Recognising and Addressing Toxic Workplace Cultures

What Is a Toxic Workplace Culture?

A toxic workplace culture, often described as a ‘harmful work environment’ refers to conditions where negative behaviours, attitudes, and practices within an organisation harm employee well-being and productivity. Recognising and addressing toxic workplace cultures is essential for maintaining employee health and job satisfaction while fostering a positive and productive work environment
 

Key Characteristics of a Toxic Workplace Culture?

• Poor Leadership: Toxic Cultures often stem from ineffective or unethical leadership, leading to employee dissatisfaction.
• Bullying and Harassment: Toxic work environments may foster bullying, harassment, and discrimination, causing distress among employees.
• Lack of Transparency: In such cultures, open communication and transparency are often lacking, leading to distrust and uncertainty. 
• High Turnover: Toxic workplaces tend to experience high employee turnover rates, impacting productivity and recruitment costs.
• Micromanagement: Excessive control by managers can stifle creativity and autonomy, creating a stressful atmosphere.
• Unrealistic Expectations: Setting unattainable goals can result in stress and a sense of constant failure among employees.
• Lack of Support and Recognition: Employees may disengage when they don’t receive necessary support, feedback or recognition.
• Resistance to Change: Toxic workplaces may resist innovation and change, hindering adaptability.
   

How to Address a Toxic Workplace Culture?

Addressing a toxic workplace culture requires strong leadership, open communication, and a commitment to change and improvement. Recognising and rectifying these issues can improve employee morale, well-being, and overall organisational success.

Listen to Our Podcast

If you’re seeking guidance on managing and mitigating a toxic workplace culture, tune into our most recent Recruitment and Beyond podcast episode where Ewan from Eden Scott and Natalie from BeyondHR chat through what to do when toxicity in your workplace starts to take over.  

Listen on Spotify
Listen on Amazon Music

 

Episode Transcript

Natalie:
Welcome back everyone. Today, we are discussing navigating through a toxic workplace culture.

Ewan:
Topic for today is toxic culture. Always a bit of a dodgy one, I suspect. Always a challenging phone call when you get that one.

Natalie:
Absolutely.

Ewan:
But obviously it has a massive impact on companies and small companies will take it quite... Every company takes it bad. But obviously if you've got a small company, then one person or one issue can really build and build, can't it? So, yeah, I guess, let's start with what creates that toxic culture? What is the issue? Where does it start?

Natalie:
Good question. Where does it start? Is it at the core? Is it a bad tire? Is it the leaders? It could be anywhere. The important thing is no matter where it is, it's to identify it and not be in denial, maybe, "Everything's okay. Everything's okay." The question would be, is everything okay? Have you asked? Do you know before? Sometimes a business might not know before it's really at the end and it's ready to blow. Actually, it's nice to know what's happening as you go along as well. But it could be anywhere in the business.

Ewan:
The examples you've seen of that, is that generally what's happened is that there's not been people at the top listening, even if it's managers or senior leaders have not been listening to the company? Or it's just something that's an undercurrent of something that's just happening and it just bubbled under from nowhere essentially?

Natalie:
It could be, and the biggest problem is actually maybe not, first of all, yeah, known, but what do we do about it? What do we do? People just maybe need some help to decide what's best to do. Some people might think if they're going with a big stick, then it's going to create further issues and the toxic is going to go from bad to worse. But actually, there could be lots of things that you could be doing to try and fix it, alleviate it. You've got to remember as well, culture is so important. A lot of businesses spent a lot of time trying to get their mojo, as we call it, their mojo in place.

Ewan:
Oh, their mojo, yeah, I get you.

Natalie:
Their mojo, and then imagine the company's mojo and then imagine you bring someone on that you've interviewed, but really... You've seen them for an hour. You've spoken to them. They've given you all the right feeling about them. Then they come in and actually the mojo is gone because of this one person who their mojo doesn't quite fit the company's mojo. So we need to be very careful of that. The more that we can do to express... It's hard though, like culture, how do you put into words what the company culture is?

Ewan:
Yeah, I mean, well, that's the challenge. It shouldn't just be the marketing though, it should be the whole team.

Natalie:
No, absolutely.

Ewan:
I think that's the essence, isn't it? But I mean, how do you convey that and how do you put it across? Obviously the communications comes from marketing, but it's not something that marketing should ever dream up. It's something that the whole business should pull together, isn't it?

Natalie:
Yeah, absolutely. It needs to be out there and it needs to be discussed from the onset because some people might not strive in that particular environment either or they might not agree with some of the mission, vision, values, all of the soft stuff that really needs to be shouted about at the moment. So I guess, it's a difficult one. But the biggest thing is when you're in it, admitting that you're in it, finding the root of the problem and then trying to maybe get an expert or a consultant or someone to come in and help you get out of that because you might not be able to get out because you're so far in it.

Ewan:
Yeah. What are the disadvantages? Obviously it's clear there are disadvantages, but talk us through what they might be, because obviously if you've got that toxic apple, it's not just one person affecting the guy who sits next to them or the person who sits in the other desk. It has an impact on the whole business, doesn't it? So what are some of the disadvantages you get from that?

Natalie:
Absolutely, it's everybody from the outside in as well. So it's not just internal. It could be with the likes of, if we talk about BrewDog, very well known in terms of what's described as a toxic culture. Those maybe that were maybe particularly applying for a job where they may be having second thoughts about it. Nothing was founded of course, but all the hype about it all where they're thinking, actually, do I want to work for? So, reputational damage, being able to attract the best people to work for you, the whole productivity and the negging everybody else out and people just not wanting to come to work really because he's a nightmare. He's so negative. He doesn't want to be here. He is bringing the rest of us down here.
Do I actually want... I can't be bothered going into work today and sitting and listening to him, isn't it? So it's a whole, oh my god, this guy is draining the life out of his all. He is draining the soul out of me. I'm trying to keep as upbeat as possible. Then that linked to more people going off work, obviously sick. It might, in the extreme, lead to mental health issues, for the individual concerned as well maybe. Maybe they're coming across as toxic, maybe they're not being listened to. Maybe inside, they're burning with ideas, they're burning with suggestions, they're frustrated because nobody's listening. Maybe it's the flip side of the passion shown, because they're frustrated. So although the person is described as toxic, are they toxic? Are they passionate about what they're doing and they're maybe not being listened to?

Ewan:
That's interesting actually. I mean, there's always two sides to every story, isn't there? It's not always the case that, like you say, they're going in with a negative purpose or they're going into specifically cause problems could just be massive frustration. I think that-

Natalie:
Massive frustration, wrong business decisions in their eyes being made, some business decisions being made in their eyes and they're thinking, God, what's going on here? So then they're coming across overly negative, but that's just one side of the toxic, isn't there? There could be that individual that's absolute trouble.

Ewan:
I guess, all those things will link to productivity, don't they? I mean, that's the essence of a business. If your team are coming in and they're busy thinking about having an argument with this person or even working from home and thinking, well, I don't want to pick up the phone and call that guy or that person or that-

Natalie:
Because I don't even want to have a conversation with him today because I'm going to come off and I'm going to feel like, God get me out here.

Ewan:
But in essence, if that's your boss or if that's your colleague and you really need that information, you're then holding the whole business up because you don't want to have that conversation. I mean, productivity just takes a dive, doesn't it?

Natalie:
Yeah, absolutely, and you'll see that as there are particular things going on in a business or different items. A redundancy process for example, people are feeling low, so then productivity will ultimately be lowered. It's the same kind of situation, but it's getting to the root of the problem. Sometimes people just have a feeling and that's okay, they have a feeling. But then we, as beyond HR, might go in to find out what that feeling is and where, and try and get to the root of that problem. It might be an individual. It might be a team. It might be a bad practice. It might be... There could be a lot of areas. It's quite good to go in to try and find out actually where is the root of the problem as well.

Ewan:
And getting to the root of that problem. So it's interesting, we talked about that productivity. Is that one of the telltale signs? You might start to see a change in figures or a change in productivity and start to think, well, why is that, and not even seeing the toxic side of things. Maybe if people are working from home, you're maybe not getting to get that all the time. So as a manager, you need to look at a number of different signals. So I guess are you getting asked, "There's something wrong here, but we're not quite sure what it is"?

Natalie:
What it is, yeah.

Ewan:
What do you do to try to identify that?

Natalie:
Absolutely. So you could be looking at employing an engagement service, so completely... Or first of all, I want to know, has there been any complaints recently, anyone? Is there an increase in grievances? Is there things happening? Is there people chapping the door more to kind of offload about people's behaviors, et cetera? Or if none of that's been happening, but you just have a feeling, then it might be a survey to see actually what's happening and those questions, the [inaudible 00:07:53] the questions that you'd ask for what's coming back. That could lead to focus groups to then identifying the actual issue, which is great. If it's anonymous, then people are more likely and they can sit home and do an online... They might be more open than maybe chapping someone's door and coming in and being seen as-

Ewan:
Yeah, a snitch or-

Natalie:
... a snitch or whatever else it might be. So an employee engagement survey. 360 feedback as well for line managers. There might be line manager's behavior.

Ewan:
Could be.

Natalie:
They might not be trying. They might be focusing too much in productivity and not on the person.

Ewan:
Oh, yeah, okay.

Natalie:
So they're really toxic in terms of they're only thinking of the one thing and the human element is completely gone. That might be creating some kind of toxic. If it's 360 feedback, it's the feedback not just from the one person that's from the full circle above below to the sides, their peers. So they maybe have to listen up a wee bit more because it's not just one person saying the feedback, it's a collective group as well. So there's lots of different tools and surveys. Even things like you've seen these wee emojis, how's your day been, angry, sad, frustrated, whatever. Actually gauging that to see. Or, how's your week been? Every day might be a bit too much for some businesses. But it could be how's your week been? And from there, trying to delve into the detail.

Ewan:
Yeah, because we've seen tools like that. I know that, I think, Trico maybe have that opportunity, you can do that, you can send out to people and say... Because I think some businesses we work with, I think, feel like every day's too much, every month's maybe just not enough. So you just need that fine balance, don't you, of just trying to work out how people are feeling, how their week's going. It could be anything. I mean, it could just be you have a bad day, kids are playing up, or it could be that the bus didn't turn up or whatever it is.

Natalie:
It may be absolutely nothing to do with work, but your behaviors are displaying in work and you're toxic.

Ewan:
But presumably-

Natalie:
That's quite a strong word to use, isn't it? You're just toxic.

Ewan:
You'd want to avoid that, yeah. But that's it, isn't it? I mean, any of these things could trigger it. But I guess what we're probably looking at is longer term behaviors really, isn't it? Because you're right, I think everybody is accepting of the fact that you can have a bad day, everybody has bad days, but it's how you behave in the longer term and then what impact that has on your team or what impact that's having on the rest of the organization. So I suppose you're looking for those longer term trends, which is really-

Natalie:
Has it been a build up as well? Like you said, it doesn't just go from amazing or really good culture, to all of a sudden toxic. Toxic is a really strong word, isn't it? Toxic is-

Ewan:
It's hard.

Natalie:
So does it go from good to bad to poor to... Where has their journey been as well? So it would be nice to know what's happening to lead to... Because toxic, if you're in the newspaper and you're known as a toxic workplace, that's like, there's nowhere else to go from that.

Ewan:
There's no coming back from that. Well, no, there is coming back from it, but it's hard.

Natalie:
There's coming back, but it's hard because you're out there as a toxic workplace.

Ewan:
Yeah. It's a really good point you make actually, is if you're a toxic workplace, then you're a long way down the line. I guess that's where regular monitoring can help you deal with it as it starts to get a wee bit poor or it starts to get... Just early on.

Natalie:
Yeah, don't-

Ewan:
Don't wait.

Natalie:
... wait until it's toxic. Early intervention, lots of communication, finding out, knowing your team as well to know when someone's having different behaviors, displaying different behaviors, and what is the reason for that? It's not because they don't like the job anymore, but maybe like you said, they've got their stuff going on or maybe they're an absolute nightmare and now maybe there's a lot of pressure on them.

Ewan:
Well, that's the thing. I mean, we're all under pressure. People are under pressure to perform. I think that was the case during the pandemic. People were really feeling under pressure because they wanted to keep their job and now we're through that, but people still feel pressure and I think people deal with it in different ways. I suppose it's been mindful of that. So then thinking about how to deal with that, is there legal implications in this in terms of how you deal with it and how you go about addressing these situations?

Natalie:
Yeah, there could be because it could be really serious allegations. It could be bullying, harassment, it could be discrimination claims, it could be anything as well. A lot of managers as well is what is their style and do they actually maybe need some help and support? Maybe they're not getting the best out of their team, but maybe that's been their style that's worked elsewhere. But now in a new industry and maybe a new environment, it's displayed as toxic. But actually maybe that's how they got the best results out their team and everyone was okay before. But actually here, this isn't really our style. So it's a lot of identifying and coaching managers through.

Ewan:
Right, okay, yeah.

Natalie:
And being firm and frank with them as well, letting them know that the behavior is slightly different to how we would operate as a business. It could be pressure related. It could just be people's style.

Ewan:
Well, I was going to say that. Do you think there's a generational thing there? Because obviously new generation of people coming into the workplace, and I think it's well documented that the old style of carrot stick and more often it was a stick.

Natalie:
Absolutely, command control, all the I say, you do.

Ewan:
Yeah, it doesn't really work anymore, does it, for a whole host of industries? I mean, I appreciate there's some industries that still have that, but in general it's just not going to work now. So is that the case where we've seen a bit of a generation where people are more likely to say, "Well no, I'm not putting up with that"? Whereas previously they might have gone, "It might feel a bit toxic, but I appreciate this is part of my initiation or part of my..."

Natalie:
Yeah, definitely. Over the last few months and years, we've definitely seen an increase in grievances for whatever reason, maybe against line managers, but people do not take maybe what they... For whatever reason, lots of thoughts out there, but they don't maybe take behaviors that they previously would've.

Ewan:
Previous generations would've.

Natalie:
There's probably maybe an expectation more would see this term of a manager being emotionally available now. This is a new emotionally available turn, so just not treating the person as you actually knowing, understanding them, having that bit of empathy. Toxic might be that you've got none of that, that you just want to get the job done and you're going to go, that command control, which is starting to go. It's more a different way.

Ewan:
I suppose that comes down to training. I guess, we'll come on to how to deal with it. But just looking at a couple of these signs then to help people understand where the toxic culture is coming from. So there's a few suggested signs of a toxic workplace. So things like frequent conflicts and arguments. Is that the case, that you start to notice a few of these coming into the workplace?

Natalie:
Yeah, absolutely. It's a nightmare when they're happening in front of customers and clients, but people just can't help themselves if something's going on and they're bashing heads all the time, absolutely.

Ewan:
Is lack of communication a... It's obviously a problem, that can be at the root of so things, the toxic culture.

Natalie:
Yeah, it could be. There could be loads of reasons, isn't there? But yeah, it could be a lack of communication. Maybe that knowledge is power for some managers is still... I mean, knowledge is power is not anything that we would be in a business. The more you share, the more we're going to all gain here.

Ewan:
We'll all gain, yeah.

Natalie:
But that could be a toxic trait as well in terms of-

Ewan:
It just creates that illusion.

Natalie:
... communication, sharing ideas, that could all be displayed as selfish behavior that could in turn then lead to that toxic environment as well.

Ewan:
I guess the lack of work-life balance can have an impact on people as well and they really knock on you if you-

Natalie:
Yeah, that's always on, isn't it?

Ewan:
Oh, yeah. If you're always expected to be at the end of a phone or communicate with somebody or emailing if they're emailing at the time that suits them and it doesn't suit you.

Natalie:
Oh, it's so difficult now, isn't it? Absolutely, because always on, it's a difficult one, but maybe where there's an expectation that you should always be on that could also be classified as a toxic. Rather than-

Ewan:
Could be harassing.

Natalie:
... you message at 10 o'clock at night, but actually during the day, nipped to get the kids for ten minutes, so that's why he's messaging. He's not expecting me to read that message right now. It's not urgent. It's four the morning, but it might be better that you get off your chest at that time of night rather than the next day. But someone maybe that's a manager that's constantly expecting you to be always on.

Ewan:
Yeah, and that's different, isn't it?

Natalie:
Yeah, that's-

Ewan:
I guess that comes back to communication. If you're able to talk to your team and say, "Listen, I am going to be picking the kids up at three o'clock, so I'm going to have an hour's gap, but I'll probably email you later on after dinner or something because-"

Natalie:
"But there's no expectation. Don't be writing back."

Ewan:
"Don't worry about it," exactly.

Natalie:
"I'm working then. You're not working then." That's it really. But the language people use maybe how they're asking them to do tasks. Are they collaborating on the task or did you tell them get the job done? The language and the behaviors and the conversations, I guess, as well can all contribute to that toxic environment.

Ewan:
It's quite interesting that actually, the communication side of things, because so many... We've talked about this before, but a lot of people take it for granted. Even if you had a little word to your team and say, "Guys, I will be doing this, but I wouldn't expect anybody to be emailing me back at 10 o'clock at night," or whatever. It seems like such a small thing, but actually that could make a massive difference to your team. If you've got a young team, they might think, I'm right out of uni, this guy's emailing me at 10 o'clock at night-

Natalie:
I need to write back, yeah, or if you're new. If you're a new person as well and you don't know what the standards are, are you feel under pressure that you need to perform in a new job. Maybe they're like, "Yeah, I'm just back on it," 10 o'clock, emailing you back and you're going, "What are you doing? That's not..." But that could be the whole burnout, and the overworking could be another sign. So it might not be complaints. Everyone might be happy, but you might see physical signs of burnout as well. That could be the sign of a toxic-

Ewan:
That could be it, couldn't it?

Natalie:
... as well, yeah. Or only focusing on profit and nothing else. Striving for the one thing but having nothing else as well. Which again is another topic, but the more we move on, these businesses need to change. We need more of a purpose lead, doesn't it, these days in terms of not just about profit, but what else do we stand for?

Ewan:
Yeah. So obviously we've kind of identifying that toxic culture. So what do we do about-

Natalie:
Fit it.

Ewan:
How do you fix it?

Natalie:
The calls that we get is, "Do you know what? Oh my god, I've got this." And I'm like, "Great, you've identified it. That is good." Or you have a feeling a lot of the time, it's not maybe as far or it's beyond that toxic. Actually to just stand up and say, "I've got some issues. I need some help," that is the best thing you can do. You don't know what to do, that is okay, other people will help you know what to do or give you some ideas or follow that process through in the background because it's all time-consuming stuff. So that can all be done while you're getting the job done, if you like, as well. But actually standing up saying, "We've got a problem" or, "I think we have," or "Can you come in and see if we've got a problem?" Then that's a great first step.

Ewan:
I guess, addressing it head on and not sticking your head in the sand and thinking, I think there's a problem, but I'm not sure. But I if I put my head in the sand, it'll go away.

Natalie:
Most occasions it doesn't go away. It rears its ugly head or something even bigger comes back. The monster grows three times the size and comes back. I guess, it's delicate conversations, isn't it? But you might just need some coaching on how to have those conversations.

Ewan:
That's a good point, yeah.

Natalie:
But you might have a really good... The most toxic manager might be a high performer.

Ewan:
Aye, yeah.

Natalie:
Or your toxic employee, they might be. So then you don't want to rattle the cage because he's doing really good and he's doing really good stuff. So then that's a whole other conversation with balancing giving that person the feedback or... Yeah.

Ewan:
But, it is balance, is it, because it's that whole parental idea that 80% of your businesses come from 20% of your staff? But actually-

Natalie:
You're building your people to build your business. You're not building your business, isn't it?

Ewan:
Yeah.

Natalie:
But, your person that's building your business is the most toxic person in your workplace.

Ewan:
Which is just no good.

Natalie:
But, he's building your business. But then we're building our people, so.

Ewan:
You're building your people, but you've got to have a broader look at it, I suppose, to say, actually this guy or this person is doing brilliantly and they're really performing, but actually having a massive impact on the rest of the business. There's only so long that can carry on.

Natalie:
Absolutely. You might have the best sales guy, you might have the best whatever marketing, you might have the best HR person, you might have the best whatever, but actually you might have a claim in, you might have a really harassment, you might have complaints in against them. That's where it's hard because then people want to bury their head because actually he's really good. No, just leave him. He's really good at what he does. I don't believe any of this. But actually what about the person that's made the complaint?

Ewan:
The reality is, it's almost like unlocking a key for other people. If you've got a team of ten, one person's doing really well and nine are struggling, but if you deal with that toxic culture, the other nine start to flourish and then we've got an even more productive, even better business.

Natalie:
Yeah, absolutely.

Ewan:
Again, it's not always about profitability. It's about building individuals and building in a business that you can really work with and be proud of.

Natalie:
Because that person that's doing the best might be stamping on everybody else's toes in order to get there or-

Ewan:
That's it.

Natalie:
Isn't it? So again, is that a toxic culture as well?

Ewan:
I guess, it's that whole thing. If you get negative feedback from a marketing point of view, that negative feedback's going to be told to ten, there's going to be another ten, it's another ten. It's going to grow and grow and grow. If you've got nine people in your business that are saying, "This is a terrible place to work, I'm on my way out." First of all, it's costing you money in terms of retraining and recruitment, but then it's costing you money in terms of reputational damage. People are saying-

Natalie:
You're down the pub, just not even... They're down the pub-

Ewan:
Yeah, having a chat.

Natalie:
You never know who's listening. They're down the pub saying, "Oh my god, do not go and work for them. They are horrific." They're on Glassdoor giving you your bad reviews. They're doing everything that you set out not to do. So your ambassador has turned into an absolute nightmare who's out there spreading the word, "Don't work for them, they're not great."

Ewan:
So if we've identified it, we've taken it head on, we know what's happening, so what's the next steps? What do we look at?

Natalie:
Don't bury your head in the sand, even if you have a feeling, get someone in to help and let's explore and let's see what's going on. Make sure that your recruitment process is absolutely robust. So if you are looking, not just at the interview, but all the behavioral stuff as well. Are they going to be the right person that fits behaviorally as well? If you're strong in terms of your business and your culture, what are you doing at the recruitment process to drive that as well?

Ewan:
Yeah, good point actually.

Natalie:
Yeah, so personality profile and everything that you might have to think about as well. Third takeaway is just be aware of the legal implications if you don't deal with it correctly. So knowing what to do. You're not maybe going to know what to do, but just get someone in that can talk you through that process, whether that's a harassment or whether it's discrimination or whether it's a standard grievance. Make sure that you do follow the process through because there could be costly implications plus reputational damage and everything else.

Ewan:
Yeah, okay. Thank you for your top three tips. But I guess it's a massive area, isn't it? There's so much to think about. We didn't really talk too much about the breakdown of different leadership styles that can cause this. If you've got a micromanager, you've got a dictatorial leadership set up, there's lots in that. So I suppose there's lots to talk about as well as if you've got communication and it creates different silos. There's a lot there, so there's other things we can-

Natalie:
A full days worth.

Ewan:
A few days' worth.

Natalie:
A few days' worth.

Ewan:
I know I didn't-

Natalie:
We might bore the listeners for a few days' worth. But yeah, you're right, there's lots to cram in, isn't there, that we didn't get to? But the micromanagement would be quite a common one to be honest.

Ewan:
Well, I think that's the thing. We will look at a range of these different topics, so if there's any feedback from any of our listeners, then please get in touch and we will address any of these topics. But thank you very much.

Natalie:
Thank you.
Thanks everyone for listening today. Please get in touch if you want to find out more on today's subject.

Ewan:
If you enjoyed the podcast, please subscribe and leave us a five star review.