In my previous blog, I discussed the key elements of a healthy workplace, focusing on the 12 questions from Buckingham and Coffman’s 1999 research. These questions help gauge the overall healthiness of a workplace, highlighting environments where employees feel valued, respected, and supported, with opportunities for growth. What could be better than that? Perhaps adding fair compensation and incentives for a job well done. However, research suggests that pay alone doesn’t guarantee job satisfaction.
While Buckingham and Coffman’s questions focus on how workers want to be treated, we must consider whether a dysfunctional or toxic workplace represents the opposite qualities. In such an environment, employees may feel invalidated, unappreciated, unheard, and stagnant. This likely leads to low job satisfaction. But when we think of a truly toxic workplace, we often envision settings where employees experience abuse, bullying, harassment, and intimidation. While neglect and lack of support exist at one end of unhealthy workplaces, abuse and harassment exist at the other extreme.
Abusive behavior in the workplace can take various forms, with verbal abuse being the most common. Constructive criticism is typically seen as helpful, while verbal abuse aims to hurt and demean the individual. Verbal abuse can include insults, racial, gender, or ethnic slurs, and attacks on one’s character or appearance. For example, comments like, “You’re a lazy slob who will never amount to anything. Typical of someone from your race/ethnicity/gender,” are considered verbal abuse and can create a “hostile work environment,” grounds for a formal complaint or lawsuit.
Workplace bullies often use verbal abuse as just one tactic. They may also use threats, such as falsely accusing coworkers, threatening to get them fired, or withholding pay or promotions. The ultimate goal of a workplace bully is to intimidate and control the victim, sometimes with the intention of making them comply or simply to derive pleasure from their suffering.
Harassment is another form of abuse in the workplace, with sexual harassment being the most widely recognized. However, harassment can take other forms, such as threats or intimidation. In all cases, harassment creates a “hostile work environment.” A notable example is the case of former San Diego Mayor Bob Filner, who pleaded guilty to sexual harassment and battery charges. Following allegations from three women, 17 more women came forward with similar claims, echoing the sexual harassment accusations against former Oregon Senator Robert Packwood.
Toxic workplaces can vary widely, from those where bullying is accepted, to environments where harassment and a hostile atmosphere are common, to situations where employees’ hard work is overlooked and they feel unsupported. While work isn’t meant to be fun, it also shouldn’t be degrading or punishing.
Suggested Readings:
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Barnes, P.G. (2012). Surviving Bullies, Queen Bees, and Psychopaths in the Workplace.
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Buckingham, M., & Coffman, C. (1999). First Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently.
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Kusy, M., & Holloway, E. (2009). Toxic Workplace: Managing Toxic Personalities and Their Systems of Power.
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