You might think that whatever your workplace may look like, you do it for a living and that you should be satisfied that you earn your bread.
However, working at a toxic workplace may get you to earn more than just money – you can easily earn health problems on both physical and psychological level, and even if you are resilient, the mere negative atmosphere will eventually start chipping you away.
Which is more, toxic workplaces don’t offer space for growth. If you want to progress in your career, hoping for such progress in a toxic workplace is the same as hoping for snow on a hot summer day.
So, how can you tell if your workplace is toxic? Here are 8 telltale signs.
1. The employees are treated like expendable resources
There is a huge gap in the place of healthy human relations as the boss and the management treat their employees as expendable resources. They show little empathy and understanding for the people who work under them and the happiness and satisfaction of the employee is not something that receives enough focus.
2. Disrupted work-life balance
Many people feel like their lives depend on their jobs, which is true, and the employers are well aware of this. So, they choose to abuse this situation to their ends and pour more work on their employees instead of hiring more staff.
They simply see the employees as expendable, and they’d rather hire someone who won’t care about their work-life balance than have someone around who wants to be treated as a complete individual.
3. Internal competition
Because they are treated as expendable, the employees must compete with each other while the management assesses their individual performance without looking too much at how they can grow as a team.
4. Top-down and bottom-up bullying
The management doesn’t pay too much concern about the feelings of their employees and they accept bullying as the norm. Employees bully each other, the management bullies the employees, and there’s little one can do about it.
5. The bottom line has nothing to do with the employees
The company’s sole focus is set on cutting costs, generating larger profits, and beating the competition. Little consideration is given to other aspects that could make the company a place where workers can thrive and achieve more, although it is expected from them (or else.)
6. The rule of bureaucracy
The singular focus of the company is on micromanagement, breathing in employees’ necks about their every move. However, once something needs to get approved, the stairs become steep and riddled with traps. There are simply too many levels of management, and the greatest pressure is put on the lower levels.
7. Too many sticks, no carrots
Incentives are unnecessary expenses, and the motivation for performing well is based on the fear of losing the job. So, the management sets their eyes on what the employees have done wrong and positive feedback and encouragement is something that you might read only in a book. In the end, the rewards go to those who managed to trample the biggest number of employees to get something done.
8. The competent receive the heaviest load
If you are one of the more competent, you will see your competence as a curse here. You don’t receive any positive feedback and the work that’s expected from you is ten times higher than that of others. In fact, you are doing some of your managers’ work if needed, and you are not getting any promotions.
Would you really work in a workplace like this? What money can cover for the stress and health problems you will accumulate from this? And in the end, the misery you will start feeling from your workplace will be something that will spread like cancer in every aspect of your life.
Get out of there! If you are able to face a challenge like this, then finding a new job won’t be a problem for you.
Source: Inc.
A professional writer with over a decade of incessant writing skills. Her topics of interest and expertise range from health, nutrition and psychology.