4 Tips for Handling a Toxic Work Environment

If you’ve been in the working world for a while, chances are strong you’ve had a job or two you didn’t like. Dealing with a job that has little growth opportunity or one in a field you don’t enjoy is annoying, but it’s manageable as a stepping stone in your career. 

Working in a toxic environment, on the other hand, is not only difficult to put up with, but can actually have negative effects on your job performance, as well as your physical and mental well-being. A toxic workplace is any job where the work itself, the people, or the company culture causes so much distress that it is unhealthy and damaging to you. 

If you don’t have the ability to quit your toxic job at the drop of a hat, here are a few tips on how to handle it:

Document Everything
Especially if the reason for your toxic environment is your colleagues or managers, you must keep a record of everything that happens. Keep all of your emails filed by project, and take notes on all meetings — both internal and external. It may even help to record phone calls, or to create separate folders for your boss or colleagues. 

With everything recorded and filed, you can easily go back in your history to find out if a team member is trying to throw you under the bus, a client is trying to squeeze in work not covered in a contract or a manager is trying to claim credit for your work.

In a toxic workplace, you may not be able to rely on other people to help you out. You’ll have to take responsibility for your actions, and for making sure that you’ve covered your bases.  

Stand Up for Yourself
When confronted with a toxic work environment, you might find yourself slipping into a habit of shrinking into the background. But in work, as in life, you teach people how to treat you. 

Maybe you tell yourself that if you let it just roll off your back, abuse will stop. Maybe you don’t want to cause a rift in the company. The truth is that people let others push them around out of fear. The fear can be of being fired, of being ostracized or of further abuse, but any way you slice it, a toxic environment pushes people to stay silent.

In order to better withstand a toxic workplace, learn to stand up for yourself. If you believe in your own worthiness and hold onto your integrity, respect will follow. 

Go Higher
If you’ve brought an issue to your manager, and he or she ignores it — or worse, is a perpetuator of the problem — it’s a good time to go over their heads. 

This can be particularly important when it comes to workplace safety. If you work in a job where regulations have to be met, this is not just a personal matter, it’s a legal one. 

Workers must undergo on-site training in fields like electrical work, construction and hazardous materials. If your coworkers or managers are skimping on the safety training, it’s time to go to the bigwigs.

Approaching a higher-up can be nerve-wracking and intimidating, but if they can and will solve the problem, you’ve done the right thing. On the other hand, if they won’t do anything about the problem, you should consider getting out.

Plan Your Next Move
Maybe you can’t quit your job, but you should know when to throw in the towel. If your job is causing you mental and physical distress, it’s time to leave. 

Most career experts will tell you that you should look for a new job while you’re still employed, and that’s true. It shows potential employers that you’re a smart hire and will stick around for a while. But you still have to watch the way you go about your search. 

The most important detail is to not tell others about your job search. In a toxic environment, you never know who’s on your side and who’s out to stab you in the back. Keep it to yourself that you’re on the job hunt or you may find that word gets around quickly, and your toxic situation gets even worse.

 

 

 

 

Sarah Landrum is the founder of Punched Clocks, a site dedicated tosharing advice on all things career. Follow her on Twitter @SarahLandrum for more great tips!

 

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