One in three UK workers has quit their job because of a bad manager, according to a survey carried from the Chartered Management Institute (CMI).
The study also found that only 27% of workers are happy to describe their manager as ‘highly effective’.
Add to that another piece of research from Oak Engage, which found that 75% of the UK’s employees have experienced what they say is a ‘toxic workplace culture’.
Of that number, a massive 87% said it affected their mental health.
So what actually defines a toxic workplace? It’s easy to feel triggered by your boss if you’re asked to do things you’re not so keen on, but there are in fact a number of attributes that a business must possess in order to be classified as a truly terrible place to work.
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Toxicity was defined in a recent study as a workplace that is disrespectful, non-inclusive, unethical, cutthroat, and abusive. And Oak Engage’s study found that it has caused 61% of employees to resign, along with 73% who said they’d experienced burnout as a result of toxic workplace culture.
When work (and life) gets hard and messy, it’s really tempting to complain about it––pretty much to anyone who will listen. From blowing up your friends’ WhatsApp group with messages about your awful boss, to a 90-minute moan to your mum, constant complaining can deliver diminishing returns.
That’s why some people take to social media instead. After all, if your partner starts to look pained when you launch into yet another work-related diatribe over dinner, it only makes sense to send a Tweet or ten about it instead, right?
Well, maybe not. Take for example the case of Brittany Pietsch, who was working for Cloudflare in a sales capacity when she was let go in January of this year.
Pietsch recorded the conversation in which she was let go, uploading it to TikTok and across her social profiles, and it became an immediate viral sensation, garnering thousands of column inches globally.
Now more than six months later, how did Brittany’s blast work out for her?
Not so well, if a public post she made on LinkedIn in early July is any indication. ‘I feel embarrassed to be posting this, but desperate times as they say,’ she wrote.
‘It’s been almost 6 months since I was laid off, and I am at my wit’s end. The amount of conversations, interviews, presentations, and research I’ve done for companies I will never work for is beyond what I could have imagined.’
Pietsch pointed out that when her video went viral, ‘I received literally thousands of “I would hire you in a heartbeat” or “any company would be lucky to have you” messages. Yet when it comes down to it, it has been the opposite.”’
As an experience, she says it is ‘Discouraging, disheartening, exhausting, scary, frustrating. All words to describe this process and what I’ve felt every single day. I feel like giving up.’
However, she’s not giving up just yet and Pietsch finished her post with an impassioned plea:
‘I may have gaps in my resume, and I may have short stints at my previous companies, but that does not deter my ability to be a kickass sales rep. As an account executive on your team, I will be beyond driven, tenacious, organised, curious, a sponge, resilient, and will become a top performer on your team. All I need is a chance to prove it.’
Risk averse
The fact is, most companies are risk-averse. On an individual level, many people might applaud Brittany’s Pietsche’s bravery in broadcasting what she felt was an unjustified dismissal. But when it comes to wondering how that person may behave at a new company, it may not seem to be a risk worth taking.
The data backs this up. A CareerBuilder survey found that 70% of employers use social networking sites to research job candidates, and of those, 57% have found content that caused them not to hire candidates.
The reasons go way beyond saying negative things about your workplace––though bad-mouthing a previous company or fellow employee was a reason for not hiring a job candidate for 25% of the survey’s respondents.
Other no-nos include a candidate who posts provocative or inappropriate photographs, videos or information (40%), or a candidate who posted discriminatory comments related to race, gender or religion (31%).
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