5 Classic Signs of Toxic Work Culture | Are You Too Stressed Out At Your Workplace?

There are so many terms these days that get hype and attention. Toxic work culture is one of those. In general, I believe you might have come across the word “toxic” in psychological terms. It implies the same meaning – poisonous – as we use for physical substances. It is also used for people and surroundings in general because sometimes we may get mentally exhausted and suffocated due to several reasons. Therefore, it is important to recognise whether you are actually trapped in a toxic work environment, or you are just being critical of pretty much everything.

Signs of toxic work culture

I am not talking about “Monday blues” or “stressful week”. I am emphasising that consistent stress you keep even while your working hours are already completed may be because your boss never seems to be happy with whatever you do due to N number of reasons. This can mean that they are more critical of your shortcomings and seldom appreciating your credible efforts. Following are the signs of toxic work culture. Now not all of them may hold true in your case, nevertheless, most of them are going to make sense.

1. When no one seems to recognise your efforts despite spending hours: Right after you login, the only thing that counts would be the total hours and not the actual work. Your manager will not have your information due to a communication gap or disinterest in whatever you do. So, even if it’s one year down the line and you still don’t get a salary increment, understand that your manager never cared about your contributions. This situation is never going to change even if you let them know. In fact, you probably aren’t even alone. There may be many other colleagues who seem to complain about this with you often. This is a major red flag and a sure-fire sign of toxic workplace culture.

2. It is necessary that you maintain the company’s protocols: If you don’t then that could cost you a serious warning from HR. Moreover, you need to nod your head as a “Yes” to everything your manager demands, else you face dire consequences. It could be asking you to work on extended hours or even on Saturdays and Sundays quite much regularly. You may be asked to check your emails every day and reply even on offs. Don’t you think it’s too much to ask? If that is the case you need to re-evaluate your stance as it is one of the classic signs of toxic work environment. It’s NOT your fault to have weekend offs. You deserve it! Unless of course your job is based on flexible working hours.

3. You notice that your workplace contains a truckload of rumours and gossips and it could include you: Do you notice that no employee is spared of being talked about? You may feel paranoid most of the time because people seem to be nice externally but may appear superficial. Also, you seem to notice that your boss may behave nicely in front of you but backbites once you two aren’t in the same room. It can be mentally frustrating to discover that. If doing gossip is not your thing then it would be downright draining to be even present in such a scenario; another evident sign of toxic workplace.

4. Nobody seems to question the existing work environment as they simply don’t care or are too scared to propose an upgrade: This could be because of a number of reasons such as the boss yells at anyone or shows passive-aggressiveness to their subordinates. Sometimes these subordinates are also terrified of misunderstandings.

5. You feel mentally so drained that you consider resigning from here, and each day becomes too hard to pass: Even your family members can observe that you can no longer function normally or could be seen relaxing. You suddenly lack optimism every morning and think more often about how you will tackle the whole situation throughout your working hours such as communicating with a specific person who causes you trouble. This is yet another red flag and you need to do something about it.

You feel that there is somebody (possibly a narcissist) who maintains the communication gap, complains pretty much about everyone as if others aren’t doing the work except themselves. That person also fails terribly at actually delivering the work themselves but they are simply good at convincing. They also want constant praises by their peers and they will in fact find such folks who will do (also known as enablers). If you don’t then get ready to face backlash or being cornered.

Do all of these statements sound familiar? Now that you know your office isn’t a suitable place to stay any longer, why don’t you apply somewhere else? Well, easier said than done. You do not want to stay, yet you fear being out of your comfort zone. You doubt yourself because either you already have low self-esteem OR somebody had caused serious damage to your peaceful and productive mind that can no longer focus.

Certainly, there are ways to handle things at your workplace. Training your mind to not take things personally is the first step towards your mental wellbeing. This is required as long as you get another job. You can’t remain here and still feel positive no matter how much you have trained yourself to be superficial.

Always remember that whatever experience you have had is NOT normal. People might say to you that office politics is everywhere and you need to learn to adjust. Well definitely there could be people who you may dislike a lot and they can be ignored; nevertheless, if they poke their god damn noses to the point of subtle bullying then it is NOT healthy. You deserve to be respected and at peace. Period.