7 Signs of a Toxic Culture at Work
Do you dread your job as much on
Friday as you do on Monday? Do you dread going into the office or interacting
with a particular co-worker? Are you chronically stressed out or anxious at
work?
We often continue working in a job
even when the culture is making us unhappy. It's like that old analogy of frogs
in hot water: If you put a frog into hot water, it would jump out. But if you
put it into cold water that slowly starts to boil it would happily sit there
until it is cooked.
What started out as a good job and a
positive work environment can change over time. Maybe a boss changes or the
environment changes and before we know it, the water is boiling and we are
getting cooked in a toxic stew.
If you’re feeling stressed or
unhappy, it can be good to take a check and look for signs of a toxic culture
at work. Some of these warning signs are immediate red flags — you should never
stick around in a job that is illegal or dangerous to your health — but others
might be easier to miss, and could signal you need to take another look.
- Immoral or illegal activities. This is a huge red flag. If something the company or an individual is doing is wrong, you don’t have to be a part of it. If actions don’t sit well with your moral code — or worse, are patently illegal — get out as soon as possible. The person watching a crime happen can be just as culpable as the person committing it.
- Physical danger. If you or others are put at risk due to unsafe working conditions, you should leave ASAP. No job is worth your life or long term health.
- Blatant unfairness. As a kid, you probably heard, “Nobody ever said life was fair,” which is true, but you should expect some amount of fairness in the workplace. If employees are treated radically differently, coworkers steal your ideas or work and claim credit, or failures are blamed on others, this could be a sign of a very toxic work environment.
- Abusive bosses or coworkers. Sexual harassment, racism, sexism, ageism, or any other kind of discrimination should not have to be tolerated. This might also include high aggression or bullying, intimidation, unreasonable expectations, or blatant lack of empathy.
- Dysfunctional relationships. Sometimes the combination of personalities in a company can result in a toxic environment, creating gossip, cliquish behaviors, favoritism, grudges, back-biting, and unwarranted criticisms.
- Pervasive poor communication. If you get little or no feedback, only negative feedback, you get left out of the loop on important information, or bosses and coworkers are excessively cold and distant, that can also contribute to a toxic workplace.
- Chronic high stress. Some jobs are innately more stressful than others, but if you are routinely exposed to high stress situations with no opportunity for “down time” or a fear of bullying if you need to recover from stressful situations, that too can be toxic. If you are constantly expected to work more than 40 hours per week without extra compensation and have no opportunity for work/life balance, you might want to consider a move.
Sometimes you can address these
problems with a supervisor to try to remedy the situation — and sometimes the
supervisor is part of the problem. If your requests for intervention or
suggestions to improve the work environment repeatedly fall on deaf ears, it’s
certainly time to find a healthier workplace. Because another truth of toxic
work environments is that they are rarely as successful in the long term as
healthier ones
Bernard Marr
Best-Selling Author, Keynote Speaker
and Consultant in Strategy, Performance Management, Analytics, KPIs and Big
Data
Module 5 Red Queens and Increasing Returns
When you decided to obtain a DVD for your science fiction assignment in Module 4, where did you go to find a movie based on a Philip K. Dick book? Did you rent or purchase a DVD, or did you view it digitally on yor computer using Netflix or a similar vendor of video-on-demand?
I went to the University library where I teach and checked out the movie "Minority Report" on DVD from the media center. I do not have Netflix in my home at this time. I watched the movie on my PC.
Is the current competition between DVD's and video-on-demand an example of incrasing returns or Red Queens? Justify your response with sound reasoning and specific examples.
According to Thornburg (2008), the term "Red Queen" is attached to phenomena when the competition between two forces ends up with both of them rapidly developing. Red Queens exist in emerging technology and an example would be the early competition between Netscape (now Firefox) and Microsoft. Because of fierce competition between venders, there is a lot of incentive for new and improved feature sets for software programs.
Increasing returns on the other hand, is defined as the tendency for the ones that are ahead to get further ahead and for those behind to lose further advantage. In other words, increasing returns cause products that are ahead to "get further ahead" (Arthur, 1996, p. 100).
The competition between DVD's and video-on-demand is an example of a Red Queen. The DVD technology is running as fast as it can to keep up with Streaming Video services, however the DVD market is losing that race. The convenience of streaming and video-on-demand is quickly obsoleting the DVD store front market. Televisions, computers, and gaming devices are becoming more and more advanced and will eventually phase out the DVD market.
Where do you think DVD's and video-on-demand are on the four criteria of McLuhan's tetrad?
According to McLuhan's tetrad, all emerging technologies go through the four stages of the tetrad including enhancement, retrieval, obsolescense, and reversal. I think that DVD's are on the reversal phase and are setting the stage for their own demise in the near future. The video-on-demand are on the enhancement phase because they allow us to streamline and have surpassed video storefronts and video by mail services.
References:
Arthur, W.B. (1996). Increasing returns and the new world of business. Harvard Business review, 74(4), 100-109.
Thornburg, D. (2008). Red Queens, butterflies, and strange attractors: Imperfect lenses into emergent technologies. Lake Barrington, IL: Thornburg Center for Space Exploration.
I went to the University library where I teach and checked out the movie "Minority Report" on DVD from the media center. I do not have Netflix in my home at this time. I watched the movie on my PC.
Is the current competition between DVD's and video-on-demand an example of incrasing returns or Red Queens? Justify your response with sound reasoning and specific examples.
According to Thornburg (2008), the term "Red Queen" is attached to phenomena when the competition between two forces ends up with both of them rapidly developing. Red Queens exist in emerging technology and an example would be the early competition between Netscape (now Firefox) and Microsoft. Because of fierce competition between venders, there is a lot of incentive for new and improved feature sets for software programs.
Increasing returns on the other hand, is defined as the tendency for the ones that are ahead to get further ahead and for those behind to lose further advantage. In other words, increasing returns cause products that are ahead to "get further ahead" (Arthur, 1996, p. 100).
The competition between DVD's and video-on-demand is an example of a Red Queen. The DVD technology is running as fast as it can to keep up with Streaming Video services, however the DVD market is losing that race. The convenience of streaming and video-on-demand is quickly obsoleting the DVD store front market. Televisions, computers, and gaming devices are becoming more and more advanced and will eventually phase out the DVD market.
Where do you think DVD's and video-on-demand are on the four criteria of McLuhan's tetrad?
According to McLuhan's tetrad, all emerging technologies go through the four stages of the tetrad including enhancement, retrieval, obsolescense, and reversal. I think that DVD's are on the reversal phase and are setting the stage for their own demise in the near future. The video-on-demand are on the enhancement phase because they allow us to streamline and have surpassed video storefronts and video by mail services.
References:
Arthur, W.B. (1996). Increasing returns and the new world of business. Harvard Business review, 74(4), 100-109.
Thornburg, D. (2008). Red Queens, butterflies, and strange attractors: Imperfect lenses into emergent technologies. Lake Barrington, IL: Thornburg Center for Space Exploration.
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