The ManicaPost
Sifikile Songo
Post Correspondent
A toxic workplace is a place of work which is marked with considerable personal conflict among the workers.
Quite often workplace toxicity results from toxic employers and employees who are motivated by power, money and fame.
A toxic environment impacts negatively on the viability of an organisation.
It often harms productivity and dampens employee morale.
There is nothing new about toxicity in a workplace.
Bad leadership has an effect on employee morale, engagement and performance.
With the obvious shift from the traditional ‘command and control’ management style to focus on people management and soft skills, the toxic workplace remains relatively common in modern workplace.
Such workplaces are characterised by bullying and harassment from senior staff, narcissism among leaders, aggressive behaviours and cynicism.
These are the characteristics of a toxic workplace:
Bad leadership.
Poor communication.
Cliques, exclusion and gossipy behaviours.
Unmotivated co-workers.
Little or no forward movement.
No workplace is totally harmonious, working in a team can be stressful and discouraging.
A work team can either do their best to work together to achieve its goals or be a dysfunctional team which makes excuses for bad behaviour and terrible counter-productive habits.
The following signals that as an employee you are in a toxic team:
People are indiscreet or unprofessional or spread gossip.
Bullying, impudence, disrespectful and bad behaviour.
People regularly shout at each other or cry at work.
The habits of making other colleagues feel uncomfortable, embarrassed and left out by using sarcasm and ridiculing others.
People are overworked or unfairly treated and psychological manipulation of team members and blaming others for your own mistakes.
A significant portion of the effects of a toxic workplace are of a psychological nature because of the toll that work has on the mind.
An employee may be faced with a poor work-life balance, where boundaries between your professional and personal lives are blurred.
It then becomes harder to psychologically recognise the distinction between their personal and professional life.
The psychological effects of a toxic workplace include:
Stress,
General mental exhaustion
Irritability and mood swings
A sense of dread when thinking about work or anything associated with work.
Quite often the psychological effects manifest physically in the form of illness or fatigue.
An employee who is psychologically drained by a toxic workplace often faces the following challenges:
Changes in a person’s sleep cycle
Fluctuating weigh
Eating disorders
Escalation of substance abuse as employees try to find a way to cope with the work environment.
Aside from affecting the well-being of employees, a toxic workplace also impacts on other areas of an organisation.
The other areas that may be affected in some way include:
Costumers and clientele – the treatment of customers and clients may be compromised by employees who are affected by a toxic workplace and the customer’s experience may affect their desire to return.
Management — decision making, management and leadership practises may be affected, as a result management may get sloppy and take out their frustrations on their subordinates.
Collaborations — peers from other departments in the organisations, business contractors or partnered businesses are likely to be affected by an unhealthy workplace due to compromised professional treatment and respect.
This can further impact on any work the collaboration produces.
Production quality — whatever an unhealthy workplace produces can compromise the quality and the costs put into its creation.
How to deal with toxic employees
In-order to manage toxic colleagues it is essential to manage the nature of their behaviour and how it affects you as a co-worker.
Furthermore, it is important to have thick skin and to ignore the negativity as much as possible.
Toxic colleagues can be hard to work with because they cause a lot of stress.
There are a number of strategies which can be used to manage toxic co-workers and they include the following:
Identifying the toxic colleagues.
Toxic co-workers are often rude and disrespectful, controlling, confrontational and aggressive.
They often blame others for their mistakes and frequently use negative language, body language and gestures.
Learn more about the behaviour and thought patterns so that you understand the problems that exist and develop and plan to deal with them.
Understand what is going on with your colleagues.
Acknowledge the toxic co-worker’s distress.
For instance, if they become fixed on a particular issue, it is a sign of psychological distress.
Understanding their motivation enables you to make an informed decision and prevent the situation from getting out of control.
Implement coping mechanisms to avoid being dragged through the mud.
By focusing on your work you can remain calm and avoid getting stressed.
Keep your own work and health in check to avoid any form of misery.
Try to remember the positive aspects of the workplace and focus on those things.
Rather than interacting with them try to stay away from them.
Talking it out with a toxic co-worker on a real authentic intervention may increase accountability of an individual’s negative behaviour and create a positive environment in the workplace.
Talk to your superiors about the toxic behaviour and develop group standards and practical solutions for the problems.
Acknowledge the toxic colleague’s behaviour so that you hold them accountable for their actions.
It is also important to always keep your cool.
Sifikile Songo is a psychologist and a lecturer at the Manicaland State University of Applied Sciences. She writes in her personal capacity.
