When toxic behavior – such as gossip, harsh sarcasm, incivility, rudeness, public shaming, serial interrupting, microaggressions, and unresolved conflict – is brushed off as personality differences or “not that bad” it normalizes the behavior. As leaders look the other way because they don’t think it’s relevant to the bottom line, these lawful but awful acts chip away at trust, psychological safety, and self-control. Gone unchecked, they evolve into workplace bullying or harassment.
Toxic workplaces are unsafe for everyone, both physically and psychologically. Physical safety can be at risk when people are distracted by their fears and attempts to avoid being at the receiving end of toxic behavior, and psychosomatic symptoms can develop through stress, burnout, depression, and poor sleep and eating habits.
The good news is that with awareness and action, leaders, HR professionals, and employees can work together to stop toxicity before it spirals into something more dangerous.
Recognizing the Warning Signs
Toxic behavior includes any behavior that causes harm to others and thus disrupts individual, team or organizational functioning. Toxicity is insidious and subtle, so it rarely announces its arrival with a bang.
Below are a few warning signs that toxicity could be creeping in to your team or organization, or that it already exists:
- People speak about the organization with frustration and in negative terms
- Being vulnerable, such as sharing stresses or “being real”, is not an acceptable norm
- Managers and leaders are micromanaging, or making it clear they do not trust an individual or a team with their behavior
- Feedback is given when something is done wrong, and rarely when done right; or feedback is not given at all
- Managers aren’t trained to address subtle toxic behavior such as cliques, gossip, personality differences, or microaggressions, so they don’t address it before it escalates to bullying or harassment
- Relationships between skip-levels are non-existent (e.g., Directors only know their direct reports and not the individuals in the teams below)
- Performance management doesn’t include measurements on living company core values, leaving room for toxic behavior to thrive without accountability
- Results are rewarded over behavior, or people who get results are not accountable for respectful behavior
- The HR function is seen as a compliance-based cost center, not a strategic partner
While some of these items may seem like normal organizational functioning, they are precursors (i.e., risk factors) to toxicity because they leave room for it to go unchecked. An important question for top leaders, HR, and managers to discuss is: “What is the organization doing, or not doing, that helps or hinders the ability for toxic behavior to occur?” Reviewing the list above is one place to start in that endeavor, as is this long list of risk factors provided by the EEOC.
The Crucial Role of Leadership
When leaders allow bullying or disrespect to go unchecked and even reward high performers who engage in this behavior, they signal it’s tolerated. Conversely, when leaders model civility and fairness and also hold others accountable to it, they set the standard for the entire organization.
Leaders can disrupt toxicity by:
- Intervening early and decisively. Leaders who allow bad behavior to fester because the company is doing well financially, or meeting its goals and KPI’s, will eventually understand how much risk they’ve put their company in when they’re dragged into a class action lawsuit or bad press.
- Focusing on company culture, in addition to updating policies or training programs. People engage in toxic behavior when the culture gives them implicit permission to do so. In other words, culture is the most important component of prevention, over policies and training, because culture is what dictates loyalty, kindness and respect.
- Listening with intention. Regular workforce surveys that uncover strengths and problems in culture, regular pulse surveys, and listening sessions create trust in leadership – when changes are made as a result – and offer early warnings before issues explode.
- Establishing clear expectations and holding people accountable to them. Codes of conduct should go beyond legal compliance and spell out how people are expected to treat each other. Even better if the code of conduct is created in collaboration with the workforce so that they have buy-in.
- Modeling respect consistently. Employees notice how leaders handle conflict, give feedback, and communicate. Respect must not be optional.
A leader who says, “We don’t tolerate disrespect here,” and then backs it up with action, immediately shifts the culture toward safety and accountability.
HR is Grossly Undertapped to Resolve Toxicity
Unfortunately for HR, the research on workplace bullying indicates that HR tends to make it worse, not better. Researchers report that when targets report the behavior to HR, they find themselves fired, retaliated against, or told to grow thicker skin. In some cases HR may be the root cause of these outcomes, the other version is that HR isn’t provided the resources, permission, or time to address complaints on the deep level needed and therefore can’t control the outcomes.
HR is still struggling for that seat at the table, and is therefore unable to make any real impact in culture. If HR is seen as a cost-center focused on compliance, as it often is, then culture is seen as an unnecessary cost, too. HR is then left to find other ways to build countermeasures to toxicity, including:
- Training on communication skills and manager training
- Implementing performance management systems that hold people accountable to respectful behavior to the best of their ability
- Creating confidential and anonymous reporting systems
- Reporting exit interview data that highlights culture is an issue to their leaders
None of these will address toxic culture on their own, and this list is certainly not exhaustive, but it’s a start.
Culture exists within three forces, and sustainable culture change occurs only when all three are addressed simultaneously:
- Organizational behavior, such as processes, systems, technology, and policies.
- Individual behavior of each person at each level, including how they interact with others, make decisions, and make choices.
- Leadership team behavior, such as where they provide resources, what they communicate, their decisions, and even their own relationships.
The more aligned these three forces are, the stronger the culture. Below is an example of alignment versus misalignment when it comes to a respectful versus toxic work culture, respectively:
| Aligned | Misaligned |
| Organizational – Core values are core competencies all are measured on, performance system encourages ongoing feedback and growth conversations, people are held to policies consistently no matter their results. | Organizational – Core values are on the website but no one actually knows them, performance system doesn’t promote candid ongoing feedback, results are more important than behavior. |
| Individual – Company provides ongoing training regarding how to communicate, collaborate, and be respectful, and managers are trained on addressing toxic behavior before it escalates. | Individual – Company provides training here and there, and managers are not trained on addressing toxic behavior before it escalates, so people behave in ways the organization tolerates rather than mandates. |
| Leadership – Puts budget towards training and other initiatives to build respect, communicates clearly and often about expectations, engages in trust building behavior regularly. | Leadership – Puts a small budget towards respectful culture but not enough to have an impact, sees culture as an HR “problem”, and rarely makes contact with employees outside of their immediate circle. |
If given the power from top leadership, HR can be a leader in culture, creating an environment that provides a strategic competitive advantage for top talent, innovation, and market share.
Final Thoughts
Navigating toxic workplaces requires courage, clarity, and commitment at every level of the organization. If you’ve been dealing with a toxic workplace, then purchase Navigating a Toxic Workplace For Dummies – a comprehensive guide to identifying, coping with, and escaping toxic work environments. It’s packed with:
- Real-world examples from the trenches
- Step-by-step strategies for protecting yourself
- Tools for building your confidence and resilience
- Actionable advice for employers to adjust their culture
- Self-assessments, company assessments, and worksheets
- Conversation scripts
- Hundreds of tips, big and small
Whether you’re a manager, HR, or an individual surviving under a toxic boss, navigating workplace bullying, or just trying to make sense of a chaotic culture, this book is your guide. You deserve to feel safe, valued, and respected at work. Let this be your first step toward reclaiming your dignity.
