Is Your Workplace the Model of "the Toxic Workplace"?
By Ed Higgins
Does your employer confront aggressive employees or managers
about inappropriate behaviors? Does it warn bullies about dealing fairly
with others and following company values? Does it investigate charges
of backstabbing and manipulation?
If so, consider yourself fortunate. You are in a healthy workplace,
with people in power who will support you in your fight with a bully.
On the other hand, does your employer turn a blind eye on bad behaviors? Do they
encourage or reward aggressive (or bullying behaviors)? Does the company bully usually
get his way? Is bullying behavior the norm rather than the exception?
If this is more the case, then you work in a toxic workplace. Even if you
aren’t directly bullied, the toxic fumes will get you. You may even conclude
that quitting and finding a new job is the only viable solution.
This article will help you determine whether your workplace is toxic.
The dominant culture of your workplace has a huge
impact on your ability to effectively deal with a workplace bully. Don’t
even think about fighting the toxic workplace until you get a handle on the larger corporate mantra.
Signs of a toxic workplace
In a toxic workplace, dysfunctional attitudes and emotions seem to permeate the atmosphere.
Typical signs of a toxic workplace include the following:
- Widespread anger and frustration
- Workplace bully is admired, even defended by those he/she bullies
- Scapegoats are always blamed, rationalizations made
- Dysfunctional processes
- Dysfunctional relationships
- Dysfunctional meetings, planning to plan (as they say)
- Obvious hypocrisy
- Overly restrictive systems
- Guarded communications, don't talk to him or her without seeing me first
- Incompetent or powerless HR manager
1. Widespread anger and frustration
Are co-workers frequently in a foul mood? Are
anger and frustration widespread? Do disenchanted employees outnumber
enthusiastic ones? These are clear signs that your company’s atmosphere
is toxic.
In this situation, nothing realistic is being done to improve morale.
Any efforts to make your company a better place to work seem
superficial, even ironic (like having the workplace bully head up the
committee to improve morale).
Turnover is usually high in a toxic workplace, with the most talented
people quitting. This can be turned to your benefit: by focusing on
developing friendships with your co-workers, you will soon know many
people at other companies--an excellent way to find your next job. In
this surreal situation, it’s better to focus on keeping up with
ex-employees rather than worrying about the executives who think they
control your future.
2. Workplace bully is admired
Is the company culture to admire the winners,
regardless of their tactics? Is the bully widely respected, despite his
inappropriate behavior, as an aggressive, competitive leader? When a
bully loses control of his temper or intentionally embarrasses a
subordinate, do others justify his actions as strong management, or even
dismiss them as irrelevant?
These are still more signs of a toxic workplace.
3. Scapegoats are found and assigned the blame
Does blaming others seem like a blood sport in your company?
In a toxic workplace, a bully “explains” a mistake by castigating
someone else. He thus dodges any responsibility for his actions
(although he may acknowledge he used poor judgment in hiring the
scapegoat).
A bully’s habit of blaming others can cause serious, persistent
problems. By not acknowledging his role in causing mistakes, he finds no
answers that can prevent mistakes in the future. And by blaming the
innocent, he causes valuable employees to quit. This, in turn,
overburdens the remaining personnel, resulting in more failures.
Over time, high turnover allows the bully to blame a whole new set of
scapegoats. Just listen for him to judge an entire class or generation
of workers, comparing them to his superior intelligence or work ethic.
“What’s wrong with young people these days?” he may lament, ignoring the
fact that other supervisors don’t seem to have problems with their
subordinates.
Scapegoats may continue to be blamed long after they’ve left the
company. He can use two or three ex-employees to explain a whole host of
problems, since they are no longer around to explain how the bully was
actually at fault.
If most of your co-workers believe that the bully’s scapegoats are
responsible for failures in his department, your workplace is probably
toxic.
4. Dysfunctional processes
In a toxic company, processes tend to be dysfunctional, particularly if a workplace bully helps create them.
In this situation, company procedures don’t make sense, making it
difficult to get things done. Management reviews are an unnecessary
burden, with many reports that don’t have any meaning. For any given
task, the established process appears illogical. You hear “That’s the
way we’ve always done it” rather than “There’s always room for
improvement.”
Vague objectives and arbitrary deadlines
There are no clear objectives, so it becomes impossible to know what’s important and what isn’t. At times, you find
yourself buried with work that appears to be completely unnecessary. It
is never clear how and why things are done around the company.
Your boss routinely makes decisions that impact you without seeking
your input. Deadlines are never established based on logical scheduling
of larger goals, but instead appear arbitrary. No matter how often his
subordinates complain, your boss never extends unrealistic deadlines,
adding to the general frustration.
Meaningless solutions from ineffective management
In order to create the impression that
personnel issues are being addressed, upper management sets up a
committee to investigate specific problems and suggest solutions. But
the results are based on the premise that the employees aren’t very
sophisticated and can be easily appeased. Input from employees is
discounted or ignored and clueless managers rely on their own
misapprehensions. Because the process is dysfunctional, the results are
meaningless.
Let’s say, for example, that a committee is formed to investigate low
morale and declining productivity. But since the workplace is toxic,
the committee won’t have the authority to investigate the bully. Even
worse, a bully may be on the committee. Or the committee must first
report to a high level executive who is one of the bullies (“Well, our
surprising conclusion is that
you are the cause of declining morale.” No, I can’t see that happening either.)
Since they must ignore the impact of bullying on morale, they instead
turn to “creative” ideas. Perhaps they find some popular solution to
“make employees feel better about themselves.” This could include a
patronizing “Extra Special Person” award, meaningless interdepartmental
competitions or irrelevant offsite training seminars (“As soon as
everyone learns proper time-management techniques,” they tell one
another, “productivity and morale will go way up. We’ll even give them
free planning notebooks.”)
Unintended consequence: worsening morale
In the end, these solutions tend to be
counterproductive. Not only do they fail to deal with the bully, but the
premise--employees don’t realize the real problem--is fatally flawed.
By pushing a meaningless, ineffective solution to morale, employees feel
they are being treated like children, or as second-class citizens.
Morale deteriorates even further, and high employee turnover is often
the result.
On the other hand, after most employees leave and are replaced with
fresh faces, morale will be good once again. That is until bullying
again takes its toll and a new dysfunctional committee is appointed and
again ignores the real cause of the problem (one symptom of a company
run by a bully).
5. Dysfunctional relationships
How do employees relate to one another at your
company? In a toxic workplace, everyone seems to struggle with
relationships. Misunderstandings are common, leading to frustration,
anger and inefficiency. Gossip and criticism are the norm, and cliques
lead to favoritism and feuding.
Noticeably absent in a toxic workplace are clear and straightforward
conversations. You rarely see a quick resolution of relationship issues,
and bad feelings may linger for months, or even years.
6. Dysfunctional meetings
Do meetings at your company feel like a waste
of time? Are they dominated by dull monologues and meaningless reports?
Do they provide workplace bullies a forum to rant, rave and manipulate the meeting?
Are reasonable and competent people intimidated into silence?
If so, you are experiencing the classic "living hell of the dysfunctional meeting".
Topics are meaningless
In a toxic workplace, those who dominate
meetings seem to prefer to discuss vague platitudes instead of
underlying problems. They focus on theory rather than dealing with
reality. By ignoring the real problems facing the company, they fail to
accomplish anything of substance. The main impact of meetings is the
loss of productive time from your day. Your dominant thought as you
leave tends to be “There’s an hour of my life I’ll never get back.”
Bully is allowed to dominate meetings
A workplace bully tends to dominate meetings
through his aggressive conversational style, including giving
monologues, arguing, criticizing, interrupting and raising his voice. He
uses generalizations, innuendo and presuppositions without being
challenged. He stifles open discussions and prevents any progress,
except to further his own agenda. He may even use a meeting to
embarrass, ridicule and humiliate his opponents.
In a toxic workplace, any complaints about the bully’s domination of
meetings will likely fall upon deaf ears. In fact, his aggressive
tactics are more likely to be admired by upper management.
7. Obvious hypocrisy in the company
A toxic workplace nearly always includes
widespread hypocrisy. Executives are unlikely to acknowledge the serious
problems plaguing their company, instead promoting the fiction of a
healthy work environment run by enlightened management. Bullies are
euphemistically described as highly competitive individuals who are
becoming strong leaders.
Management fads
Executives in a toxic company often
overcompensate by adopting faddish management approaches, as if
propaganda is an effective tool to overcome reality. The result may be
aggressively promoted company values that don’t seem to match day-to-day
events.
For example, clear communication is preached in elaborate seminars
while poor communication continues to be the norm. Valuing and
respecting others is publicized in the company mission statement, or on
framed motivational posters in the break room, but undermining and
belittling others seems pervasive. Everyone is told to make company
goals their first priority and adopt a spirit of teamwork, but internal
competition dominates. Worst of all, the most consistent violators of
company values are the most highly rewarded.
Bully as preacher
A workplace bully can be quite outspoken in
preaching company values, pressuring others to modify their behavior
even as he consistently violates those values. Rather than being
punished for his violations, the bully is rewarded for his outward image
of leadership. In the rare event he is reprimanded for breaking company
values, it is ineffective and ultimately meaningless. In this manner,
upper management’s hypocritical attempts to improve the work environment
are exploited by a clever bully, leading to further deterioration of
morale.
Clueless or evil management
Even when the hypocrisy seems obvious to
everyone, upper management seems unaware of the contradictions between
what is said and what is done. Maybe they want you to guess whether they
are hopelessly unaware or utterly lacking in integrity.
8. Overly restrictive systems for controlling people
A workplace bully usually thrives by
controlling others. He prefers a workplace with dehumanizing systems,
offering him more opportunities to tightly control their behavior.
Companies fall into this mode of operation by designing and
implementing overly detailed operational systems. These include overly
detailed policies, procedures and job descriptions and performance
evaluations.
Toxic vs. enlightened workplace
In a toxic workplace, employees are criticized
and punished for failing to meet established criteria, regardless of
whether the item makes any sense. Common sense is not considered as a
meaningful factor.
In a more enlightened environment, the emphasis is on training
employees to achieve excellence, and on providing them with appropriate
techniques and tools. In effect, the systems are subordinated to the
employees. In a toxic workplace, it is the other way around: the
employees are subordinated to the systems, based on the premise that
people can’t be trusted to think for themselves, and they can’t learn to
do their job skillfully and reliably.
Bully as a superior being
A bully also feels justified in creating and
implementing highly detailed systems due to his advanced intellect and
superior judgment. The systems allow him to control the actions of
others, thus overcoming their inferiority and incompetence.
In accordance with his character, a bully uses the operational system
as an excuse to badger his subordinates and control his peers.
Ultimately, this becomes another weapon in his arsenal of intimidation,
adding to his power in the company.
Initiative-killers
Once operational systems are in place,
employees are criticized for taking any initiative, such as modifying
the approach or eliminating unnecessary tasks. It doesn’t seem to matter
that these changes would make the company operate more efficiently--if
the bully doesn’t originate the idea, it isn’t even considered.
Arguments for totalitarian controls
When challenged by more enlightened
executives, a bully adamantly defends this approach. He explains that
operational systems are absolutely necessary to maintain discipline,
productivity and quality control. He complains that without these
systems, employees would not be held accountable for their actions. He
may launch into a long-winded description of a former employer that used
these systems, or refers to sophisticated management studies, offering
quotes and statistics to prove his point.
During his monologue, he conveniently omits the fact that his
approach goes far beyond common-sense management concepts, such as
thorough work plans and checklists, and into the realm of totalitarian
control, with harsh penalties for trivial non-compliance. By converting
intelligent methods into dogmatic approaches, he bastardizes the purpose
of management systems.
In this toxic situation, only mindless task-oriented workers are
rewarded. And if they learn to be completely submissive to the bully,
they are praised as model employees.
9. Guarded communications: don't talk to him/her without seeing me first
The bully, who may also be a manager of people, will systematically destroy any trust that employees hold with the company by controlling who they talk to, monitoring their phone call, or even stooping to reading their emails. Stifling of employee's attempts to interact with (please assume, productively) other employees is a common behavior of the bully.
The bully will behave in a paranoid and controlling manner. Why? Because that's what they do. Their own insecurity and lack of self-worth in their own ability or contributions simply compels them to close off (or very tightly censor) all interactions between employees and any other person, group, location, or business unit. The bully effectively becomes the sole face of the team, taking all credit and ideas for themselves, and preventing anyone from the outside from "piercing the veil" they have so cleverly created.
This results in good employs who become fed up of that nonsense and they quit. In some cases, they may offer information on their exist interview, but in many cases they leave with a bitter taste of the company because "the company should have known of this and fixed it". But, more often than not, the company may not even realize this until a significant number of workforce quits for the same reason.
The company is as toxic as the bully when it fails to remove the bully after the veil has been pierced and the bully outed. The company could also be a victim of this same charade, where it "can't imagine that our star player (aka, the bully) would ever do this. But this all changes when enough people raise the issue out of genuine concern. These people should be applauded for speaking up. In a good company, they are. In a toxic workplace, they are ignored.
10. Incompetent or powerless human resource manager
In a toxic workplace, human resource (“HR”) managers are either unable or unwilling to deal with rampant workplace bullying.
Signs of an incompetent or powerless (with respect to bullying) HR
manager include an inability to respond effectively to bullying
incidents, refusal to treat complaints as valid and significant, or
criticizing the complainer without understanding the situation. The HR
manager would rather not confront the bully, so instead asks you to
change your behavior to accommodate the bully.
Failure to recognize or address the problem
An incompetent HR manager treats the problem
as caused equally by bully and complainer, with no recognition of the
bully’s intentionally destructive behavior. In an attempt to rationalize
an unpleasant situation, the HR manager dismisses overly aggressive
behavior as "mood swings,” or labels bullying as an “ordinary
personality conflict.” It is up to you to resolve the situation.
And if bullying is acknowledged, there is no follow-up on requests
for a bully to modify his behavior--perhaps because the primary goal is
to pacify the complainer, not change the bully.
HR manipulated by a skilled bully
How can these highly trained professionals fail to deal with workplace bullying?
In some cases, inexperienced HR managers lack familiarity with
bullying and its negative impact on employees and productivity. An HR
manager may misinterpret the situation, failing to properly research and
evaluate the circumstances. Or he may be misled by a bully’s guile.
Let’s say a target complains about a series of bullying incidents. A
skilled bully can convince a naive HR manager that his bullying
behaviors were fully justified by circumstances, or by the failings of
the complainer. In the end, the target of bullying gets blamed, either
as the instigator or as a whiner.
After two or three incidents, the HR manager will perceive the target
as a chronic complainer. After that, all future bullying of that
target, even when obvious and severe, is likely to be ignored. In this
manner, an HR manager can contribute to the toxicity of a workplace.
HR intimidated by an entrenched bully
An HR manager may honor a bully’s leadership
in the company. If a bully is clearly respected by upper management,
confronting him carries huge risks. It makes more sense to side with the
bully, blaming the target.
For example, let's say a bully convinces the company’s president that
his department will deliver an enormous increase in profits, but it
requires a “tough management” approach. If the president is commmitted
to the bully, the HR manager will probably avoid interfering.
When the HR manager believes his own job would be at risk if he makes
an enemy of a powerful bully, you probably won’t see any meaningful
action to address the underlying problem.
Signs that management encourages bullying
In a toxic workplace, upper management has
unknowingly displayed attitudes and imposed policies that have created
an environment favorable to bullies and hostile to everyone else.
Management encourages bullying:
- Remote from employees
- Bully is part of management “club”
- Seems to deal with bully
- Bullying is rewarded
- Effort to appease a workplace bully
1. Remote from employees
In smaller companies, workplace bullies often
thrive when the owner isn’t involved in day-to-day operations. His
remoteness from employees gives free reign to a bully.
In larger companies, a rigid hierarchy may create a similar degree of
remoteness, particularly when the hierarchy restricts communication in
an upward direction. Even if executives brag about an open-door policy,
they are probably unreceptive to complaints about bullying. And if you
corner them about the problem, they may label you as a troublemaker.
Isolated, uncaring and short-sighted
In a toxic workplace, top executives may have
been isolated for so long that they stopped caring about their
employees’ well-being. These executives fail to see the big picture. It
isn’t rational to ignore the morale of people upon whom the company’s
profitability depends.
Even a purely selfish executive, upon careful consideration, would
recognize the significant long-term benefits of dealing with the issue
of bullying. He would understand the positive impacts of improving
morale, including decreased turnover and increased productivity. The
potential for increased profits alone should motivate him to action.
Then it would become a priority to treat rank-and-file employees with
respect. The rational executive would eagerly listen to their
complaints, perform a full investigation and ultimately get rid of the
workplace bullies.
2. Workplace bully is part of a management “club”
Does a workplace bully seem to have unwavering
support from your company’s top executives? Then perhaps they consider
him a member of their management “club.”
Many top executives rise to their position by bullying others. When
they see others using the same tactics, they are impressed. They welcome
the bully as one of their own kind. They admire his many “qualities,”
such as shrewdly exploiting employees to generate more income for
executive bonuses.
Once a bully becomes part of this management group, it takes a near
disaster to weaken his power. If anyone threatens the bully, they close
ranks. If you complain about the bullying, they treat you as the
problem. You may be called “disruptive” or a “troublemaker.” If you
continue to fight back, they allow the bully to discredit you.
Ultimately, they find a reason to fire you, rather than let you educate
others as to the toxic nature of the company.
If it is any consolation, workplace bullies eventually turn on each other in their endless quest for more power and money.
3. False appearance of dealing with a workplace bully
When low morale becomes an issue, upper
management addresses the symptoms rather than the underlying problem
(the behavior of a workplace bully). Their objective is to satisfy
employees that they are dealing with morale issues, but without causing
the bully to leave the company (and thus reduce their future bonuses).
However, it is counterproductive for executives to attempt to raise
morale without reigning in the bully, such as by announcing that
“valuing our employees is a top priority” and distributing a new mission
statement. When employees are aware of rampant bullying, they quickly
spot hypocrisy. Instead of improved morale, the company ends up with
increasingly cynical employees.
Understating the problem
At the same time, executives discount the
severity of a bully’s behavior. They call his overly aggressive or
manipulative behaviors a “minor problem,” or say “he lacks maturity, but
will grow into the job.” Even when they acknowledge his destructive
behaviors towards others, they rationalize that “over time he will
develop his interpersonal skills.”
Furthermore, executives acknowledge only one or two incidents of
bullying behavior and ignore the overall destructive pattern. Or they
mislabel behaviors with euphemisms: manipulation is called persuasion,
backstabbing is called posturing, gossiping is called bonding.
The only true sin
Even in a highly toxic workplace, there is one
exception to this support of bullying: in the rare case that a
power-hungry bully acts aggressively towards a top executive, he will be
dealt with quickly and permanently.
4. Bullying is rewarded
Does a workplace bully in your company have
the unwavering support of upper management? Does management allow
mistreatment of employees because it results in greater profits?
Greed can be a very strong motivator. People with lots of money
usually want more, often with a single-minded focus (maybe that’s how
they became wealthy in the first place). When a company treats profits
as sacred, ethics and values usually suffer. In this environment,
bullying behavior is tolerated--or even praised--if it appears likely to
lead to higher profits. Even worse, the bully is rewarded for his harsh
methods as long as he produces short-term financial gains.
Bullies exploit management’s greed
A skilled bully can adroitly take advantage of
this situation. As long as he continues to expand business, with the
expectation of increased profits for the company, he feels free to
engage in highly aggressive and manipulative behaviors. He knows that
upper management is focused on the bottom line, causing them to overlook
employee complaints or other morale issues. In effect, there are no
restraints on the bully’s aggressive behaviors.
But even though a bully can increase profits in the short term, over
several years low morale and high turnover usually produce the opposite
result. Sophisticated executives will recognize this, though they may be
temporarily blinded by a bully’s promises. In a sense, they allow
themselves to become victims--at least temporarily--of a master
manipulator. And if they allow the bully to run their company into the
ground, they may become permanent victims.
Cooking the books
A bully’s manipulation may extend to financial
reporting as well. For example, he inflates his department’s revenues
through excessive billings, though he knows most of his billings will
never be collected. He receives a large year-end bonus as a result. By
the time his clients discover the over-billing and refuse to pay their
invoices, the bully has gained enough power in the company to survive
the sudden drop in his department’s billings.
Or if the bully is particularly clever, he discredits the non-paying
clients, then starts playing the same game with other clients. By
maintaining artificially high “revenue” for two or three years, a
skilled bully can suck out a substantial compensation. He may cripple the
company as a result, particularly if his increased billings trigger
increased hiring and capital outlays. The bully then buys a new house, a new
car and then runs on to a new job where the parasite bites another victim, claiming tremendous success at the
company he nearly bankrupted.
Greed is punished
Ultimately, company executives and owners
suffer from their decision to allow a bully to have his way. Insolvency,
bankruptcy, partnership disintegration and lawsuits are common in the
wake of a bully's exploitation.
All because of short-sighted pursuit of easy profits at the expense of
their employees' well-being.
Just once, wouldn’t you like to hear one of these executive's acknowledge that he
doesn’t really care how his employees are treated, as long as they make
him wealthy? Then you could at least admire his honesty.
5. Effort to appease a workplace bully
Greedy owners and executives who are afraid of
losing a profit-generating bully may try to appease him. For example,
they increase his compensation and allocate him additional company
resources, or even terminate one of his peers. With weak or naive
executives, the bully may even manipulate and exploit the situation
until he gains control of the company.
As in politics, appeasement is a dangerous approach to dealing with a
bully. Even a strong, profitable company can fail after several years
of having its values and integrity gutted by a skilled bully.
A toxic work environment usually begins at the top,
either through negligence or lack of character and integrity, usually
stemming from a naive discounting of the importance of how employees are
treated.
Workplace bullying is invisible
Are you surprised that no one can see
widespread bullying but you? In this distorted reality, all common sense
seems displaced by the almost magical power of a charismatic workplace
bully.
When you point out his subtle manipulations, no one takes you
seriously. When you report his mistreatment of you, people assume you
misunderstood the situation. Even worse, they accuse you of doing
something that justified his outburst (“You should be more careful not
to trigger him”). When your co-workers have become unwitting accomplices
to his devious tactics, you know you are in a toxic workplace.
A skilled workplace bully can adapt to the company culture in a way
that makes his destructive behaviors virtually undetectable to
bystanders. Perhaps over time he will bully enough people to widely
expose his true character, but it is more likely that he will cause the
termination of anyone who speaks up, leaving only a trail of disgruntled
ex-employees.
If you are in a toxic workplace, don’t fool
yourself into thinking you can accomplish much by fighting the bully.
You will probably be better off just acknowledging that the people in
charge have limited mental capacity and go find a healthier, happier
place to work.
till next time,
~e
