Toxic Job Relationship: How To Identify And Avoid
When you hear a toxic job relationship, you may think about an ex-partner, your parents, a sibling or a roommate. But you can have it in your work too
When you hear a toxic job relationship, you may think about an ex-partner, your parents, a sibling or a roommate. But you can have it in your work too, or even with your job or career as a whole. You can have a toxic relationship with your job whether you’re an entry-level worker or the boss. Employed by a company or work for yourself. A remote worker who shows up in sweatpants or someone who heads into a gorgeous office every morning.
Sign Of a Toxic Job Relationship
Toxic work relationships don’t have to do with your authority, role, where you work or your regular schedule. They have to do with how your job or colleagues make you feel on a regular basis.
Identify Physical Toxic Job Environment
A toxic workplace can be any job where the work, the atmosphere, the people, or any combination of those things cause serious disruptions for the rest of your life. These disruptions can show up in any number of physical symptoms, says a recent article by coach and human-behavior professor Melody Wilding. These include “sleepless nights, feeling constantly vigilant, sweaty palms, and a racing heartbeat.”. As s reuslt, a saign of a toxic job relatinship.
What’s more, a toxic or hostile workplace has negative health impacts that can affect your personal life by “damaging everything from your self-esteem to your friendships,” states Wilding. Our bodies are very adept at letting us know there’s a “danger” that we need to look at, so we need to pay attention. Check-in with yourself frequently with these questions:
- How are you sleeping? Are you regularly getting at least eight hours?
- Are you feeling safe at home and at work?
- What’s your eating like? Are you often too undereat, or do you tend to overeat?
If the answers to these questions raise red flags, then it’s time to assess your work environment to see what exactly is causing your health and well-being to suffer.
Types of Toxic Employees
It’s always a good sign if your employees develop friendly relationships and get along. In fact, you should encourage an open communication culture. But, office gossip can lead to a significant decrease in your team’s productivity, if it goes too far. You’ll spot a gossiping culprit everywhere: they’ll be chatting near the water cooler, they’ll walk around during lunch, trying to ‘fish’ for interesting stories and they’ll frequently share juicy office news. They’ll interrupt their coworkers, without knocking on the door, simply to ask about their vacation plans.
This kind of ‘social butterfly’ employee becomes toxic when they’re mostly preoccupied with fun stories and gossiping rather than actually working. Besides, excessive gossip and ungrounded rumors can turn into office politics and create drama among your employees. This is a sign of a toxic job relationship.
So, to avoid this, don’t squeeze your employees into cubicles, wishing for minimum contact. On the contrary, make sure your employees have enough time to interact with each other during lunch or after-work events. This way, they should stay more focused on work during billable hours. If, however, there are specific employees who seem to constantly initiate office gossip, it’s best to speak with them directly and ask them not to distract their coworkers.
