Unfortunately, toxic workplaces are commonplace in today's day and age. Toxic workplaces are generally characterized by a culture of dysfunctional interpersonal dynamics. These dynamics can play out in a number of ways: inequity, unaddressed conflict, harassment, or even just general lack of communication. Generally, organizational or corporate culture is driven from the top-down, and if the leadership imposes toxic tactics, it can be very difficult for those not in charge to shift the culture. Luckily there are communications tools and techniques to deal with and even change the toxic culture of a workplace.
Women react to difficult situations differently than men do. Particularly in the workplace, many women are more sensitive to hostile or stressful interpersonal situations than are men. Let's look at three characteristics that women commonly display which can make dealing with the toxic workplace much more difficult:
- Women tend to be people-pleasers. Women like to be liked, appreciated, encouraged, and more often than not function in a collaborative work environment. In a toxic workplace, workers can be pitted against one another in order to get the results that managers are after. Where this managerial approach can be effective in the short-term, it tends to go against the grain of how most women want to operate in their professional capacity.
- Women can be more emotionally affected. In a toxic workplace environment, there is often a lot of back-talk, which can lead to hurt feelings and emotional distress. Emotional distress has the potential to impact productivity, relationships, and negative affect morale in the workplace. More often than not, this emotional distress bleeds into our personal lives, affecting our family relationships as well. Being able to leave toxicity at the workplace at the end of the day, is difficult but essential for emotional well-being.
- Women take things personally. Being able to separate attacks to one's work and to one’s person can be difficult. We know we should not take things personally however, in toxic workplaces, even constructive criticism can be construed as an attack, because of the overall toxic culture. Stepping back and realizing that attacks stem from insecurities coming from the attacker can be difficult to do when it is directed towards you. Recognizing that there are larger dynamics at play is a first step to not taking things personally.
