A big topic in the last few years has been cancellation culture. Including the firing of the CEO and upper management for creating a toxic work environment. Amen!? I’ve put up with a toxic work culture my entire career, and sadly I’ve often dismissed it and said, ‘That’s the way they do it’ or ‘That’s just the way it is. That’s how to do it,” and inhaled it. We’ve taken a giant leap forward in uncovering the narrative of a toxic culture, but the reality is that many workplaces are still dealing with it.

So I’m here to talk about people returning to the office after years of working from home. Because if there was something toxic via Zoom, it could feel amplified.

First, let’s define a toxic work culture as a negative environment created by coworkers, bosses, or company culture.

Signs of a toxic work culture:

poor leadership
Lack of communication or negative communication
dysfunctional behavior
lack of transparency
Unclear role
passive aggressive behavior
negativity
always high stress
low morale
unclear goal
negativity
exclusion, gossip, factions
power struggle
No positive feedback or no feedback at all
burnout
Drama
feeling underrated
Feeling disallowed to express one’s feelings
Lack of work-life balance
With no room to grow, people feel stagnant
Turnover
unmotivated and/or unhappy employees
hostile work environment
sexual harassment

But beyond common signs, it’s also an emotion. If you feel nervous at work or afraid to go because of the atmosphere, trust your intuition.

Let’s talk about how to improve things, because in many cases they can be improved. First, if you have an HR team/HR representative, confidentially share what you’re going through. They can help improve these situations. If you don’t have an HR team, you’ll need to:

1. Work hard and maintain good posture

Don’t tell anyone why you aren’t working hard or have a good attitude. keep the street side clean Always a way to act yourself.

2. Friends/Safe Colleagues

Building strong relationships in the workplace is important. Someone you trust, someone who is positive, someone who brings light to your workplace, someone who pushes you, someone you can confide in. You can also ask someone close to you to assess your situation. increase. Ask them to pay more attention to their interactions with those who bring you down, show them the emails that hurt you, and ask for their perspective. mosquito? This helps bring clarity to you, and now that they’re more attentive, they can back you up if something comes to mind.

3. Make your workspace comfortable

Spending hours at work helps me feel at home. Think of it as a little safe haven from toxicity. Bring plants and flowers, decorate family photos and add objects that bring joy. These ideas will help!

4. Don’t let one bad apple ruin the bunch

If only one person has a problem, try to solve it. either directly with them or through an intermediary.

5. Understand others

Understanding different personality types can help you navigate difficult personalities. For example, working with a narcissist can be very difficult, but recognizing that they are a narcissist and knowing how to work with them will change the game. Here it is A book that might help.

6. Sit

If you feel really bad about your environment and are comfortable enough to tell your boss about it, do so. but you can be honest with yourself.

7. Document as much as possible

If you have to file a complaint, it’s important to have evidence of a toxic work culture. Save emails, write them down, and point them out in real time to a secure colleague.

8. File a formal complaint

If you’ve tried everything you can to remedy the situation yourself and it doesn’t work, you can file a formal complaint. Formal complaints in real companies are not taken lightly and usually some action is taken.

9. Have an exit strategy

If you’ve made a serious attempt to improve things and for whatever reason you can’t, lay the groundwork for getting out. Staying in a toxic culture is not good for your mental health. Update your LinkedIn and resume to let people know what you’re looking for. Knowing that they hope you leave soon will also help keep you positive.

Any other tips on toxic work cultures?