Author: Chris Porteous / Source: Lifehack
Nobody should be forced to endure the pain of a toxic workplace, yet millions of Americans labor day in and day out in harsh conditions that suppress their identities and submit them to countless injustices.
Rather than wallowing away in a toxic workplace and allowing your hostile coworkers to eat you and your potential alive, you need to learn to recognize the signs of a toxic workplace, so you can effectively deal with it.
Here are the signs of a toxic workplace, and the steps you’ll need to take in order to ensure a healthier work environment and brighter future for your career.
Signs of a Toxic Workplace
1. You’re Cut out of Communication
One of the earliest warning signs that you’re in the midst of a toxic workplace is that you’re finding yourself cut out of communication.
Many women and people of color in particular can attest to the fact that some workers will receive an email where a number of people are CC’d, only to respond to a selective number of the CC’d employees while leaving others in the dark.
Frequently, toxic coworkers will try to silence you or shut you out of the conversation entirely because they don’t want you to contribute ideas that may get you noticed instead of them.
Women at work should be particularly aware of this problem, as countless women in the workplace are familiar with sexist cultures that mitigate their ability to communicate effectively with the rest of the team. According to the Harvard Business Review, women need to take special steps to ensure they’re heard in the workplace rather than allowing toxicity to breed around them.[1]
If you don’t learn to speak out when you’re getting cut out, you’re going to keep wallowing in isolation forever.
2. Others Take Credit for Your Ideas
Everyone who’s been working for a few years is familiar with the infuriating circumstance where you put forward a new idea, get a lacklustre response, and then witness your coworkers steal your idea and receive credit for themselves.
Colleagues who take credit for your work are more than merely frustrating – it can be downright stressful and even threatening to your career.
Learning how to subvert your colleague’s efforts to make off with your ideas and claim them for your own is an important part of conquering a toxic work environment.
Focus on immediately setting the record straight and learn how to take credit proudly for your own work,[2] and you’ll soon discover that your workplace is noticeably less toxic and insufferable than before.
Besides watching out for greedy coworkers who are eager to steal your ideas, you should also be on the lookout for signs of a toxic workplace like…
3. You’re Not Being Fairly Compensated
One of the biggest warning signs that you’re in a toxic workplace is that you’re not being fairly compensated for the hard work, you’re putting in on behalf of your boss.
Far too many companies manage to get by with paying their employees criminally low salaries, but that doesn’t mean…
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