Toxic Workplace
Today’s workplace has become a fast-paced environment that makes use of the latest technology to stay connected and generate successful results. This has not only made work more efficient, it has also greatly expanded the skill set of the workforce. While the workplace has greatly evolved over the past few decades, problems like toxic workplaces still persist.
Over the past few years, there have been a number of companies that have struggled to foster a positive and healthy office culture. This has led to numerous problems that hamper results and can cause personnel to leave or commit acts against the company itself.
A toxic workplace can stem from a number of reasons, which include poor communication, sanctioned incompetence, micro-management, and much more. There are numerous instances where these issues can multiply over time and affect an increasing number of people. Whether it be people who are dedicated to performing their best or people who are unproductive, a toxic workplace will eventually affect everyone and affect how the office performs as a whole.
How to Heal a Toxic Workplace
A toxic workplace is an environment that negatively impacts the effectiveness and efficiency of an office, which can lead to an increasing number of problems. Once you have noticed there are signs that negativity and toxicity are present in the office, it is important to find the best ways to remedy the situation before it worsens. Here are some of the best ways to heal a toxic workplace, and create a healthier work environment overall.
Be Transparent Communicators
Communication is an important part of the workplace. It keeps everyone aligned with the company’s goals and objectives, ensuring that everything is properly coordinated and efficient. A toxic workplace has difficulties when it comes to communicating clearly and properly, which can lead to huge misunderstandings, lack of coordination between different departments and teams, and unsatisfactory results.
One of the reasons that can lead to poor communication in a toxic workplace is the lack of transparency when it comes to conveying information. It is important to relay all of the necessary information to all members of the company. People need to know the status of certain tasks and objectives.
Deliberately withholding information from people can incite gossip and other malicious practices that create a toxic work environment. It is important to avoid this from happening, which is why becoming transparent communicators is the best solution to this problem. Being transparent allows you to properly relay information to everyone in the company, letting everyone know what is happening at all times, whether it be good news or bad.
Proper communication has to be honest, as this is the key to keeping your workplace from becoming a toxic environment that breeds gossip.
Remove Micromanagement
Another common trait that numerous toxic workplaces have is micromanagement. This occurs when different departments and their leaders excessively focus on each and every task of their employees. This can cause a negative backlash, as employees will see this as their leaders not trusting them to perform their tasks properly at work. Micromanagement also focuses on smaller tasks, which at times can stray away from the main objective and goal.
Micromanagement fosters toxic work environments, which is why it is a practice that must be avoided. The best way to solve this situation is by improving the relationship between the leaders and their teams. This means trusting each other more and encouraging cooperation between members to reach their goals much faster. Being a leader is not just about knowing how to manage your team, but also believing in their capabilities.
Accept Constructive Criticism
Criticism is also another big issue that creates toxic workplaces. It is common to react negatively to criticism, even if it is something that would help you improve. While the natural course of action would be to improve upon these mistakes and grow, a toxic workplace would reject constructive criticism, and even be angered or disdain it. This can negatively affect professional growth, and hamper the progress of your company, and is another factor that can incite gossip and poor communication.
While constructive criticism can be frank at times, the best way to grow as a company and professional is having the ability to accept it and improve upon it. During the course of one’s professional life, there are a number of obstacles and mistakes that can come along the way, which can lead to criticism being thrown at you. Should this happen, it is best to accept points that allow you to grow and let the results speak for themselves.
Recognize Team Accomplishments
Another issue that is present in a toxic workplace is the lack of recognition for the accomplishments of different departments and team members. Whether it be a major accomplishment or milestone, or even a minor victory, not recognizing them can cause employees to lose morale and motivation and feel what they have achieved is not worthwhile and important. Lack of morale and motivation is a recipe that can lead to poor results at work and even incompetence in the workplace.
It is important to keep your company’s morale up, as this will motivate them and inspire them to strive for more success. Make it a habit to recognize your team’s achievements during meetings or events, as this is a great way to push them towards doing more to achieve their goals.
Eliminate Favoritism and other Biases
Being a leader means treating your team with an equal amount of respect and eliminating any preferences and bias. This is something that a toxic workplace does not have, and instead, tends to cling on to favoritism and bias against certain members. While recognizing people who work hard and excel is natural, showing an obvious bias towards certain members, regardless of what they have done, can negatively affect the whole working environment. This can cause conflict amongst your employees and is another factor that incites gossip and low morale. Favoritism can lead to a toxic workplace, which is why it is best to eliminate any form of preferential treatment.
Embrace Necessary Changes
During the course of a company’s lifespan, a number of changes have to be made in order to improve the products, services, and practices or the workplace. A good company would know when to embrace change despite the challenges it can bring, and be able to guide their employees accordingly. Committing to change is an important factor for growth, which is something that a toxic workplace would struggle at. Negative work environments tend to resist changes with how they work and operate and stubbornly refuse to adjust for the betterment of themselves and the company. To ensure this does not happen in your workplace, the best way to implement change is by communicating the whole process clearly and guiding everyone towards embracing it. This will make the transition much smoother while keeping everyone aligned without compromising the whole work environment.
Remedy Toxic Workplaces with Teamstrr
A toxic workplace is an environment that breeds distrust, incompetence, gossip, and poor communication, which can be factors that cause people to leave, to even cause the company to collapse. This is why creating remedies and solutions to improve your work environment is crucial towards keeping your company committed to accomplishing its goals while keeping the workplace positive and focused.
The key to creating a healthy working environment is communication, which is why having a platform like Teamstrr is crucial to promoting unity and harmony in the workplace. Teamstrr is a communication platform that allows teams and management to relay different kinds of information to each other. This allows employees to be able to communicate their concerns, which in turn helps the company understand their members even better.
This platform also eliminates miscommunication and keeps everyone aligned with the company’s goals and values. Company unity is the key to preventing a toxic workplace from happening, and Teamstrr provides a portal to achieve that. Click here to get started.