How To Spot An Unhealthy Working Environment

An unhealthy working environment can drain your professional and personal life and significantly stress employers and employees.

Ideally, many people are ignorant about how to spot an unhealthy environment. However, one must do this early on. Why?

An unhealthy working environment can lead to low employee morale, high employee turnover, and productivity or work quality declines.

Sometimes, the effect of an unhealthy working environment follows you home. 

They control your conversations with your loved ones, rob you of much-needed sleep, and often cause you anxiety and stress.

Unhealthy working environments can lead to stress, burnout, depression, damage to your self-esteem, and severe disruptions in your everyday life. 

Techniques On How To Spot An Unhealthy Working Environment

There are several techniques on how to spot an unhealthy working environment. These techniques include:

1. Bad Communication

Communication is a significant factor in bad associations — or good corporations. Negative communication often leads to confusion and a lack of purpose for employees. From here, problems arise and aggregate, often leading to everything else on our list.

Insufficient, confusing, or broken communication is the cause of so many problems at work.

Communication skills are vital in any successful organization because much falls under the umbrella of communication, including listening skills from the manager and the employee, verbal communication, and written communication.

Signs of poor communication include:

1. Different employees receive different messages 
2. Weak listening skills
3. Constant “off-hours” communication 
4. Passive-aggressive communication
5. Lack of clarity about projects 

Read also: Importance Of Loving Your Job

2. Stunted Growth

If your workplace does not seem to offer you any mobility, learning opportunities to improve your skills or careers, or training, they are probably not invested in the growth of their staff.

Once you realize that there is no place for you to grow, it may be time to change the soil.

Speaking of growth, if you do not get it, your workplace can be dangerous, even if it is toxic yourself.

3. Several Cases Of Fire

A quick change is an excellent sign that things are getting worse — or just getting worse.

A high level of work often means disorder, lack of direction, poor leadership, or limited opportunity. Pay attention to the level of profit in your company.

Leaving a job is a difficult decision. When you realize that few people are making that decision, something is rotten.

Conversely, if employees are regularly laid off or fired, this may signify a few other toxic substances.

If you can, try talking to some employees who have left, been fired, or fired. 

4. Poor Work-Life Balance

You must make your decision day. A work-life balance is essential for survival, and no one should always be on the clock.

If your job demands you to be on the phone constantly, that is a healthy work environment.

Yes, sometimes, things happen at the wrong time. However, if you work under the expectation that you will always be available for work, that is an unhealthy working environment.

You deserve a perfect life without work and should be able to leave the email unread.

You should be able to make your own time to see a dentist without feeling guilty.

An effective way to avoid these unhealthy working environments is to set healthy operating limits.

Read also: All About Working For A New Company

5. Bad Leadership

Bad leadership can penetrate every aspect of the organization — and often does.

Sometimes a lousy boss results from poor leadership, building an unhealthy workplace.

You may have a small manager who constantly directs you, undermines your decisions, and ultimately does not allow you to do your job.

He can also quickly pass errors on to anyone but them.

Leadership ethics are critical, and it sets the atmosphere for how others behave at work. If there is an HR department – or if your bad manager has a reputable manager – you can try to address these issues.

6. Cliques and Whispering Behavior

Cliques are not productive at work. As much as having friends and acquaintances at work is good, any behavior that has a connection with “clique-ish” should not be in a working environment.

Avoid any groups, work bullies, or groups that are not involved.

We have an idea of what a clique looks like. A group of people — whether at work or school — stick together, grab each other’s coffee, laugh at their inner humor, and usually do not include anyone outside their tie.

As much as we are adults, it may feel different from being without a working group. 

Read also: How Well Do You Adjust To Changing Environment?

7. Unmotivated Coworkers

Being among unmotivated coworkers is a sign of an unhealthy working environment.

We do not mean that you have to judge your work by the quality or lack of quality of those around you.

However, you will be disappointed if you find yourself in a working environment full of unsuspecting coworkers. You may have two reactions from coworkers who are not encouraged.

You’ll carry a ton of work they don’t handle — and you find yourself burnt out.

Their lack of motivation will wear you down — and it will burn you down with a form of uncontrolled fatigue.

Just as your colleagues encourage you to work hard, get better, and nurture new ideas, they can discourage you. Diligent employees are often the result of a more significant organizational problem.

It may be a disorder, disapproval of leadership, or general mistrust. If everyone around you is not encouraged, you are in an unhealthy workplace.

8. Burnout

Burnout can be a surefire sign of an unhealthy working environment—or at least a work environment that doesn’t “work” for you. You should look out if you experience any of the types of burnouts below:

Unnecessary Fatigue: This fatigue occurs when an employee feels less stressed and lonely at work. Unable to find satisfaction in work, uninsured employees find themselves in a precarious position.

Unusual fatigue is the feeling employees get when they put energy into their work in the hope that the result will be rewarding. After a long period of dedicated work, the busy work does not receive good results.

Worn-out Fatigue: An older worker is someone who has resigned from a job after experiencing long working hours. With low salaries, the elderly worker feels humiliated and discouraged from his work.

Read also: 5 Signs of a Toxic Work Environment – And What to Do If You’re In One.

9. Trust Your Gut

Trust your guts. If you need a second opinion from a friend or loved one, do so. But your gut is a pro.

It is probably true if your intuition tells you that you are in an unhealthy working environment. If your anxiety goes through the roof, you suspect you are being discriminated against, if your physical health suffers – and all of this often happens, there is a big problem.

Conclusion

Knowing how to spot an unhealthy working environment prepares you mentally for the challenges ahead or, better still, not venturing into it.