely for an ulterior motive. A lack of employee privacy is a big red flag, lack of privacy in general is toxic energy so a company that doesn’t allow employees their own freedom of privacy does not go well. For example, if a company does a survey that involves personal opinions it is best to make them anonymous, so people feel comfortable expressing themselves. A company that lacks privacy will not give them that right and ask to have their names. These company’s often view their employees as property rather than human which is very disrespectful. Micromanaging may seem like a good thing or sometimes looked at as training or support but in reality, it is not good or helpful for any organization. It is incredibly toxic especially when every little task needs approval from management, it shows that you don’t trust your employees and creates dependability.

The difficult part of working with toxic people or in a toxic workplace is knowing how to deal with it and/or create solutions. It says that sometimes toxic workplaces can be mistaken with a place of mismatched values, meaning where simply people don’t fall well together due to personality types, that doesn’t mean they have to be toxic. Being a leader of an organization it is important to figure out the differences prior to any action. The number one priority to avoid a toxic work environment if you are a leader would be to fully understand the values of the company or of your own and hiring people that are in line with it. Other solutions offered are to ensure good work-life separations and not having the employees be slaves to their job. Allowing employees to submit anonymous feedback and actually acting on their feedback. Having more one on one meetings where employees can express themselves openly and comfortable. Lastly, letting employees and trusting your employees to execute small tasks on their own and only offer feedback after they have finished.

How does the article apply to other workplaces? If it does not, why not? Actually in this article they used an example from another workplace, which was google and I know for a fact a lot of other workplaces at that level do the same thing of incentivizing employees getting them to stay longer and longer. Al this “fun” stuff is often portrayed in movies, in fact a movie called “The internship” starring Owen Wilson shows how google is on the inside and it makes it seem like it’s just fun all the time.  Aside from google there are a lot of environments like this that almost make people become slaves to their job because if they’re doing nice things for you, they must care, and you feel forced to stay and work harder. On a more positive note, I’ve seen workplaces that do hire people that fit the goals and values of the company which does help the overall work culture and avoids toxicity.

Relate the article to yourself personally. This can be sharing a similar experience, something to think about in your future business career or your personal thoughts and opinions on the content. This article really reminded of a place I worked at a few years back called 24-7 InTouch, but of the call centers I worked at this was probably the least toxic and my feeling of dread to go there was purely my own issues. With that being said though there were definitely a few things that matched the examples in the article, specifically I worked for Lyft which is a driving company similar to Uber, Lyft was just a company within 24-7. They constantly did the typical “fun” stuff but more than I’ve ever seen anywhere, it was like a mini google, they had games on the floor like pool, foosball, they had a music area where you could play instruments and listen to the radio, they had reading areas, their own little snack store in the lunchroom, and more things like that within the building. Aside from the fun stuff they had available at all times they would do little “fun” events at least weekly like popcorn day, yoghurt bar, pizza day and they even gave us gifts for Christmas, I remember receiving a gift card to polo park mall. That was all incredibly fun, and I never saw anything wrong with it but I understand now it was a form of control as they were really bad with micromanaging and lack of privacy. They were monitoring every little move we made, to the second even the smallest of tasks and were very strict with cellphones on the floor, even sometimes talking to each other was not allowed. The cellphone thing is understandable to a point, but it was bad enough to where you couldn’t listen to music when doing silent work, so 8 hours of staring at a screen alone with your thoughts. On a positive note one thing they did always do right was constant one on one meetings with your team leader where they would give you feedback and offer you many opportunities on giving feedback back and were always willing to help you improve and move up which is a sign of avoiding toxic behaviour in the workplace. Madden, T. (2021, November 13). Top Signs of a Toxic Workplace and How to Deal. Entrepreneur. https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/391066

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How to build confidence after a toxic workplace

This video is about gaining back your confidence in a toxic job, in 5 steps you can rebuild the confidence. This is to help you after you leave a toxic work environment as most of the time when you’ve been in a toxic environment for so long you get down and lose motivation whether you know it or not. This video goes into detail on different ways to create confidence and rebuild motivation for your future.

It begins explaining how confidence is actually created whether it be internally or externally, external confidence will be something like comments on social media, awards, praise from peers. This all gives you dopamine that makes you feel god rebuilding the confidence. In a toxic place you are unlikely to receive any sort of external confidence as it’s unlikely to be any positivity. Internal confidence Is steadier as it’s all up to you at all times, you can have inner belief in your potential despite the situation you’re in. To build internal confidence you need to be more self aware and build self acceptance then toxic work environments won’t affect you as much. The next step is to curate how important some things may be and if it actually matters in reality. The best way to do this is to not take things personally and be more critical with your thinking. The step after that to build confidence is to create an “inventory of awesome” you do this by compiling positive compliments, any sort of praise and positive feedback. When you keep this stuff documented at all times, read it and add to it at least once a week it can really help you with confidence and serve as a reminder that you’re doing great. The next step is to check your self talk, by being super critical about yourself or have constant negative thoughts it does not help and helps you spiral. It is better to turn those negative thoughts into more positives and speak to yourself in a way you would speak to someone you love. Lastly, the way to build your confidence is to know your UAQ(Unique awesomeness quotient) because it helps you really understand what your strengths are and highest potential area. If you are made aware of this the more you can focus in those areas and experience less negativity.

It can take time to work on and it seems difficult but by trying and making moves you can build the confidence you may have lost do to a toxic workplace. It is important for everyone to stop just surviving the toxic workplace but need to thrive in these environments.

How does the article apply to other workplaces? If it does not, why not? This video applies to pretty much any type of workplace, you could lose and rebuild your confidence in any field. It’s important to have a lot of confidence in all workplaces but specifically places where you do work with a lot of people or have a high pressure job. It is important to be confident in all aspects to help you grown and your overall success.

Relate the article to yourself personally. This can be sharing a similar experience, something to think about in your future business career or your personal thoughts and opinions on the content. This is something to think about in the future, I think in the video she provides really good steps on how to become more confident in the workplace. It is a very positive and helpful video that I will be sure to remember and integrate into my life if I ever feel stressed or down in a work environment.

How to Build Confidence After a Toxic Workplace (Toxic Job Recovery). (2021, June 1). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e3LHq6CXMs

[toxicworkplace101]

How to address a toxic workplace culture

This is a podcast by Talent Canada on conversations for workplace leaders and Human resources professionals on how to address toxic workplace culture. They have guest Mina Movasseli to speak on this topic as she’s a behaviour analyst and founder of Mind the Blueprint. She wrote an article for Talent Canada on this topic and how behaviours and reactions affect the office. She explains what she’s personally seen in these environments that made her understand the certain behaviors.

She mentions the simple act of eating at your desk can tell a lot about a company because if people at company’s eat at their desk is because you prefer to be working instead of taking a break. If you understand employees eat at their desk is probably because the company doesn’t really care about their employees as they are working them to the bone but in reality, that is not a healthy practice for any company. Science and research have said that your brain can work short number of hours to be productive and after that you won’t be doing the best work. We are programmed to think that if we are busy all the time and doing so much that we are being productive but according to science that is not the case. She mentions that company’s with good values are good company’s and every time you go to a new company your values need to align, doing this will help you part from toxic environment. A lot of people have subconscious behaviours due to their toxic workplaces. Most people think it’s okay to accept the toxic work environments and see nothing wrong but do know that there are toxic things like management or their teams but still stay. People are scared to make changes due to the anxiety and fear these environments give due to it’s toxicity. People continuing in these toxic environments tend to lose their identity’s and feel more and more lost and even though they don’t realize it is something that stays with you even outside the office.

Mina believes that most places begin with management, how they do subconscious behavior that negatively affects the place and they don’t realize it’s based off their creation. Management or whoever being self aware and accepting that they might be the problem can go a long way into the beginning of changing a toxic work environment. She says it is important for employees to use their voice and that it is okay to say no in the workplace without fear, they are not slaves to the job. She says management should allow room for employees to give opinions freely and open to say no without fear. She says that anonymous feedback can be good but can sometimes not be effective when an employee is angry and emotional in their opinion and doesn’t give constructive criticism. It’s better for management to ask behavioral questions and specific questions to avoid these situations in the first place rather than accepting feedback after things are toxic. If needed also, hiring professionals to join the company and specifically help in these areas to better the environment. She ends the podcast by saying what employees can do to ensure a good environment by showing who you are as a person, be more comfortable. Tactics to use are the comfortability to say no, the company values aligning with the employees, knowing what employees truly want aside from the money like adding more “fun” things to the company pertaining to the employees and actually listen to them. If a company hires properly and listen to employees it helps the overall performance and success of a company.

How does the article apply to other workplaces? If it does not, why not? The specific details mentioned in this podcast about company’s not caring abut their employees and wanting them to work like horses is really good representation for most office jobs. Office jobs since they are technically comfortable in the sense where you have a desk and a chair people don’t feel the need to take breaks and do often eat at their desks. Other places that could fall under that would be high pressure jobs like surgeons but in those cases most of the time they don’t even have the time to eat.

Relate the article to yourself personally. This can be sharing a similar experience, something to think about in your future business career or your personal thoughts and opinions on the content. I found it incredibly interesting how she used the analogy about people eating at their desks showing how a company can be toxic. I never thought about it that way and completely agree, I worked at a company that everyone would eat at their desks constantly and they did not actually have 15 minute breaks. We were allowed 30 minute lunch but most people stayed at their desk and that was it. A the time I did not think anything of it as everyone did it and I looked at it as more of convenience not having to get up and go to the lunchroom but in reality it is a very unhealthy practice.

Canada, T., Canada, T., Canada, T., Canada, T., & Canada, T. (2020, June 25). How to address a toxic workplace culture. Talent Canada. https://www.talentcanada.ca/podcasts/how-to-address-a-toxic-workplace-culture/

[toxicworkplace101]

Toxic work environment: How to recognize the red flags and what to do

This article explains the red flags of a toxic workplace, how to recognize them and what to do when presented in a situation like this. A great way to explain what a toxic work environment is a place where employees can not progress in their careers because of a negative atmosphere. Apparently, the word “toxic” when describing a workplace dates back to the 1960’s and was meant in a literal sense. Back then there were more workplaces lacking safety and had risks of cancerous chemicals, and infectious microbes. In the 1980’s the work expanded into something closer to our times by including behaviours and regulations. The word became popular by Virginia K Baillie in her book about how nurses had to behave to have the leadership skills of a man and how harmful that is. In this article there is not much difference between a toxic environment in today’s standards compared to that of those times.

There are 11 aspects to a workplace and depending on how you handle it is what differentiates a toxic and a healthy workplace. The 11 things on the list were goals, values, roles, communication, decision making, feelings, listening, self-disclosure, conflicted, human resources, and task completion. There is a fine line that reflects each, for example if your goals are obscure and unclear it is toxic where clear and obvious is healthy. Workplaces becomes damaging to employees randomly and usually inexplicably because most of the time they are being ignored.

The rest of the article goes on to explain different ways to identify what a toxic workplace is, it is important to observe people in the office, how hard you’re pushing for success, creative freedom, good communication, how people feel about their work, how failures and success are treated, are opinions being validated, is there too much unnecessary work, special treatment towards some employees, is everyone tense? Those are some example questions to ask yourself when trying to see if a place is toxic.

How does the article apply to other workplaces? If it does not, why not? One thing that stood out about the article relating to other workplaces was where they mentioned the word toxic comes back to the 60’s because of literal toxic environments. The directly refers to real life events back then and how the idea of a toxic workplaces originated.

Relate the article to yourself personally. This can be sharing a similar experience, something to think about in your future business career or your personal thoughts and opinions on the content. In a part in the article it mentions goals, how if company’s goals are unclear it adds to toxic environment and I completely agree. When a company doesn’t have clear goals how are employees going to respect the company and their coworkers if they don’t understand the importance. It creates a lack of professionalism and unmotivated people and when people are like that, they will feel entitled to behave negatively and don’t improve. Employees that don’t respect the company is a recipe for a toxic workplace so they should always set clear goals and values from the jump, as well as much more.

Stojanovic, M., & Stojanovic, M. (2020, January 29). Toxic work environment: how to recognize the red flags and what to do. Clockify Blog. https://clockify.me/blog/business/toxic-work-environment/

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Toxic workplace at Rideau Hall

This article explains an incident in Ottawa at the Rideau Hall created by a governor general named Julie Payette who is the queen’s representative in Canada. A review of the matter was prompted by Jagmeet Singh who is the NDP leader. This was brought up due to staff complaints of being belittled, yelled at and publicly humiliated by Julie Payette. It is know that Justin Trudeau has not done or said anything to help process this review which sparks anger from people looking for solutions. These complaints came about on a CBC article and included about dozen people alleging toxic climate at Rideau Hall. Justin has stated that “every Canadian has the right to a safe and secure workspace free from harassment” but has not given an opinion detailed in line with what the direct issue is. He says that In June the government is enacting an anti-harassment regulation, taking effect January 2021.

In the article Julie Payette and others working higher up at Rideau Hall are denying harassment by expressing that the staff take pride in their work and enjoy challenges and a dynamic workplace. They say that any sort of complaint is always taken very seriously meaning they are not taking full accountability to those currently upset. They “deeply regret this reporting which is in stark contrast to reality of working there” this means they are not sorry for what has happened hence proving the point of those complaints as this is a form of gas lighting which in turn is very toxic behaviour in a workplace.

People are upset at the way the prime minister and privy council handled the situation, a Carleton University professor Philippe Lagasse has given an opinion on how it should’ve been handled. He says the best way would’ve been for Justin r the council t figure something out directly with the governor instead of creating another regulation that will likely not be followed.

How does the article apply to other workplaces? If it does not, why not? I’ve heard of many other workplaces within the government or politics in general being very toxic so It’s not surprising that something like this has happened. The way Julie Payette and the other high ups responded in defense of themselves reminded me about another workplace I read an article about here in Canada. It was firefighters complaining of bullying and harassment and most people did not have their backs and spoke in defense of the “bullies” and in a sense gaslight the people being harassed. I’ve heard this happening in many situations.

Relate the article to yourself personally. This can be sharing a similar experience, something to think about in your future business career or your personal thoughts and opinions on the content. I find it really upsetting to hear people being so defensive over a place of work rather than the people in it. When they sort of denied things happening and making it seem like it was such a happy place to work just made it seem more toxic. I think that when you are somewhere where you receive serious complaints especially of harassment it is best to take accountability, make these people feel heard and cared about and then find solutions for these people. In my opinion it is important to back up your staff in all situations even if you may not 100% agree all the time but denying just doesn’t add positive solution and creates bigger problems for yourself. I also agree that Justin Trudeau should’ve handled it better by making it a direct concern with Julie Payette instead of adding a regulation that barely makes a dent in the system.

Platt, B. (2020, July 22). Trudeau sidesteps calls to launch review after claims Governor General has created “toxic workplace” at Rideau Hall. Nationalpost. https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/trudeau-sidesteps-calls-to-launch-review-after-claims-governor-general-has-created-toxic-workplace-at-rideau-hall

[toxicworkplace101]

Tackling a toxic work culture

In this article we learn how to tackle a toxic work culture within 4 steps beginning with how to know what a toxic work culture is, what causes a toxic work environment, what should employees do if they find themselves in a toxic environment and what steps HR leaders need to take to address toxicity in the workplace. Toxic workplaces can sometimes be very obvious like the example given being a stereotypical boss who arks out order and demeans employees. With that though, some workplaces can be toxic without you noticing or so quickly it’s hard to stop. This article is specifically towards HR leaders and how they can help in these situations

What is a toxic work culture? The biggest reason given here, and I’ve read in other articles as well is anxiety. Employees feeling anxiety about going into work for fear of being bullied, humiliated, or shamed into silent compliance. It is said that people in these environments feel psychologically unsafe because some places really do violate human rights which is very toxic. Common signs of a toxic workplace are as follows: Increased turnover, company core values are not lived out by team members, low morale, poor communication, harassment, bullying and abuse, regular fighting, discriminatory attitude and behaviours, gossip and cliques, lack of respect, retaliation for raising concerns, manipulation and blame games and disregard for employee’s personal life. Ultimately toxic work environments are caused by the people at the top and how they manage the workplace but also often it’s due to pluralistic ignores which means bias from a social group. That is created for example if there’s clear abuse and harassment and people don’t speak up and prefer to sweep things under the rug. For employees in a toxic environment, they should try to find solutions for themselves to stay mentally safe from their environment. Ways for them to create solutions are some like befriending like minded coworkers who share values making it not only bearable but enjoyable to be there. Depending on the situation, another solution is simply to lead, being a god leader in these situations rather than group bias goes a long way as there will always be people t comply if it is positive. Lastly it is important to hold people accountable, find ways to document situations for protection in case of retaliation. Then hold people accountable, sometimes you could really help someone change and improve which helps the entire environment.

For HR leaders to address a toxic workplace it takes very specific steps that include observing the team, how they act and react towards one another. Taking ownership is important even if they do not literally

own all conflict it really helps the situation with them taking ownership. Making decisions quickly that provide good solutions and acting on their word of whatever new regulation they add with their solutions. The loop is important, and the loop is to decide, act, evaluate, adjust, and repeat, it is the perfect way to tackle the situations that arise. Lastly the Bottom-line is not just being self aware and acknowledging the toxicity but by acting with integrity in the future.

How does the article apply to other workplaces? If it does not, why not? This one is specifically towards Human resource managers and I think this applies to real HR people and how they are generally in control of these situations. Many HR people often try to use “loop” as a method to create better work environments, it is not often executed properly but it certainly does apply in many companies.

Relate the article to yourself personally. This can be sharing a similar experience, something to think about in your future business career or your personal thoughts and opinions on the content. In the article it mentions pluralistic ignores and I’ve had many experience in my life concerning this. Off the top of my head, I can think of 2 places in which I’ve witnessed this myself. The first place is my very first job which at the time was the Convention Centre, that company was so large that they did not care about the employees, they did not even care to learn our names. No matter how difficult the job got at times I would never see anybody make proper complaints and would always just ignore it because it was such a specific environment everyone kind of just went with it. I did not have a personally negative experience while I was there but later on thinking about it it was definitely a toxic place to work then. I too worked at another place I will not name but it was so toxic and bad with the pluralistic ignores where they would ignore anything that was not thought up by the leaders. Everything was manipulated to workout in the leaders favors even if we gave the choice to the others to decide. What made it a pluralistic ignore was the fact that there was a lot of shady stuff going on, but it was never acknowledged or questioned within the leaders and was always swept under the rug and everyone moved on. It was one of the most toxic environments I have ever been a part of and I was too someone that chose to never speak up in situations of manipulation even though I knew it was wrong.

Utomi, T. (2021, May 13). Tackling a Toxic Work Culture. HRPA. https://www.hrpa.ca/hr-insights/tackling-a-toxic-work-culture/

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Ellen Degeneres and her toxic workplace

This is a clip from the Joe Budden podcast speaking about the Ellen Degeneres toxic workplace. It talks about how the Ellen Degeneres work environment started gaining traction due to harassment being called out within the staff. It began from staff member misconduct against other staff members and people began taking it to twitter and employees speaking up also claiming Ellen Degeneres herself has not been that great either. Ellen was being accused of being at the head of a toxic work environment and creating a community of fear in the work environment.

They explain a little about how Ellen Degeneres is a person who has suffered oppression due to her sexuality and is now being accused of oppressing others. They find it strange that someone who has been oppressed is now passing judgment and being discriminatory, but they see it as a cycle. In the article they are reading it mentions that employees there suffer from hostile, racist and unpleasant environment. Some allegations were racism, wrongful termination and overall toxic work environment like workers being fired for taking days for funerals, medical leave and it pushed fear to the staff on the show. This is also adding the company that the show is at which is Warner Media to possibly place blame there, but they have not spoken on it. Ellen then made a public statement saying something along the lines of wanting to provide an environment of inclusion and how she did not know about what was going on as she was not very hands on. After more allegations they were beginning to think of replacing Ellen as the allegations kept coming after the statement was made.

Those in the conversation in the podcast gave their pinions on what will happen with Ellen in the future considering what is happening. They each think that Ellen will be fine after this, that she’ll take some time but eventually will come back like normal because most of her fans don’t care too much about what is going and will follow her. They believe that people may be upset for sometime but will eventually accept it and move on from it.

How does the article apply to other workplaces? If it does not, why not? This situation can happen at any workplace but it is definitely seen more within the entertainment industry. It is known that most places (not all) where they have tv shows, movies, etc are often very toxic. Since the crew and staff is so large it is hard to manage everything that happens and there is always reports of abuse or harassment which later comes out in the media. Usually there isn’t much done and the stories of these people get over looked but it is a really big problem in Hollywood and has been for decades.

Relate the article to yourself personally. This can be sharing a similar experience, something to think about in your future business career or your personal thoughts and opinions on the content. I believe that that really was a toxic environment for them due to the same reason most Hollywood studios are and that’s because the higher ups care more about money and success than taking care of their people. It is incredibly sad to hear how Ellen responded considering she is an oppressed individual who did experience hate and has always advocated for kindness. In my opinion it looked like she was kind of going with what was said but did not really take accountability and just gave an excuse that she wasn’t “hands on” I think those are just excuses so people leave her alone and forget. This article was a while back, now I believe the show is ending and she is retiring as the allegations never stopped and she was in turn “cancelled” as they call it these days. I’m not a huge fan of cancel culture but in this case, I think it was fair as there were many reports behind the scenes and as well on tv, she was often very rude to her own guests and was getting called out for it. I believe it was time.

Ellen Degeneres And Her Toxic Workplace | The Joe Budden Podcast. (2020, August 8). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=od9ohOdpvFg

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Time’s up for toxic workplaces

This article is in line with a few others where it’s not just about “bad bosses” or situations alike but goes further than that. Yes, most of the time it begins at the top but then spreads down to the other employees and over all environments. What creates the biggest spread is people thinking it’s normal and accepting it, they see the way bosses act and end up acting the same most of the time. Employees end up believing that this behaviour is just how it’s done there and suffer through it to get through the day. According to the article, there have been studies that the employees that experience abusive from their employees due continue the behaviour and pass it on like a ripple effect. This is why it is literally an entire environment that can be toxic and not just a person or a few.

It is said that most of the toxic workplaces have even worse performance by their employees, this is because they entire group negatively impacts their efficacy, not creating great results. The environment destroys confidence and motivation of people because they don’t feel they are capable of performing certain tasks because of the abuse. The worst thing that a toxic workplace can do is when it begins to affect the lives of these employees beyond the workplace and they experience anxiety and negative energy at home or anywhere they go. The article adds that these are very difficult situations and want to know what can be done to change behaviours in these environments, so they asked both supervisors and employees about if they are willing to address abuse at work. They learnt that supervisors that have been abusive or had toxic behaviour felt less valued and appreciated at work because of it. That then ended up reducing their sense of worth overall affecting their own performances.

After the studies performed for this article, they learnt that there are ways companies can improve and fic the toxic environment. Beginning with increasing awareness and actually taking the time to train and educate managers about the negative sides that comes with abusing others. If these people are made aware of consequences at the beginning it is less likely they will misuse their power and will perform better overall. Another way to improve is adding the option for anonymous feedback, then people are able to express themselves in hopes of being helped. This will only work if you take the feedback seriously and act quickly on solving the concerns expressed by the employees. Lastly, organizations have to enforce more positive behaviour of being fair and having ethical norms all around within company life.

How does the article apply to other workplaces? If it does not, why not? A take away I took from this article was it’s mention on how you know a place is very toxic is when employees take the toxicity home and it affect their personal lives. It is something that very much applies to a lot of workplaces specifically like very important corporate jobs, mostly in sales. Sales professionals on a high level do not just work at the office but are always working and working a high-pressure job where you’re trying to close deals with people. You can be working on a deal at all hours of the day and often have to adjust your lifestyle to fit the clients in order to close a sale. It is considered normal but really it is pretty toxic having to have that pressure and stress at all times.

Relate the article to yourself personally. This can be sharing a similar experience, something to think about in your future business career or your personal thoughts and opinions on the content. I realized reading this article that supervisors are also affected by toxic behaviours, often times we as a society look to them to place blame but in reality, there’s people above them. If a supervisor isn’t properly trained and given the right values and known consequences, they’re not going to perform their best and in turn it spreads to the other employees. It is not an excuse or in defense of supervisors necessarily, but I think it’s important to give them the benefit of the doubt on occasions that they just were never given the chance to improve and the way they act is learnt behaviour from people higher up.

Time’s Up for Toxic Workplaces. (2021, September 10). Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2020/06/times-up-for-toxic-workplaces

[toxicworkplace101]

A toxic workplace: It could never happen here, right?

In this article is about managers and business owners that have not been aware their work environment is toxic; nobody wants to have a bad work environment. It’s made clear that no workplace is safe from turning bad and toxic, there could be some slip ups that have a ripple effect and suddenly it’s an overall bad environment. It can happen slowly and quietly that the managers don’t even notice or have a chance to react at all. Every manager or leader in a business have to constantly have their guards up and worry about what is going on in their environment to prevent it from happening. It is never good to have the mindset of “this won’t happen here” and shift towards “It is possible to happen here and I’m prepared to find solutions if it does”

According to this specific article the 2 main reasons for a toxic workplace is shouting and silence. This is because both are dangerous and negative, of course yelling is a sign of toxicity being most people that yell are angry and/or already in a conflict and not a productive one if it involves yelling. Silence on the other hand is just as bad because you’re either being silenced in fear of getting humiliated or simply terminated and the other way is seeing bad things and not saying anything to help. Another thing that silence could mean is in the literal sense silence in the workplace means none of the employees are speaking to each other Both big signs of toxicity and overall, just adds no productivity to an organization.

Another way to know it’s a toxic environment is the turnover numbers, if new hires can’t get comfortable and they keep quitting it is probably for a reason and a big way to see you need change. In this article it says management is responsible for the performance of a company and that is where you need to begin when looking for a reason for the toxic place.

In order to find a solution you have to identify the cause and begin to observe the management and what kind of values they show as a company. After the cause is identified you’d need to confront the individual(s) that are at the root but carefully as some people may be In denial and unwilling. It is important to always keep documentation of the discussions about the topic. Try different options to help them change but if no change is made it is okay to terminate, then you get rid of the problem all together. If the spread is larger than just one person then the solution will also have to be on a larger scale, one way to do so is conducting a survey to gather data on why there is problems at the organizations and specifics about what is making the employees unhappy. When reasons are identified it is important to begin changing thins like the workload amount for certain employees and schedule changes, so the employees are not overworked and overwhelmed. A simpler way to provide solutions would be adding something fun, increasing positive energy will help shift the over all energy within the environment. This approach might only solve the problem temporarily so another way to add to it is to recognize employee accomplishments, appreciation goes a long way.

How does the article apply to other workplaces? If it does not, why not? This article describes behaviours that are often seen specifically at an office. Offices are probably the most toxic workplaces because you mostly see the same people every day and share the same tasks. It is very easy to think it won’t happen there but if you’re not careful in the hiring process and hire people that don’t work well with one another you are risking the company’s ability to turn toxic. In a regular office that is toxic there is always personal drama being spread, cliques within people and very little privacy with each other.

Relate the article to yourself personally. This can be sharing a similar experience, something to think about in your future business career or your personal thoughts and opinions on the content. The things this article explained, perfectly described the worst company I’ve ever worked for which is Skip the Dishes. They had the worst management, worst training and very little knowledge or control over their employees and the real higher ups did not care to. In my personal experience I was not trained well enough and was thrown on the floor to answer questions I was absolutely not ready for. In other call centers I was still not trained well but the systems were easy enough for you to self teach yourself and you fake your knowledge, but not Skip. I have countless of stories of management mishandling situations with myself and my peers, they had ridiculous rules and the supervisors were the least knowledgeable to help. The customer complaints were very valid because the customer service was terrible considering the employees are poorly trained and get away with not performing well, the supervisors too not caring and not helping employees and management not having a clue of anything. Scheduling was horrible, many people lost opportunities of having 2 jobs that they need because Skip is not willing to help employees and keep employees. The turnover rates were high, and people were constantly coming and going because it was such a horrible place. The absolute most toxic environment I’ve been in, I experience deep anxiety and dread having to go there even when covid hit and I became a home agent.  When I worked at the office, I did not like to talk to anyone and would isolate myself, a lot of people did the same thing but there were still friendly coworkers that were genuine people but very few. To this day I believe that is a very toxic place and it needs big changes, especially to improve their performance and lower complaints but it needs to begin high up to make any real change.

Silsbee, L. (2019, December 10). A Toxic Workplace: “It Could Never Happen Here,” Right? Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2019/12/10/a-toxic-workplace-it-could-never-happen-here-right/?sh=11d7f0341d00

[toxicworkplace101]

Grand Summary

After compiling all of the articles, videos and a podcast there was a lot of information on toxic workplace, I’ve always known it was something that happened but I was never really aware of exactly the things that made a toxic workplace toxic. My initial assumptions were always things where there was constant drama or verbal aggressive behavior and personal issues involved. In reality toxic behaviour can be seen in more ways than just the obvious traits that people initially think, the stereotype’s of an angry boss that yells all the time or the gossiping coworkers. There is a lot more to it and a lot of things that happen subconsciously that I got to learn through out these summaries.

 I noticed that a lot of articles did have similarities and as well sometimes ended up contradicting each other and having complete different opinions. Despite that there was a lot of differed information from different perspectives which In turn added a lot of insight into the topic. Having many different perspectives made It to be really interesting and grasp as much knowledge and information as possible. The similarities that I gathered were that many toxic workplaces added anxiety to the employees where employees dreaded heading to work and would isolate themselves while being there. Another similarity within some articles was the pluralistic ignores where many people just accepted the toxic workplace as it was and did nothing to make changes, ignoring the signs. Some differences I noticed was some of the approaches on how to change the toxicity and or the root of the problem. Some think that toxic behaviour within a workplace begins at the very top or with management as they are who are In charge of how things work. Some think that toxic behaviour can happen no matter the management and can simply be between coworkers. Another situation can be learnt behaviour causing a ripple affect on the person below when one is harassed and abuse they are likely to then do the same to other below them. There were quite a few differences within changes, just like the root of the problem some thought in order to add change would have to only be at the top where the people with most power sit. Those with power were the only ones to make changes. Others believed that changes happen with one anther, each person needs to build internal confidence so the toxic environment doesn’t bother them any more.

After reading and learning so much from these articles, there’s a lot of things I agree with as well as some I don’t particularly find useful. I got to realize a lot of things based on my personal experience in the workforce that I hadn’t noticed at the time. I believe that a lot of people suppress the acknowledgement of a toxic workplace and think it’s fine on a surface level but sub consciously are aware of what’s going on. It is very real and very interesting to come to this understanding in general as you don’t usually realize until after. I like the idea of approaching these situations with additional professionals that are not biased coming in to company’s in order to help with these problems, I think this is something that should be normalized in every organization. More training and self awareness for management will go a very long way, as in my personal opinion it all begins with management. With good management, good hires and values set from the beginning you are more likely to avoid toxic environments. Essentially, stopping it before it begins by having everything in place, backing up and listening to your employees more and holding managers and wrong doers accountable.