Experts say that toxic workplaces are on the rise in Canada and the current economic environment isn’t helping.
As the economy softens, there’s more fear-based behaviour from managers and workers owing to anxiety over layoffs and employment scarcity, which can cause toxic competition and more political games at work, says Laura Hambley, founder of Canada Career Counselling and an industrial organizational psychologist.
“When you’re fighting over less, it can bring out the worst in people,” says Ms. Hambley, who says she has seen a steady increase in toxic workplaces over the last 15 years.
Defined as work environments that negatively impact physical, emotional or mental health, toxic workplaces are in every industry and are taking a toll on Canadian workers and costing companies, according to Business Development Canada. But there are steps leaders and employees can take to ensure their workplace remains a positive environment.
“It’s respect. It’s civility. It’s kindness. Toxicity is the opposite of those three things,” says Ms. Hambley. “I study toxic leadership because that’s where it all comes from. If your leaders are toxic, then you’ve got a real problem in your organization.”
She refers to them as toxic bosses, rather than leaders, because Ms. Hambley says she doesn’t consider their behaviour as leadership.
“A leader is someone who inspires, motivates and grows people, not diminishes them and ruins their mental and physical health and I would say that it’s on the rise,” she explains.
But getting rid of a toxic boss can be complicated, so Ms. Hambley suggests being especially careful in the hiring process to ensure the people being brought into an organization have the right leadership skills and attitude.
“It stems from how you hire and promote, so be very careful who you hire and promote for a leadership role,” she explains. “Don’t reward brilliant jerks. Yes, they might be really good at their technical skills, but are they effective at leading people? Do they have empathy? Are they inspiring towards others? Are they motivated to help others grow, or are they more self-focused and self-absorbed and have a massive ego?”
Even those who work remotely are not immune to toxicity from co-workers, explains Brent Dul, executive vice-president at recruitment company Randstad.
“I think that’s maybe the difference that we’re seeing is that you can run into these situations, even if you work in a workgroup that’s largely based remotely or hybrid as well, he says.
The same traits of the toxic environments Mr. Dul has seen over the years can show up remotely when people are not willing to listen to other’s opinions, don’t show up authentically, are dismissive to colleagues, and there is overall poor communication.
“When you’re working remotely, you don’t have those impromptu conversations,” he says. “It can be much more business-focused, which sometimes takes the humanity out of your day-to-day with getting to know your colleagues.”
Trying to suss out the problem and find a solution early on – maybe talking to the co-worker who is displaying toxic behaviour – is ideal. However, if the situation requires escalation there are several avenues: talking to a manager; going to the company human resources department; some companies even have anonymous phone lines employees can call to alert the organization about a situation.
If the employee doesn’t feel comfortable taking any of these actions, Mr. Dul says it’s important to prioritize your mental and physical health, “and if needed, start to think about perhaps an exit strategy if you don’t feel like there’s anywhere in the organization that you can go to, to support your needs.”
Marli Rusen, a labour lawyer and founder of The Mirror Method workplace resolution workshops, has been helping to detoxify workplaces for years and says that labour laws – which are provincially enforced – are in place to protect employees in these situations and have come a long way to make toxic workplaces an occupational and safety hazard.
“For example, in B.C., Workers’ Compensation came out with a preventative policy in 2013, and said, ‘Listen, everybody in every workplace, every worker, every supervisor and every employer has a legal duty to prevent or minimize harassment and bullying from happening’,” explains Ms. Rusen.
For union members, most collective agreements now have explicit clauses in their collective agreements around anti-harassment, anti-bullying, anti-discrimination.
But she says she still encounters workplaces where there’s still a culture of dismissiveness for the early, small stuff.
“Very rarely does it start off with a bang,” says Ms. Rusen. “It starts off with a whisper, isolation, microaggressions, subtlety, and then it builds, and it builds. We call it death by a thousand cuts.”
For her, there are two critical parts of maintaining a healthy workplace: That the leaders, managers and supervisors have to role model the behaviour that they’re expecting from others; Leaders also have to check in with their teams consistently and monitor for any early signs of toxicity.
“Then they have to pro-actively inquire, check it out, because there is a culture right now, and I don’t think it’s intentional or malicious at all, but there’s a culture of leadership avoidance,” says Ms. Rusen.
All of the experts say that early prevention is the best approach because you can’t go back in time.
“It’s very difficult, once people have no trust and very little communication, to snap your fingers and expect that to happen,” says Ms. Rusen. “And the restorative process, the rebuilding process takes months or years, if it can even happen.”
