Discussions of toxic work environments seem to be more common nowadays, but it’s doubtful that this type of workplace culture is increasing.  I think that it is more a function of awareness and expectations from Millennials and Gen Z in the workplace.   I’ve had the unfortunate pleasure of dealing with several different toxic workplaces in my career and in this article, I hope to shed some light on how to approach these situations based on where you are at in your journey.

What to do with a toxic work environment?

The first thing you are likely to notice in a toxic workplace is that everyone is working around a certain individual or leadership group.  At my first job in biotech, it was the CEO of the startup.  My boss was terrified to take bad news to him and always stayed late just to avoid the appearance of slacking off.   This created a super unhealthy environment and instantly made me question my decision to join what I thought was an exciting startup company.

However, I obviously needed the money since I had a newborn at home and there was a ton of opportunities to learn how to manufacture monoclonal antibodies.   I was in a position to take the first of the following reactions to a toxic work environment.

Keep Your Head Down and Get the Value from the Job

It was tough for me to keep my head down and not speak to some of the disfunction that I was seeing.  I sense that this is hard for a lot of Gen Z workers as well.  However, I didn’t have any position to change things and so the best thing I could do is be a solid contributor and make sure I was not falling into any of the bad culture of the site.

This is key for younger workers since it just takes time to build up the credentials to be heard in most workplaces.   When the workplace culture is more toxic it is almost a guarantee that younger workers will be ignored.  With this in mind, it is often the best move to simply put in the time and focus on the good things coming from the role until something better comes along.

In this company, by maintaining a positive attitude and being willing to cross train in a few different groups, I was able to survive a 70% layoff.  That ended up being a massive payoff since I was then able to learn even more in my final year at the company before I finally moved on.

Look to Build an Island of Sanity

As I’ve progressed in my career, I’ve had multiple situations where I’ve been able to create space within a toxic work environment.  My second stop in biotech was at Thermo Fisher Scientific in Austin and the source of the toxic environment there was another mass layoff.  There were three groups with different layoff dates that were kept working so that they could collect their severance and then there was the small group of us that had been retained.

On top of this, the company sent the replacement workers from Lithuania to Austin to be trained.  It was a disaster for culture.

Thermo was big on metrics and it was very clear what each group needed to do to hit their numbers.  For the five of us that were kept in the protein lab, we simply focused on hitting our numbers and kept clear communication with management.  We obviously had trouble trusting the organization, but we used our efficiency to buy ourselves freedom from the chaos.

This is the critical principal to creating an island of sanity: narrow your focus and maintain a few close relationships.  We couldn’t control the broader culture, but we were able to create a small culture of trust.  By maintaining performance, we were able to buy ourselves some peace.

This approach is definitely for someone who has a little more status and experience in their role, but it will 100% improve your outlook when things take a toxic turn at your workplace.

Speak up and Work for Change

This last approach is obviously the one to go for if you have some standing in the organization.  However, this also hold significant risk in a truly toxic work environment.  If there are controlling leaders that need to be challenged, they may not take kindly to pushback.

It is completely appropriate to evaluate your tolerance for risk before putting yourself out there with leadership that may have shown a history of not being trustworthy.

This brings me to my most recent position where I was a manager of a technical support group at a pharmaceutical company.  The company has a very toxic culture of leadership making rash decisions and then not listening to the feedback of the teams required to deliver.

I pushed my management for several months on this topic but was repeatedly told that they had made “commitments to the board” each time I brought up timelines that were completely unrealistic.   The unique thing about this situation was that my wife’s real estate business had been booming for several years at this point.

For the first time in my career, I was in a position to open myself up to some more risk and I felt compelled to try to be a voice for change.  I talked with other managers and encouraged them to talk to their leadership.  I discussed alternatives with my leadership and explained that going faster wasn’t necessarily the biggest need for our company.

I wish I could say that this was a successful venture.  One of the most consistent aspects of a toxic workplace is that management doesn’t listen to the perspective of their employees and despite my repeated attempts, it was clear that no change was coming.  I am glad that I pushed back as much as I did and didn’t simply align with the toxic culture that silenced most of the management.

I think that there is potential that in the long term there will be change, but it wasn’t in time for me.  However, the bigger point here is that there is always a chance that things will get better and that management in a toxic culture is ready to change.  If you are in the position to go for it, it is worth taking the chance.

Move On When Its Time

At the end of the road, toxic workplaces are bad for mental health and cause burnout.  If you find yourself in an environment like this, you do need to evaluate how it is impacting you.  It may be a situation where you need to leave before you even have another job lined up if there is abusive behavior present.

For me, this was giving an extended notice that I’d be leaving my role.  I had seen repeatedly that my boss would make whatever promises he needed to get me out of his office, but didn’t follow up in a timely manner to things I needed.  I also saw that the leadership was completely committed to moving at a pace that I’d advised wasn’t sustainable.

The big message here is that you do not need to be loyal to a workplace and that you really need to take care of yourself as a first priority.  I ended up moving into a place of burnout for months due to trying to protect a young team that I felt responsible for.  I feel good about this, but I also wonder if I should have made a cut earlier.

Final Thoughts

The big reason that I wanted to write this article is for anyone at the different stages I’ve been through in my career.  I also sense from talking to friends and family that many people are dealing with similar toxic work environments to what I’ve seen.

The most important thing if you take any of the options I’ve described is that you shouldn’t feel guilty about the path.  At different points in life, the right decision will be unique.  You may really need the money and need to put your head down.  You may be in a spot to speak up and fight for change.  It also might be time to go.

By: Chris Bemis