Why Your Employees Have Toxic Behaviors

Being an employer gets a whole lot harder when your workplace turns into a toxic environment. Your workplace becomes toxic when employees and leaders in your company participate in toxic behaviors. These behaviors can include gossiping, lying, absenteeism, office politics, and many others. Your first instinct when dealing with these behaviors may be to discipline the involved employees immediately. While this isn’t necessarily a bad solution, it’s not a permanent one. Even if you discipline every employee with toxic behaviors in your company, those behaviors will come back unless you find the root cause for the behaviors. Here are some possible causes for toxic behavior and how to deal with them: 

Poor Communication 

Poor communication can include anything from a lack of transparency to having people consistently feel out of the loop. Having any communication disconnect can foster gossip and office politics, making employees more stressed and less motivated. Evaluate how you currently communicate important information to your employees to ensure that no one is left guessing.  

Unhealthy Work-Life Balance 

A lack of balance between work and the rest of life can create cases of absenteeism and presenteeism in your workplace. To make sure your workers are able to come to be productive at work without hurting their home life, have open discussions about work-life balance. You can even address employees one-on-one if they seem to be struggling with their current work schedule.  

Lack of Purpose 

Purpose is key to having engaged, productive, and happy employees. Without a purpose to drive them, your employees may fall into behaviors like lying, procrastinating, and laziness. Talk to your employees about your company’s purpose. It can also be helpful to discuss the positive effect your company has on the environment and the positive effect the employee’s job has on the company and community.  

Dealing with toxic behaviors can make your workplace a difficult place to be. Use this information to keep toxic behaviors from growing in your company.