Toxic Work Environments
Last Friday, I was traveling by air across the country and found myself in a Delta Skyclub during a lengthy layover. If you’ve never been in a Skyclub, there are snacks, relatively comfortable chairs, an obligatory bar, and workspaces for road warriors. Many workspaces.
I was seated in the middle of a cube farm at an undisclosed Skyclub during my layover, attending to emails and putting the finishing touches on a chapter of my next book. It’s close quarters, so it’s impossible to not overhear one side of conversations that are happening all around you—especially the loud talkers.
I don’t like it when folks purposefully eavesdrop on my conversations, so I do my best to ignore theirs as well. On this particular occasion, the individual sitting next to me was loud talking with a colleague about how toxic their work environment was. “Can you believe he did ____?” “I just can’t work with her, she’s just a terrible boss.” Jab, jab, blame, blame, skewer, skewer.
As I attempted to refocus on my work, I noticed that there were several of these conversations happening around the room simultaneously. Topics ranged from bosses: (a) playing favorites, (b) making excuses for malignant, disengaged colleagues, and (c) driving a wedge between newly returning office dwellers and work-from-homers.
The story was remarkably consistent with myriad toxic work conversations I’ve been privy to throughout my career. I was, and still am hopeful that the experience of the pandemic helped develop human skills of empathy and mental agility in leaders and managers around the world. However, after my experience in the Skyclub and based on other recent conversations I’ve had with both managers and individual contributors around the world, I’m growing increasingly skeptical that the growth of those skills may be partially transitory.
It is point (c) above that I’m most concerned about during this moment in time. Sure, there have been historical divides between those who frequent the office and those who were “allowed” to work from home, but it seems that the progress we made during the pandemic to level this playing field is under threat. Examples of this backslide toward historical work norms have been popping up in the business press over the last few months, with several significant examples of legacy biases coming in the last week or so—most notably Elon Musk’s comments on the subject to both Twitter and Tesla employee populations.
At the core of the “to work from home or not to work from home” debate is the balancing act between organizational trust and accountability. In my opinion, to tell an employee explicitly (or implicitly) that the only way to confirm their productivity is if the manager can directly witness their work in an office setting is to tell that employee that they are not to be trusted. In addition, to say that only “exceptional” employees are allowed to work from home drives the same wedge into a team environment that labels like “high potential” do.
My advice for leaders is to treat employees with equity and recognize that for many of us, the pandemic did change the way we work and our relationship with it. My other advice for leaders is to not let flimsy accountability frameworks (e.g., poor or nonexistent virtual visual management tools) be the driving force behind a push to bring everyone back into the office. Make the time to enhance organizational clarity, goals, and measurement.
My advice for individual contributors is that trust and accountability are a two-way street. If you find yourself in a “jab, jab, blame, blame, skewer, skewer” conversation, remember that you also carry an obligation to do your part to build trust and deliver positive results. When pointing a finger at someone else, there are three that point back to you.
Toxic work environments have many sources and have been around for a very long time. Unfortunately, toxic work environments seem to be alive and well. Why add more fuel to the fire by assuming that the workplace should be reset back to pre-pandemic norms?
Thanks for listening and Happy Father’s Day!
Andy
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PS: If you don’t want to be overheard in public, don’t scream into your phone or computer. Modern microphones on digital devices have come a long way.
PPS: I recognize that this muse is focused on certain employee classes that were able to work from home during the pandemic. I am incredibly thankful for frontline employees and those who do not have the opportunity to work from home. You are appreciated. You are the lifeblood of our global economy.
