Have We Accepted Toxic Workplaces as the New Normal?

Some people think toxic workplaces are now normal and there’s nothing you can do about it. Are they correct?

“Most companies are toxic,” said a friend of mine recently, “it’s the new now; people are pushed hard to meet targets and become bitchy as a result. A job is no longer a social thing, it’s a nasty situation. It’s no more than a tool now to earn money, most important thing is what happens at home.”

So is he right?

I wasn’t so sure, as I’ve experienced some great places to work. And workplace toxicity is a hot topic at the moment, with many companies focusing on getting rid of it.

However, I’m a sample size of just one, so I asked a few people I know for their views. Here are a few comments:

“It’s not toxic as such, we get people being bitchy every now and then, and the lads sometimes make sexist comments, but we nip that in the bud straight away.” Large company, part of a massive global group

“We have some people within the company who are toxic, but the culture isn’t toxic at all. We’ve spent a lot of time and effort eradicating it from our place.” Medium-sized specialist firm

“I’d never experienced it before moving to my former employer. Then realised just how bad it can be. Seems to be more prevalent in small and medium-sized companies.” Small privately-owned company

Most of the other responses were in the same vein; some companies were very toxic, some weren’t at all. All had individual people who displayed toxic behaviour.

There seemed to be a link between the size of the company and the level of toxicity displayed. These are just anecdotes though, it’s not a scientific study by any measure.

The very large, global companies were more aware of the potential for problems and took active steps to reduce or remove any kind of toxic culture.

Smaller companies, particularly private or family-owned business, had more significant problems. Usually, it stemmed from the leadership; either the boss was toxic or simply allowed such behaviour to carry on unchecked.

Some former family businesses, where they’d sold out to a bigger entity but kept their branding and identity, still kept their toxic culture. Yet others had eradicated it, so there’s no clear trend.

Some companies had taken steps to completely overhaul their culture; others denied any problem existed. Worse still, some accepted they’d got issues but refused to accept there were ways of fixing them.

So was my friend right? Are most businesses toxic?

This is only a little personal study, but from the tiny amount of information I managed to gather, it’s not so clear cut.

Many businesses have toxicity elements within them, usually with individual people. A significant amount of firms take steps to make sure the culture itself is as pleasant as possible. Any rise in toxicity is dealt with and controlled.

In short, no, most businesses are not toxic.