“Hang in there, work environments are generally harsh.”
“It will probably get worse.”
If you really think about all these statements, you might end up working for years in a toxic environment. There are a lot of reasons to stay, coupled by thoughts of responsibilities and bills but these should not keep you from thinking if that job deserves your energy for another month or even a year.
Out of the 24 hours you have in a day, 8 or 9 of these are allocated to your job. This is at least a third of your day. A third of a day is undoubtedly a huge amount of time especially if we take out your sleeping hours.
When you are not happy at work, your unhappiness carries over, affecting your personal life, your health and your relationships. Believe it or not, people are not aware when they are stressed out and depressed because of work.
Here are some of signs your work environment might be toxic:
High turnover
Organisations recruit and dismiss employees all the time. When this happens every other month you should be concerned. When people are unhappy and fed up, they leave. Look closely into the company’s priorities and culture – there could be a problem with management – poor leadership style. People don’t leave jobs, they leave managers.
Toxic leadership
While leadership has to be firm to run a tight ship. It does not mean they have to be hostile, aggressive, and turn into bullies. Difficult bosses and leaders do exist, however when they complicate your work, draining your energy and driving you insane most of the time, then that becomes a problem. Toxic bosses not only affect your work, they destroy your morale. At the end of the day, the environment becomes strenuous. We all deserve mutual respect, and when you are not being respected you will feel it.
You are constantly diminished
If you are constantly told statements like;
“you are lucky you have a job here”,
“I can get a new replacement anytime”
These should count as red flags. Yes, people make mistakes and yes, people do not deliver sometimes. However, you should not be threatened into thinking that your current job is all you can ever have and you would be nothing without it. Everyone brings something to the table which is why you got that job, remember your self-worth and the value you bring to the business, if you did not add value, they wouldn’t have hired you.
The follow up question after enduring another day in a toxic workplace is WHY? Why do people choose to stay?
Money
Shelter, food, clothes and other responsibilities are the reason you go to work. All these things cannot come on a silver platter. You need to pay for them with the money you worked for. If you quit without a plan, you might end up in the streets.
Hope
While it is good to believe and hope for the best, it is abuse when you see no change. If you realize that nothing is being done to improve a difficult situation, the saying “a leopard with its spots never changes” should constantly play in your head.
Experience
This is particularly true for just out school graduates; you need something formal and credible to put on your CV hence the choice to stay at a difficult job.
Unemployment Rate
In third world countries getting a job is an advantage and many people say you are lucky to have a job, considering there is a tonne of unemployed people of all ages that are roaming around the streets. Leaving a toxic work environment to be an unemployed statistic can be ones’ motivation for staying. The job-hunting process is grueling with no hope of when you be lucky to be called for just an interview. If most people knew they would get another job easily they would have quit a long time ago.
Author
Ruth Sameke, an International Relations and Politics graduate with a monumental love for simple words turned into a read.Her blogging site is https://virtuousruth.wordpress.com