Do you consider yourself among the best-performing employees? Do your suggestions almost always carry the day? Do you get away with breaking the rules? Do you feel misunderstood because everybody else is too dumb?
Do you regularly have to explain yourself because of complaints from customers and co-workers? Do your subordinates go silent whenever you walk into the room? How many subordinates have you replaced in the past year? Did you find all of them unworthy of their jobs? Have you recently been in trouble for insulting or beating up someone at work?
If your answer to most of the above questions is a yes, you are a toxic employee. As you consider yourself a top performer, could you be exploiting colleagues in your quest for a promotion?
The problem of toxic workplaces is back in the news after several Kenyan celebrities were accused of malice by former workmates. Accusations ranged from mocking the economic status of colleagues at work to publicly humiliating victims.
A media personality was accused of shaming a junior employee for carrying packed lunch instead of ordering food from a nearby restaurant like everyone else.
THE TOXIC WORKER
In the paper 'Toxic Workers', the authors Michael Housman and Dylan Minor describe toxic persons as those engaging in behaviour that is harmful to an organisation, including its property and people. "Those who seem overconfident in their abilities, who are self-regarding and who claim rules should be followed, are more likely to become toxic workers and break company and legal rules," the duo wrote.
After studying the characteristics of more than 50,000 workers, Michael and Dylan noted that toxic workers are not always born that way. An organisation can turn good people into toxic workers through bad management practices. Like a disease, toxic workers infect new employees with toxicity, thus perpetuating a toxic atmosphere at the workplace.
An interesting observation in the report is that toxic employees tend to be highly productive individuals, which explains why they keep their jobs despite the bad behaviour. The toxic employee could be the best salesperson in the company or the best engineer in the factory. He or she could be the CEO who came and made the company profitable.
Despite their above-average performance, toxic employees are responsible for pushing out good employees from the organisation. High turnover of workers is expensive to the employer because of recurring recruitment costs.
What exactly is a toxic work culture? Bullying, humiliation and shaming are the key characteristics. The work environment consequently gets filled with anxiety which, in turn, induces stress-related illnesses among employees. Toxic workplaces can arise from autocratic managers using micromanagement and fear to assert their authority. Gossip and emotional manipulation become the norm as management monitors employee behaviour. Any sign of disloyalty to the boss is swiftly punished.
Employees in good books with the leadership get special favours, which creates cliques. Management does not consult employees on key decisions affecting the organisation. This worsens the sense of anxiety among ordinary workers. Employees are reduced to speculation and rumour-mongering.
In Kenya, toxicity at the workplace has been reported across the public sector, private companies, NGOs, schools and religious institutions. County governments are well-known hotbeds of workplace toxicity as officers who disagree with the county executive are excluded from meetings, are locked out of their offices and generally humiliated into submission.
A CULTURE OF RUMOURS
One former employee of a large transport company in Kenya (name of the company withheld) says he heard about his impending dismissal from a clerical worker who was close to senior management. Days later, the hint became a reality as he received a retrenchment letter from the human resources department.
A whole 25 years of service ended with management leaking news of his unexpected departure to a junior staffer. During his last years of service in the transport company, the former employee saw management make what he describes as questionable decisions. Cliques emerged in the company as senior executives pushed out experienced staff.
A clinical psychologist explains that unhealthy competition at the workplace can create toxicity. "At times, everybody wants to step on another person to get to another level," Riziki Ahmed said in an article previously published in the Star.
Riziki advises top management not to encourage gossiping. Instead, management should build clear reporting mechanisms so that each employee knows who they report to. Regular meetings should be held especially when implementing changes so that everybody understands the rationale for the decisions.
BIG FIRMS GUILTY
Across the world, famous organisations such as Apple, Tesla, Amazon, Uber and Amnesty International have in the past been accused of fostering toxic workplaces.
According to a 2019 investigation by online news outlet the Daily Beast, employees of shopping giant Amazon were subjected to unrealistic performance targets, social isolation and timed bathroom breaks. Thoughts of suicide were reportedly common. In 2017, Uber was accused of sometimes pitting workers against each other and ignoring complaints made against top performers.
It is easy to point fingers at employers and castigate them for workplace toxicity but the average person may unknowingly be a toxic worker. You are a toxic worker if you regularly sabotage your supervisor and refuse to cooperate with colleagues, while hiding behind the protection of a powerful manager.
Perhaps your house help sees you as a toxic boss because of your unreasonable demands coupled with a harsh voice. If you have ever used violence against a workmate, a boss or a customer, you definitely are a toxic worker.
Most people choose to leave toxic work environments. It is often beyond the ability of a single employee to change an organisation's work culture. If you've changed jobs several times during your professional life due to workplace toxicity, you should start taking a closer look at yourself. You may be the problem.
