Working in a toxic environment negatively affects you and your teammates. You may experience disengagement, apathy, and increased absences. This can lead to low-quality work, poor employee morale, and burnout. If you are in a toxic work environment, take action today to begin changing things for everyone’s benefit.
Discover some signs of a toxic work environment and steps you can take to try to turn things around.
Lack of Communication
Your manager may not be keeping your team informed about their work performance or company news. Not knowing how well you are performing or what is developing within the organization may cause you to feel left out. This can result in filling the void with gossip, assumptions, and misinformation.
What You Can Do
To increase the level of communication with your team, set up a time to talk with your manager. Let them know you would appreciate feedback on your work performance and information about the latest company news. Include how frequently you would like the feedback and whether the company updates should be through a phone call, email, chat, or app. Point out how improvement in these areas would make you feel more included as a valuable member of the organization.
High Stress Levels
Whether you work onsite, remotely, or hybrid, pay attention to how stressed you, your teammates, and your coworkers feel. Any of you may feel overwhelmed by the ongoing effects of the pandemic. This can lead to disengagement, low productivity, and burnout.
What You Can Do
If you continuously see someone’s stress level increase, talk with your manager or an HR employee. Share that you, your teammate, or your coworker is feeling more stressed than usual. Ask for support and resources to alleviate the problem. This may involve individual discussions with a manager, private counseling services, or a leave of absence to get more advanced help.
Strong Disengagement
Actively working toward shared goals and celebrating wins may not be part of your company culture. Your manager might not be praising and rewarding your individual and collective contributions and results. As a result, you and your team members likely will not feel like valued and respected members of the organization. This can lead to disengagement in your work.
What You Can Do
To combat disengagement in your work, talk with your manager about the importance of regularly providing employee recognition. They can do so in person, over the phone, or through a videoconference call, email, instant messaging, or hand-written note. The recognition may occur privately, such as during a one-on-one, or publicly, such as during a team meeting. Mention the importance of providing bonuses, raises, or promotions when appropriate.
Find a New Job
If you cannot change your work environment, let Staff Right Solutions help you find a better employer. Use this link to our job board.