How to spot a toxic workplace

“When people are weighing up whether [they’re in] a toxic place, they have to ask themselves, ‘Does this workplace make me feel positive or negative?’”.

Most of us will spend a good portion of our lives in the workforce, so it’s important to find a job and workplace you feel comfortable in. But this is easier said than done.

Whether it’s your high school weekend job or your first full-time gig, most people have encountered a toxic workplace. But sometimes it’s hard to figure out exactly what’s amiss about your work environment.

Looking for a new 9 to 5? Head to our Careers page for new listings daily. 

To find out more, I spoke to Ryan Kelly, founder of Creative Natives recruitment agency, to get the rundown on what exactly a toxic workplace is and the signs that you’re in one.

What is a toxic workplace?

“A toxic workplace is a place where people don’t feel comfortable being themselves,” Ryan tells me. If there’s more of a focus on company politics rather than the work that employees are producing, that’s a bad sign. For example, while you’re busy working away and striving for results, your colleagues or managers may care more about your opinions on the latest office drama.

A toxic workplace also allows certain individuals – whether it be senior executives or regular team members – to get away with rude, unkind or inappropriate behaviour, even when it goes against the values of a business.

Are there any signs people should look for in the job description or initial job interview that could indicate the workplace is toxic?

“A good job description talks about how somebody is supported in the role,” Ryan explains. “A toxic job description would probably have words such as ‘must have’, and it reads more like a list of duties rather than what’s actually going to fulfil the individual.”

As for the interview stage? Ryan says a great way to get a glimpse of the team and work culture is to meet them in person. “A good job interview should allow the candidate to meet multiple members of the team and not just senior leadership,” he tells me.

If you aren’t able to meet the team during your interview, don’t fret. There are a variety of tools like LinkedIn, Seek and Glassdoor that allow you to see the average tenure of staff within an organisation, as well as ratings and reviews from people who have worked at the company.

How can you tell if your workplace is either toxic or becoming a toxic environment?

While it’s natural to experience negative aspects of your work (bad experiences with customers, projects not performing as expected, etc) and want to vent to coworkers, there’s a line that’s easily crossed.

“When there’s a negative tone and negativity is a common theme amongst conversations, I think that’s a pretty accurate description or accurate representation [of a toxic workplace],” Ryan says. “When people are weighing up whether [they’re in] a toxic place, they have to ask themselves ‘Does this workplace make me feel positive or negative?’”.

Does a toxic workplace come from senior leadership or the wider team?

It takes two to tango. While workplace gossip between team members isn’t entirely to blame, neither is management. “The senior leadership team are the people that allow certain behaviours to exist… [which] is going to manifest amongst a wider group,” Ryan points out.

Anything surrounding culture starts from the top and then works its way through the business. So while your boss may be complaining about a lack of work ethic from a certain employee, you’ll only make it worse by gossiping about it.

What are the different ways that toxicity can manifest in the workplace?

According to Ryan, there are two ways that workplace toxicity can take place: in an aggressive and passive-aggressive manner. “The aggressive ways are quite confrontational, argumentative [and] quite an unsafe communication style, whereas the passive ways are overlooking people for opportunities, dismissing people’s ideas [and] taking credit for somebody else’s work,” Ryan explains. Both are just as bad as each other.

Another way workplace toxicity can take place is the lack of boundaries, such as being expected to work outside of hours. “Any relationship or any functioning system needs to have boundaries in place,” Ryan says. “And I think that clear boundaries in organisations around expectations and the way in which people communicate… can help prevent that.”

Ryan tells me that while some people prefer to work and respond to emails at night, there should be no expectation for others to do the same. If there is, it’s a sign that your workplace does not value your time outside of work.

What should people do when they find themselves in a toxic workplace?

“The first step would be to keep a journal and see if it’s constantly happening,” Ryan instructs. No workplace is perfect and you will experience some level of negativity within any career. However, if it’s a constant occurrence, you may need to consider what your options are. Ryan recommends voicing your concerns to your manager or HR as the first step.

“But if it’s something where you genuinely feel the organisation has [toxicity] at the core of it, then it’s probably not the right one for you…”

For more on toxic workplaces, head here.