Signs of a Toxic Workplace
All material on Your Office Coach is copyrighted to Marie
G. McIntyre. All rights reserved.
May be reproduced with copyright and attribution to
www.yourofficecoach.com.
Some organizations are
poisonous, and they can infect everyone who works there. But if you
have been in a toxic workplace too long, you may have come to accept
sick behavior as normal. And you may even start to think that there’s
something wrong with you. So here are some clues to watch for – and if
you spot even one or two of these signs, you might want to start
polishing up your resume and looking for a healthier place to work.
1.
Power struggles and power plays are common
and ongoing.
2.
Management egos need to be stroked on a
regular basis.
3.
Executives are primarily focused on
increasing their power or fattening their purses.
4.
People only talk to their managers if they
absolutely have to.
5.
Entire departments are at war with each
other.
6.
Management pays more attention to what
employees do wrong than what they do right.
7.
Employees spend a lot of energy on CYA
activities.
8.
Problems automatically trigger the search
for a scapegoat.
9.
Gossip, put-downs, blaming, and back-biting
are common among co-workers.
10.
Disagreements get personal and insulting.
11.
Co-workers have a “my way or the highway”
attitude and seldom help one another.
12.
Unreasonably long work hours are a way of
life. There’s no such thing as a weekend.
13.
No consideration is given to personal or
family issues.
Toxic organizations are
usually the product of toxic leadership. For better or worse, the
values and beliefs of top executives determine the culture of their
companies. So if you find yourself in one of these unhealthy places,
you have two choices: either take stress management classes and pray for
a leadership change or get out! As soon as you leave, everything
happening in that sick little world will become totally irrelevant to
your life.
Copyright Marie G. McIntyre. All rights reserved. May be reproduced
with copyright and attribution to www.yourofficecoach.com .
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