Left unaddressed, a toxic work environment is a serious problem. It negatively impacts employee well-being via chronic stress, anxiety, depression, and physical symptoms which, in turn, lead to an array of detrimental organizational outcomes: reduced productivity, burnout, absenteeism, and counterproductive work behavior. However, the very notion of a toxic workplace relies on the assumption of a shared physical space. What happens when the workplace goes remote? How does one even recognize the signs of toxicity when interactions are limited to e-mails, Zoom meetings, and instant messaging? Here are some things for HR professionals to keep in mind.
How to Approach “Toxicity” During the Pandemic
The word “toxicity” is used frequently in different contexts so it’s important to be clear about how we are using it. Some define toxic workplace culture broadly as anything that causes harm to the employee—a broad rubric that includes minor problems such as workplace gossip and more serious ones such as sexual harassment. But while unrestrained gossip can certainly be a problem, it is by no means on the same level of harm as sexual harassment, nor should the latter be addressed in the same ways as the former. For this reason, I am not including more serious issues like violence and harassment in my definition of a toxic work environment.
At the same time, no problem should be considered too small. Herein lies the first principle that HR leaders need to understand about toxic workplace culture in the age of COVID-19. Over a year after the onset of the pandemic, we are still struggling to contain it and cope with its damaging repercussions on our collective financial, physical, and mental health. At a time when work/home boundaries have effectively been erased, or at least blurred, it would be unreasonable to expect some of this to not spill over into our work lives. Against this backdrop, we need to approach all employee concerns about toxic workplace culture pragmatically. You might not necessarily agree that something your employees think is toxic really is, in fact, toxic. But if your employees are in distress then you need to take the issues seriously and address them somehow before they lead to negative organizational outcomes.
Common Forms of Remote Toxic Work Environments
The mass transition to remote work has not made common types of toxic workplace culture such as excessive gossip or incivility go away, but they can be less visible or obvious in a digital environment. Instead, we have seen a different set of problems emerge as companies scrambled to adjust to the challenges of remote work. Not all managers may intuitively recognize these problems as toxic, yet in terms of the effects they have on employee well-being and productivity, they most certainly are.
Micromanaging is one of the most widespread problems I have been seeing. While understandable in the context of the pandemic, it’s nevertheless still a problem that undermines employee productivity. Lack of boundaries is another very common one. While it can overlap with micromanaging, it is its own problem. Many employees are being expected to do tasks that are not really a part of their jobs, or being expected to do them at times they shouldn’t have to (e.g., weekends or days off) which can lead to adverse effects like chronic stress, rumination, and insomnia. Lack of communication can lead to task/role ambiguity or conflict which also causes stress and reduces employee performance. In a remote work setting, all of these things could be occurring and it is quite possible for managers to be oblivious to them unless there are feedback systems in place.
The Need for Feedback Systems
In my experience, managers are often surprised to hear their employees are suffering due to something they’re perceiving as toxic. Since remote employees don’t have the option of speaking in person with someone about their concerns, unless there are other accepted channels for reporting such concerns—via an employee portal on the company website, for example—then they may be reluctant or unsure about how to do so. This is why HR managers should be extra deliberate about setting in place the means for a distributed workforce to communicate feedback, anonymously or otherwise.
Unfortunately, many small companies lack preexisting feedback systems apart from plain verbal communication, and it is unlikely that they’ve had the breathing room to set one up during the pandemic. A potential solution is the many online surveying tools such as SurveyMonkey and Google Forms that can be tailored for this purpose. These generally work better than requests for emailed or spoken feedback which employees will often not respond to. However, you should leave open all available channels of communication for potential feedback anyway. The more channels available for employees to use for reporting problems, the more likely they will do so.
Helping Employees Get Out of Their Heads
As stated previously, even if you don’t share an employee’s view that something is genuinely toxic, if it is causing that employee distress then it is a problem and it should be addressed. One way to preemptively address employees’ concerns is to help them think through their subjective perceptions with the help of a third-party perspective.
Ordinarily, in a physical workplace, employees can talk about work-related concerns with trusted colleagues who can act as sounding boards. While this can sometimes lead to a snowball effect in which frustrated employees feed into each other’s negativity, it often has the benefit of simply getting people out of their heads or serving as an emotional coping mechanism. Of course, one of the most widely recognized problems for employee well-being during the pandemic has been social isolation. Without the social support that buffers the negative effects of rumination and also reduces the tendency to ruminate in general, it’s all too easy for isolated employees to get trapped in a self-exacerbating loop of negative thoughts and feelings. To remedy this, employers may consider offering third-party remote counseling services. Tele counseling has been found to be as effective as its face-to-face equivalent for some work-related concerns, and as long as it’s confidential (so that there’s no fear of reprisal), it can be a good way for employees to bounce their thoughts off of trained professionals who are somewhat familiar with the client company’s organizational culture.
There’s no question that remote work deprives managers of the literal eyes and ears they would normally use to assess a toxic work situation. But by being aware of the most common forms of toxicity that manifest in a remote work environment, understanding how the stress of work/life balance has been amplified during the pandemic and providing employees with enough channels for feedback, they can identify and address toxic situations before they cause lasting harm to your employees and organization.
