Toxicity in the Workplace

Your department is large and actively growing. There's plenty of work to go around and then some. To outsiders, you seem to be a congenial, albeit stressed, group of people. Yet deadlines and the work pile up. Your coworkers' smiles seem forced. Goals and progress feel distant when you realize teams half the size with more assignments somehow produce and do not seem nearly as harried.

What gives?

Your manager. Not only do they lack the skills to lead the department towards prosperity, they actively contribute to the failure of it.

Take a look at some ways your manager or team lead is destructive to the group's overall success...and possibly your career.

Meetings. Meetings either do not exist or they are one-sided as your boss talks at the group for the duration of the meeting. Do not distract from their stage during a meeting, especially with a good idea. This time is for them to feel like the smartest, most important person in the room. Collaboration and input are merely words your boss throws out when HR or executives as around; they are not to be taken seriously.

Lack of standards. Can't figure out what it takes to advance? Can't identify a concrete process or procedure for departmental operations? One report (usually the boss' 'bro') gets away with under-performance but still gets promoted? The boss makes an excuse for every one of their own fails or missed deadlines but comes down on the group for similar missteps? The toxic boss looks out for Number One and not even that 'bro' of his is ultimately safe (though he will be the last member to be shoved under the bus).

Unequal playing field. Speaking of favorites, there's a handful of colleagues that get the better projects, smaller workloads, and better non-monetary benefits like coming in late, leaving early, and working from home. You are micromanaged; they aren't. They get away with their own toxic contributions like excessive boasting, lying, cutting corners while you have to walk the line of perfection or else risk the boss' wrath. At the end of each workday, you don't know if you need your therapist, a kickboxing class, or the local pub.

Empty promises. Toxic bosses love a big talk. They need grand goals to keep the group motivated to deal with their non-stop BS. But one day, you look up and realize those big dreams have not materialized even though you and/or the group has met all the criteria, jumped through all the hoops. Your inquiry is met with evasion, new roadblocks, or lies. All are forms of hand-waving; the big goals never existed in the first place. Sadly, you realize the last couple years of your career have pretty much been a hamster wheel while your boss networks their way to greener pastures.

Closed door policy. Your boss must be very important because they will not talk to anyone without closing a door, choosing the most hidden meeting rooms, or whispering at their cube. Sometimes privacy is essential. However, if your boss regularly has an air of secrecy about them, they operate with hidden agendas. Was it really necessary to pull you each aside individually to let you know they will be setting meetings for performance reviews for everyone? Nope; an email could have sufficed. Someone in the group probably did not get the private update but noticed their peers were getting called away one by one to meet with the boss. The whole charade orchestrated to impose a sense of exclusion.

If you've realized your department is a cycle of dysfunction, do not wait for something to change. Look for a new job immediately before you get burned or burned out.

Think you may be the cause of toxicity? Check out The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable so you don't lose your team (or your job).