3 signs of toxic work environment

3 Signs Of A Toxic Work Environment

Today we’re going to be talking about three signs of what you need to look out for, absolute red flags when it comes through a toxic work environment and a toxic work culture. Sometimes we’re working in a company where these toxic traits are so prevalent that we almost get tricked into thinking that they are normal, but don’t be fooled. They are absolutely not normal. And we’re going to break down each of these three traits to watch out for in this article.

#1: Your achievements aren’t rewarded

So the first toxic trait to watch out for, it’s that all your achievements are not rewarded, but actually management, senior management or your direct line manager, take all the credit and all the recognition and don’t give you any of it.

With all the times in our career where we’ve worked on a really big project, maybe there was many people who actually contributed to its success, and yet when it’s pulled off, the senior guys take all the credit and the people that contributed from a specialist level don’t get any credit at all. There is nothing worse than putting in your time and effort and not getting any reward or even just any recognition from the senior people in the business about the work you did and your contributions.

Now, I’ve definitely seen this firsthand in my career. So for the last role that I had, I worked for an insurance tech company. In the beginning days of my time in this company, they actually went through large financial turnarounds and the business was in dire straits. And the senior management went through a big cost cutting regime, but we also redirected all the funds for our entire strategy.

But the senior leaders couldn’t do all that work by themselves. So essentially all of us in all of our different departments were required to make changes to improve business performance. But when it came time to sending out bonuses and performance reviews, the senior guys, the executives got these incredible bonuses. Like it was absolutely wild. And our specialists on the ground floor doing the grunt work got absolutely nothing.

Now, when I say nothing, I didn’t actually get nothing. I got a $50 bonus, but in my previous role when I was earning $30,000 less, I got a bigger bonus. I’m like, this doesn’t stack up. I’m earning all this more money and I’m getting no bonus. $50. It’s like a slap in the face, right? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I took the bonus and I spent it, but I’m pretty sure the senior marketing guy at the time got like a $90,000 bonus and it was a real big slap in the face to see that the people doing the grunt work on the front line were not rewarded and did not get the proper recognition financially or verbally that we deserved.

#2: People are rewarded based on who they know, not based on merit

Toxic trait number two, to watch out for an toxic work environment is that people are not rewarded based on their performance and merit, but rather by who they know. This can be so prevalent in large organizations where people work on certain tiers and in order to move up a tier in the company, it’s all based on who you know, network with and who you’re friends with.

There is nothing worse than feeling like you’re doing all this great work and driving all these great results for the companies because we work hard in our roles to get things done.

But when we hit those KPIs, when we have great performance and we’re still not rewarded, but we see other people get promoted because they’re indulging in small talk or they’re just good chummy mates with the senior guys, that is so toxic and that needs to be stripped out of every organization. Performance and promotion should always be merit based.

And I’ve been quite fortunate in the companies that I’ve worked at, including the company I work at now, where this is the case, your performance is keenly tracked and if you do hit your KPIs, that is logged and that is very much considered when it comes to going for new roles and also bonuses, promotions, pay rises as part of your performance review process.

#3: Bad behaviour isn’t punished if they’re a high performer

And toxic trait number three, and in my opinion probably the worst is that bad behavior is not punished if the person doing it is a high performer.

Again, there’s nothing worse than seeing someone get preferential treatment just because they do well in the business. If you mess up, if you bully people, if you’re not compliant in your role, if you don’t follow processes and all this stuff, that’s really important, especially if you work for a large company and especially if you work in a highly regulated industry.

If you’re exhibiting bad behavior, toxic behavior, you should be punished equally. And that just sets a really poor standard for the rest of the business, which is to say, I don’t need to behave well because I know that if I do well, I’m not going to be punished for it. But no one wants to work in that environment, especially not long-term. So that’s it. Three toxic trades you need to watch out for in the company you’re working, but also three red flags for any prospective role that you go for.

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