Someone Asked Women To Share Their Toxic Workplace Giveaways And 30 Delivered

It is unfortunate that work—a necessary evil in life, unless you’re born under an extremely lucky star—also comes in a variety of shades of toxicity. So, not only are you by statistical proxy forced to do it, it sucks too.

But, there are ways and means to avoid it by keeping an eye on the signs—signs that women of Reddit were recently pointing out as indicative of get the heck out of there right now. Or, at least at your earliest convenience. But no later than 2 work weeks.

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Many people are more than aware of what toxicity is and how it manifests in a workplace. Sadly, It’s all too real for 1 in 5 employees who have to battle toxic environments on the daily.

Yep, nearly 20% of employees report having to fight against toxic work conditions like failure to act on feedback, ignoring work-life balance and unfair treatment, just to name a few.

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It goes without saying that toxicity at the workplace is anything but good. It is known to lead to increased absenteeism, reduced productivity and lower levels of enthusiasm. And that’s just the start. Ultimately, it can start seeping into other areas in life, affecting your general satisfaction and mental health.

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And that’s the key concept here: happiness. There is an argument of how folks are poisoning themselves by working in toxic environments as it gradually affects an employee’s happiness. And if you’re not happy as a human being, other mental health problems start coming out of the woodwork.

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It is important to note that there are no clear criteria as to what a toxic environment is outside of it affecting one’s well-being.

One person might feel uncomfortable with a manager, while others have no problem with them. Same goes for the company culture, the employees, the corporate structure and pretty much anything else. It is ultimately subjective.

Whatever the case, something always has to change.

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Toxic work environments are best avoided before entering them, and there are several telltale signs to look out for.

One of the biggest and easier to stop red flags is the turnover rate. These are most often caused by poor management, negative work culture, or lack of employee support. In the long run, not only do the employees suffer, but the company’s bottom line does so too.

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Poor communication is another big one. In ideal cases, company staff that communicates clearly, openly and honestly foster trust and collaboration. And if you don’t do that, then there is little to no communication and so nothing realistically gets done, fostering a culture of passive aggression, contempt and just generally nobody having a good time.

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Micromanagement is also often cited as a sign of toxic management. It’s when a superior overdoes it with their control, surveillance and management of work related tasks delegated to other employees. It shows lack of trust and takes away the opportunity for employees to prove their potential for ownership. On top of that, it stifles growth, and, again, nobody’s happy.

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It is not unreasonable to think that unreasonable demands are a part of a truly toxic environment. These are time consuming, draining or just flat out annoying—and it doesn’t get the job done, which entails a whole lot of trouble. It’s even worse if the employee is provided zero support under these conditions.

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Believe it or not, lack of opportunities for growth is also considered a toxic workplace trait. It doesn’t matter if it’s structural (there are realistically no other opportunities) or artificial (someone is stifling your progress), all of it leads to dissatisfaction and a need to change that.

Oh, and also, toxic employees—they don’t help. Red flag.

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So, what are your thoughts on any of this? Share your takes and stories in the comment section below!

And if you’ve already done that, then you can also check out the original Reddit thread or our other works on the topic.

When a bunch of staff are in cliques and it feels more like highschool than a professional work environment.If your coworker gossips about other coworkers, they will gossip about you."We wear a lot of hats around here." Translation - "You will be stuck with a lot of c**p that is not in your job description, but nobody else wants to do!".Multiple people have quit because of one person but that person still works here."we are like a family here!".Husband-wife managerial team. Run!When you start dreading the weekend being over because you don't want to go to work on Monday. Beyond just a general "I love my free time" feeling.When the managers and other decision makers are bubbly and happy during meetings while the rank-and-file drones are exhausted, quiet and disengaged.If there are a suspiciously low number of people who have been with the company for more than 2 years. Also any kind of “employee appreciation” that isn’t an annual event that legacy staff looks forward to.“Work hard, play hard.” Hard pass.Everyone is joking about the work environment being super tough and people developing various ailments from it (e.g. migraines or stomach issues). These are not jokes, these are warnings.Cult like reverence required for the leaders or founders.When there's no real training, just 'ask someone if you're not sure' - and then whoever you're asking tells you by rote, telling you 'click this, then that' without demonstrating a proper understanding of *why* tasks should be done in a certain way. When they can't answer any questions about the process and aren't enabled to problem-solve, it reflects micromanagement and lack of communication, and usually a disinterest in lower level staff.No one takes their PTO, and if you do you’re given a nasty side eye.Poor communication. Everything is gossip, and you have to know the right people to get any information.When a guy can sexually harass a woman at the workplace, she goes and complains about it to management, management makes *her* transfer to a different area to settle the matter, then not even a year later they promote HIM as manager over her area she was forced to transfer to, thus making her eventually quit because her complaints didn’t mean squat when it’s one of upper managements bros. This happened at my workplace a couple years ago to a friend of mine I worked with. Horrible stuff. All of the upper management and area managers are apart of this blatant good ol boy system and it is horrible. They only promote those type of guys too. Anytime they promote a women it’s because they got forced into it or because one of those good ol boys wants to get their spouses in the role.They won’t do anything in writing. For example, during my interview they mentioned it would be a fully remote position once onboarded/90 days on the job. I brought it up to my hiring manager once I past the date and they mentioned that “they never said that” and “it’s not in writing so they wouldn’t honor it”.Owner’s daughter is head of HR.I always ask about team building during the interview. "Beers after work" makes it toxic to me.When they treat the interview process like a reality show and invite 20 people all at once and you go through rounds where at the end they have you line up in two rows and announce which row will continue the interview process. No thanks.When they’re late to do your scheduled job interview."the last person that worked here walked out and quit".Where even newcomers stop smiling after 3 days.You dread every shift and come up with excuses to avoid work. Or you're angry while you're there and take a while to come down from it when you're off the shift.High turnover .Leadership becoming defensive when new ideas are recommended.Women putting other women down. It may sound obvious, but it can be hard to catch at first. Making jabbing comments, making you feel bad for not working on days where you aren’t scheduled, judging you, questioning you on why you do things the way you do them, trying to make you feel stupid. I know it sounds like nothing you can’t just blow off, but it really makes the work time miserable.The only friends and romantic partners the employees have are each other, not anyone else outside of work.People crying at their laptop. Yes people was me.Someone that has been there for quite a while quits and for the next six months everything that goes wrong was their fault because of…… just because.