It is unfortunate that work—a necessary evil in life, unless you’re born under an extremely lucky star—also comes in a variety of shades of toxicity. So, not only are you by statistical proxy forced to do it, it sucks too.
But, there are ways and means to avoid it by keeping an eye on the signs—signs that women of Reddit were recently pointing out as indicative of get the heck out of there right now. Or, at least at your earliest convenience. But no later than 2 work weeks.
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When a bunch of staff are in cliques and it feels more like highschool than a professional work environment.
If your coworker gossips about other coworkers, they will gossip about you.
I've never worked at a place where people didn't gossip. Nature of the beast. Just keep your tongue in cheek when appropriate and hope for the best.
Multiple people have quit because of one person but that person still works here.
Many people are more than aware of what toxicity is and how it manifests in a workplace. Sadly, It’s all too real for 1 in 5 employees who have to battle toxic environments on the daily.
Yep, nearly 20% of employees report having to fight against toxic work conditions like failure to act on feedback, ignoring work-life balance and unfair treatment, just to name a few.
"We wear a lot of hats around here."
Translation - "You will be stuck with a lot of c**p that is not in your job description, but nobody else wants to do!".
Husband-wife managerial team. Run!
Nah, I've worked with some great couples for bosses. I've only had one bad experience.
It goes without saying that toxicity at the workplace is anything but good. It is known to lead to increased absenteeism, reduced productivity and lower levels of enthusiasm. And that’s just the start. Ultimately, it can start seeping into other areas in life, affecting your general satisfaction and mental health.
When you start dreading the weekend being over because you don't want to go to work on Monday. Beyond just a general "I love my free time" feeling.
When the managers and other decision makers are bubbly and happy during meetings while the rank-and-file drones are exhausted, quiet and disengaged.
Cult like reverence required for the leaders or founders.
And that’s the key concept here: happiness. There is an argument of how folks are poisoning themselves by working in toxic environments as it gradually affects an employee’s happiness. And if you’re not happy as a human being, other mental health problems start coming out of the woodwork.
If there are a suspiciously low number of people who have been with the company for more than 2 years.
Also any kind of “employee appreciation” that isn’t an annual event that legacy staff looks forward to.
Everyone is joking about the work environment being super tough and people developing various ailments from it (e.g. migraines or stomach issues). These are not jokes, these are warnings.
When there's no real training, just 'ask someone if you're not sure' - and then whoever you're asking tells you by rote, telling you 'click this, then that' without demonstrating a proper understanding of *why* tasks should be done in a certain way. When they can't answer any questions about the process and aren't enabled to problem-solve, it reflects micromanagement and lack of communication, and usually a disinterest in lower level staff.
It is important to note that there are no clear criteria as to what a toxic environment is outside of it affecting one’s well-being.
One person might feel uncomfortable with a manager, while others have no problem with them. Same goes for the company culture, the employees, the corporate structure and pretty much anything else. It is ultimately subjective.
Whatever the case, something always has to change.
Poor communication. Everything is gossip, and you have to know the right people to get any information.
There's a German word "Herrschaftswissen" (hard to translate, approximately ''power knowledge" or "domination knowledge"). It's information that you have because you're in a position of power and/or gives you an advantage/power over others that do not have the same information so it's withheld. I find in environments with high levels of rivalry and a strong hierarchy this is often why there's a lack of transparency.
No one takes their PTO, and if you do you’re given a nasty side eye.
Toxic work environments are best avoided before entering them, and there are several telltale signs to look out for.
One of the biggest and easier to stop red flags is the turnover rate. These are most often caused by poor management, negative work culture, or lack of employee support. In the long run, not only do the employees suffer, but the company’s bottom line does so too.
They won’t do anything in writing. For example, during my interview they mentioned it would be a fully remote position once onboarded/90 days on the job. I brought it up to my hiring manager once I past the date and they mentioned that “they never said that” and “it’s not in writing so they wouldn’t honor it”.
When they treat the interview process like a reality show and invite 20 people all at once and you go through rounds where at the end they have you line up in two rows and announce which row will continue the interview process.
No thanks.
When a guy can sexually harass a woman at the workplace, she goes and complains about it to management, management makes *her* transfer to a different area to settle the matter, then not even a year later they promote HIM as manager over her area she was forced to transfer to, thus making her eventually quit because her complaints didn’t mean squat when it’s one of upper managements bros.
This happened at my workplace a couple years ago to a friend of mine I worked with. Horrible stuff. All of the upper management and area managers are apart of this blatant good ol boy system and it is horrible. They only promote those type of guys too. Anytime they promote a women it’s because they got forced into it or because one of those good ol boys wants to get their spouses in the role.
I was moved to another area, and the a$$hole approached me with another male coworker to try to call me out for telling my manager he had massaged my shoulders. I already felt like I tattled so I tried to avoid him. He had all the males on break giving me a hard time about it. All I wanted was to be away from his area. Retail nightshift, small crew.
Poor communication is another big one. In ideal cases, company staff that communicates clearly, openly and honestly foster trust and collaboration. And if you don’t do that, then there is little to no communication and so nothing realistically gets done, fostering a culture of passive aggression, contempt and just generally nobody having a good time.
When they’re late to do your scheduled job interview.
As someone that's been on the other side of the fence don't be so quick to write off companies for this. If you are being interviewed you will be one of several people being interviewed that day one after the other. Things happen like people getting stuck in traffic, zoom stops working, manager has to respond to an emergency. Its not a game and we don't want to keep you waiting but if the person in front of you over runs because of something out of their control I'm not going to cut their interview short and score a 0 for the last 2 questions, destroying their chances of getting a job so we don't inconvenience you by asking you to wait 15 mins. Would you expect that if you got stuck in traffic or got a flat tyre etc.
I always ask about team building during the interview. "Beers after work" makes it toxic to me.
I'm not your pal, I come here to fill my duty for $$, and my free time is mine period.
Micromanagement is also often cited as a sign of toxic management. It’s when a superior overdoes it with their control, surveillance and management of work related tasks delegated to other employees. It shows lack of trust and takes away the opportunity for employees to prove their potential for ownership. On top of that, it stifles growth, and, again, nobody’s happy.
"the last person that worked here walked out and quit".
You dread every shift and come up with excuses to avoid work. Or you're angry while you're there and take a while to come down from it when you're off the shift.
Where even newcomers stop smiling after 3 days.
It is not unreasonable to think that unreasonable demands are a part of a truly toxic environment. These are time consuming, draining or just flat out annoying—and it doesn’t get the job done, which entails a whole lot of trouble. It’s even worse if the employee is provided zero support under these conditions.
High turnover .
People crying at their laptop.
Yes people was me.
Was me at home after work until my friend said he would be putting my resignation in for me. am currently watching my om do this. Sadly, and timely, a post about this from a year ago came up in my FB memories. So...
Believe it or not, lack of opportunities for growth is also considered a toxic workplace trait. It doesn’t matter if it’s structural (there are realistically no other opportunities) or artificial (someone is stifling your progress), all of it leads to dissatisfaction and a need to change that.
Oh, and also, toxic employees—they don’t help. Red flag.
Someone that has been there for quite a while quits and for the next six months everything that goes wrong was their fault because of…… just because.
The only friends and romantic partners the employees have are each other, not anyone else outside of work.
Women putting other women down. It may sound obvious, but it can be hard to catch at first. Making jabbing comments, making you feel bad for not working on days where you aren’t scheduled, judging you, questioning you on why you do things the way you do them, trying to make you feel stupid. I know it sounds like nothing you can’t just blow off, but it really makes the work time miserable.
Anyone putting anyone down really. Men can also put women down, women will put men down. All these behaviors are toxic
Note: this post originally had 65 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
So, what are your thoughts on any of this? Share your takes and stories in the comment section below!
And if you’ve already done that, then you can also check out the original Reddit thread or our other works on the topic.
