From an article in Forbes:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizryan/2018/03/28/ten-signs-your-workplace-is-toxic-whether-you-know-it-or-not/#6e7ad81b73c6
Here are ten signs your workplace is toxic – whether you realize it or not:
- The number one thing employees talk about apart from the work itself is how much they hate their jobs and their managers.
- Everybody you work with is low key job hunting. You're never surprised when somebody says "I have a job interview today" or "I'm giving notice on Friday."
- You have a secret phrase you repeat to yourself when you're insulted or mistreated at work. You use your secret phrase to keep calm when the daily abuse overwhelms you. Your secret phrase might be "This is fine – this was supposed to happen" or "Serenity now" or almost anything. The fact that you need a secret phrase (and that you use it so often) is evidence of the toxic state of your workplace.
- You can't bring up legitimate concerns with your manager. You already know what he or she will say if you protest a new policy or object to the fact that you're expected to work straight through another weekend. If you say anything, your manager will get mad and say "That's your personal problem! Figure it out."
You also can't go to HR with your complaints. They can't help you. Other people have tried going to HR with their issues and it only made their problems worse.
- Corporate culture, trust, teamwork and collaboration are not topics anybody talks about in your workplace. They talk about targets, goals, production, errors, infractions, verbal warnings, written warnings, and the 'chain of command' instead.
- You have no idea what your CEO's leadership philosophy is, if your CEO even has a leadership philosophy. All you know is that the managers you see every day lead through fear. Their management philosophy seems to be "I'll do whatever my boss wants me to do – including mistreating and intimidating my employees."
- There are sometimes meetings and training sessions called, but nobody speaks up at those meetings. The only time you or your coworkers tell the truth is when there are no managers around.
- Nobody ever asks for your input. Once a year they send around a "confidential" employee engagement survey but nobody you know ever fills it out. How could they? If they told the truth about how they are treated, things would only get worse.
- You've stopped expecting to be treated fairly at work. You've stopped expecting your manager to tell you the truth, because you've been lied to so many times before.
- Your trusty gut screams at you "Why are you still working in that place?" It happens at unexpected times – like in the middle of your baby nephew's birthday party. Your gut is saying "Isn't this party fun? Look at all these people you love, having a great time. Isn't this how your life is supposed to be? Why do you go to that dungeon of an office five days a week and k–l yourself for no reward?