Toxic Work Culture – Generational Issue?

Have you worked in a toxic work culture before? Has someone in an older generation ever accused you of being soft and that’s just the way it is so suck it up buttercup? Have you ever made a career move and realized that the job you were just in had a very toxic culture? Or left a job and realized you’ve joined a toxic work culture?

Work culture has been under the microscope since the pandemic as businesses had to either close temporarily or move to a remote culture in order to keep their employees safe.

I started my adult work life in a call centre, and there is nothing more toxic in this world. Yes, I have also worked in a restaurant, but the call centre wins for worst work culture. I’ve also worked in retail, and while it started great, the toxic culture kind of slowly grew over time. When I started my last job, I thought I had found the perfect office culture. But it just goes to show that your business is only as good as your employees.

I have seen a lot of comments about elder generations accusing younger generations of not working hard enough or thinking that their jobs should cater to them. I know for me, that’s not true, but it’s what happens when you have an office culture with a variety of generations. Yes, there’s a lot we can learn, but have older generations just accepted what was told to them and are so entrenched in toxic work culture they truly can’t see it?

What is toxic work culture?

A toxic work environment can involve high employee turnover, an office full of fighting and/or drama which can impact your overall office productivity, denying employees a voice, or prioritizing customers over their employees are a few examples. Basically, toxic work culture is comprised of unhappy employees that affect the well-being and productivity of the others in the office.

This story makes my husband far angrier than it makes me, but it’s funny.

When I worked at the call centre, I had been given a $0.75 raise after 3 months and at 18, I was living my best life! I  became trained on multiple products, which meant I was able to be wherever it was busiest. I also became a backup to level 2 aka supervisors that would sign off on things and deal with unhappy clients.

I definitely thought this would give me the upper hand with the upcoming reviews. Ah, young and stupid Ashley. I had my review and I received a raise …of $0.01 per hour. YEP – ONE CENT. I already hated how much the workplace reminded me of high school, and now I hated the fact that my efforts weren’t recognized.

Signs of Workplace Toxic Cultures

I asked people to share their thoughts and experiences with toxic workplace cultures. Let’s remember, that these are people’s experiences, so while they may not apply to your experience, these can be things to look out for.

• The phrase “this is how we’ve always done it”
• Bad communication
• Gossip – nothing destroys a team faster
• Bringing up concerns to your boss and nothing is done about it (especially if their alleged fave employee)
• Coworkers that backstab
• Bad management/management that cares about appearance and does not address the underlying issues
• Non-team players
• The manager asking you to not submit work to give the appearance your team isn’t “too efficient”

If I had a dollar for every time I heard the phrase “this is how we’ve always done it” I could pay off my mortgage! I can relate to all of these but let’s start with the first one. I do find “this is how we’ve always done it” or something along those lines is usually said to younger workers by older workers.

If we could be successful by doing the same thing over and over again, we’d never evolve. Businesses evolve and so should processes. We all get sucked into the daily routines of our jobs and sometimes we get complacent. When someone suggests something and the reason “this is how we’ve always done it” and it’s dismissed, run. You have complacent management refusing to evolve, and that toxicity will continue to grow.

Also to note, that toxic positivity culture is also a huge thing, but I did a whole separate post on that previously.

Let’s define bad management, shall we?

Bad management will be defined differently by many. It’s our interpretation of the situation we are in at the time. But to help us understand general situations, I look at the term bad management and what comes to my mind is someone that doesn’t want to help others grow, helps diffuse negativity between co-workers and has an inability to communicate properly.

You’re thinking, who gets into management that can’t communicate properly. Oh, you’d be surprised!

This does wrap into general poor/bad management and teams not working together. If your team lead can’t communicate, how is everyone else on the team supposed to communicate? And if your team isn’t communicating, you’re not working together which can lead to others gossiping and/or delving into office politics.

Management or team leads that refuse to acknowledge or try new things also fall under bad management, in my humble opinion. We aren’t successful by doing the same thing over and over again. We are successful when we try new things to grow and evolve our business. Not all changes will work, but if one isn’t willing to even acknowledge or try, it’s a bad sign.

It all gets very messy, but the key is that if your manager/team lead or C-Suite can’t communicate, run as fast as you can.

Collaboration is the key to success

Look, in order for teams to be successful these days, there has to be a level of collaboration amongst you. You each have different strengths – and different workloads – and we’re in an era of change in workplaces. However, sometimes people tend to fake collaboration to sabotage – intentionally or unintentionally – which can lead to internal politics, backstabbing and gossip. It’s horrible and it definitely brings out the toxicity in workplaces.

Why do some feel the need to make themselves look better at the expense of someone else? We’re not all great at all things, so why not make your whole team look good, which in turn makes you look good? This to me seems like something that used to happen to advance over others, but we have a new generational workforce trying to flip the script. Obviously, this doesn’t apply to everyone. I know some in my generation that work hard to get ahead of others at any cost. I know of others in an older generation that either work to mentor and help others grow, or just work with them to enhance their strengths with weaknesses to better the team.

But I do thoroughly and adamantly believe that collaboration is the future of our workforce, even when working remotely. So if you’re working somewhere and your team has issues with collaboration and communication, I’d be on the lookout for another job. Trust me, there is zero point in trying to change a culture that doesn’t want to change.

I’ve tried and ignored my gut about leaving that toxic workplace environment. Don’t do that – it’s so not worth the stress & hassle. Be better than me. And companies may change as they see their turnover become quite high.

The role of a boss is to oversee/mentor

I grew up being taught that a boss was who you reported to and what they said went. And in my first job, that was absolutely the case. It was a call centre, and I was just there to make money to keep a roof over my head straight out of high school.

I went into my next job with that mentality, but I learned a lot there about how if we work together, we can achieve more. Working together we were able to achieve things both of us wanted while bettering the company.

In my most recent job, we were mainly collaborative in the beginning. Opinions were shared, new things were tried and we began to make the business run more efficiently …until someone was moving out of the country and we had to hire someone else. That person brought in a fake team attitude that had us all fooled for a few months, and then things began to slowly unravel. I had a lot of input on the business and the processes we had in place, and as I was younger than this person, that seemed to be a problem. She talked about everyone behind their back and talked nice to their face (most of the time), myself included. I was betrayed on several occasions with information that I had divulged to her, and I dreaded going to work.

Y’all, toxic work environments are exhausting. Absolutely mentally exhausting. I brought up concerns and sometimes I was brushed off and told I was overreacting. 

Quick side note – do men that bring up concerns also get told that they’re overreacting or is that just something mainly directed at women?

I did try to leave, but I was asked to stay on as my role was “too valuable to the company” and my boss had taught me a lot and had given me ample opportunity to grow and redesign my position, so I stayed. I trusted my boss and I loved my job, not the environment. We found a way for me to work from home on occasion, as I was able to remote connect to my computer.

However, that remote work time didn’t happen as often as I would have liked, and things started to turn. I was frustrated day in and day out, and even when the pandemic hit, I had to fight hard to be able to work remotely. I take the train and bus to the office, and I wasn’t comfortable doing that in the middle of a bloody pandemic! 

I no longer work there, but what did keep me there was the relationship of trust that I had with my boss. I was given chances to try new things, and make things more efficient by someone who had a fresh set of eyes. We grew the business, even with a very out-of-date online store. If I hadn’t had that, I likely wouldn’t have stayed, and I wish I would’ve listened to my gut when I originally wanted to leave.

Toxic Workplace & Different Generations

No matter how you identify, what your specific role is, your age, your experience etc., just know that you are worth more than being sucked into staying in a toxic workplace environment. There is a place for you where you will be valued, and it’s the best way that we can continue to change the workforce. It won’t always be a generational thing, but I do find that as the older generation nears retirement, they’re in a place of complicatedness and comfort.

But I do also find that sometimes people within my age range can be a little complicit in their role. Honestly, as we grow and climb the “corporate ladder” more and more is at stake for us. it can be hard to balance growth with our higher roles within organizations.

So, do I believe it’s strictly a generational attitude? Nope. Perhaps some attitudes have rubbed off on us the wrong way, but there’s always time to change ourselves. It’s always good to do a self-assessment, which is something I did fairly often in my previous role, with the animosity of the administrator. Sometimes we are the problem or contributing to the problem, but can’t see it publicly.

Lead with compassion for those around you. If the environment is toxic, it may be worthwhile for you to try and get out sooner. But if you feel like you can start to enact some change, I say stick around and go for it. You may just help improve not only the business but your peers.

And isn’t that worth the effort?