Think about the most disgusting place you’ve ever been. Maybe it was a public bathroom at a highway rest stop; perhaps it was an unclean restaurant with vile food; it may have even been an unorganized department store that was chaotic to walk through. Regardless of the image that’s in your mind right now, a toxic workplace is just that – from dishonest workers to negative attitudes, working in a toxic culture is like being forced to be in the most disgusting of places. The difference? Disgusting places can be cleaned up and reorganized. Can you do the same with an intangible thing like culture?
A toxic work culture is detrimental to your business. Discover the signs of a toxic workplace, and what you can do as a manager to remedy the situation.
If you work within a toxic company culture, the signs are all around you.
- There are passive-aggressive tendencies amongst employees and managers alike.
- Your employees experience unfairness, whether it’s through coworkers stealing ideas, certain workers getting away with things others don’t, or a general feeling that there is a lack of appreciation.
- Immoral or illegal activities occur on company time and/or property.
- A manager or employee is perceived as abusive in some way (sexual harassment, racist comments, sexist jokes).
- Cliques begin to form, causing constant gossiping or poor office politics.
- There is a general sense that employees don’t coexist well.
As a manager, CEO, or owner of a company, it’s your job to pick up on these signs and address them right away.
According to Forbes’ writer Erika Andersen, “people will change their behavior only if they see the new behavior as easy, rewarding, and normal.” Here are some of the easiest and most effective ways to change company culture.
- Maintain a transparent environment. In order for you to keep an eye on things and ensure everyone is happy in their role, it’s important for your employees to feel welcome to talk to you. Keep them up-to-date with important company information; observe an open-door policy, and encourage your employees to seek you out when there is a problem. It’s important to listen to what your employees are saying. Welcome any and all feedback regardless of how it gets to you, whether it’s in the form of an e-mail, a face-to-face conversation, or even a reply to an anonymous survey.
- Put the focus on community, not competition. Community should be an important value in any company culture. To enforce a positive company culture, provide your employees with opportunities to bond and discover personal values that they might share. Scheduling fun activities for your employees, like educational company outings or happy hours, can help build that sense of community. Enforce the fact that it’s not about who makes what or the role they play in the company – each of your employees should feel like they are an important component in the business, regardless of their place on the corporate ladder.
- Find what’s not working and remove it. This could be a policy, strategy, or even an employee. For instance, maybe you have a reward system in place that isn’t working for your sales team. Or, perhaps an employee is slacking, leaving the others to pick up where they left off to ensure a client stays happy. Regardless of what it is, in order to fix the company culture, you may need to change your policies or eliminate the problem for the sake of a positive workplace.
Running a business is a challenging undertaking, but cleaning up a toxic workplace is a whole other ballgame! Ultimately, it’s your job to maintain the office peace. These tips will help you fix your broken culture.
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