We all know that recently Twitter has been buzzing as a number of people have been naming and shaming #Toxic Workplaces. Most of us at some point in our careers have experienced a toxic work environment and trust me it’s not the best place to do good work and thrive.
Some of these “toxic” organizations in their brand communication indicate that “Our People are Our Greatest Asset” however the culture of the environment is not directly proportional to the brand communication.
Organizational Culture does not appear from the sky, it is built and nurtured over time by the continuous acceptance of the displayed negative behaviors and it started with the minor things the business leaders say/do or refused to say/do about a particular incident that translated to the way of life within that organization, so calling them out and shaming them on Social Media may not lead to change in behavior.
The question on my mind now is; in our individual environment, how do we partner with these “greatest assets” (People) to build a culture they can thrive in and that is void of toxic behaviors? This is obviously not going to be a walk in the park however if we all choose to move forward with sincerity we should be able to contain further spread of toxic behaviors.
As we ponder on this, my recommendation would be for us to look inwards to see what behaviors we individually need to correct because we may also have an element of toxicity in us and may have at some point exhibited it knowingly or unknowingly. I say this because I experienced it yesterday from someone that’s currently speaking against toxic work culture but didn’t know they’re a part of the equation.