What toxic work culture looks like
At Stopline we constantly see and hear reports of unhealthy workplaces which are sometime identified through bad workplace culture. We are posting a number of blogs and articles to bring to light not only the issues we see in Australia, but how other workplaces around the world report the same issues we face here.
The below article was written by Ms Jennifer Liu, (www.cnbc.com), which “Based on anonymous reviews, employees say the following five descriptions are textbook elements of a toxic work culture:”
Non-inclusive, where members across gender, race, sexual identity and orientation, disability and age don’t feel they are treated fairly, welcomed or included in key decisions. Researchers caution that though these identity-related topics might not apply to all employees, they have a big impact. For example, “respect” is mentioned 30 times more frequently in employee reviews than LGBTQ equity, but both topics have the same impact on an employee’s view of culture when they are discussed negatively in a review.
Disrespectful, or lacking in consideration, courtesy and dignity for others. The researchers’ previous work found respect, or the lack thereof, was the single strongest predictor of how employees as a whole rated the corporate culture.
Unethical behavior, including descriptions of the organization being dishonest or lacking regulatory compliance, including with Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards, which protect workers’ safety, and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which protects sensitive patient information.
Cutthroat or backstabbing behavior and ruthless competition. Nearly 10% of employee reviews noted poor collaboration at their company, which didn’t have a huge impact on turnover. But what did correspond with low culture scores and higher turnover was employees saying that their office was “Darwinian” or that colleagues often “stab each other in the back.”
Abusive management, including bullying, harassment and hostility. Nearly one-third of Glassdoor reviews discuss management in general, but 0.8% described their manager as abusive.
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