Toxic Employee vs Toxic Boss

Over my career, I have witnessed the so-called “toxic employee.” While there are bad eggs, I’ve learned that it is not always the employee’s fault. Living this first hand, I’ve seen a great employee flip a switch and become unhappy in their job. Observing this over and over again in both my management career and also in being managed, I began to look at why so many employees were leaving or no longer high performers.

Undervalued

A happy employee wants to feel like they bring value to the company and that the hard work they put in is valued by their superiors. When you have an employee putting in long hours day after day, going above and beyond for everyone, and is a high performer, they need the recognition they deserve. If they put in this work without recognition, the job no longer brings them value. Why would they keep performing and running at such a fast pace if there is no recognition or reward?

You can think of this as an athlete. Some of the best athletes train and practice for hours every day. They dedicate their life to this passion of theirs, just like a person in a career. Now, think of putting in all that work for years, and every time you compete you lose. Eventually, you are going to lose motivation to keep pushing as hard. You will fizzle out to the point of quitting or changing careers.

Having a boss who just pushes their employees with no reward or recognition is asking for their employees to burnout. Employees will work harder and longer if they have the motivation to do so. Remove the motivation, you remove the performance.

Disrespected

I have seen employees who are completely disrespected by their boss, be labeled as a “toxic employees.” To me, nothing can be more demotivating than being insulted in the workplace. I have seen employees get verbally and mentally abused in the workplace and again that switch turns off. Honestly, they lose respect for their boss because really how can you respect someone who will yell at you in a public forum?

Like abuse in any sort of setting, a person can only be pushed so hard and take so much before they quit. There is no need for someone to be disrespectful or to raise their voice at an employee. There are tactful ways to get your point across.

Unrealistic Expectations

When a boss sets goals, yes, they should be a reach, but also something that can be achieved. I am all for pushing employees to their best performance, but when the goal is completely out of reach, it can demotivate. Failing to meet a goal over and over again can make an employee feel like a failure and that they are not good at the job. The attitude of “I’ll never reach that number, so why even try” will then come out.

Only Negative Feedback

Constructive feedback is vital to the growth of a good employee, but it can’t be the only feedback given. Hearing your shortcomings over and over again can be frustrating. Bosses need to recognize when a good job is done and not just criticize when something is wrong.

The worst case can be when goals are met, but still a comment of “you could have done better” is made. They are negating the fact that you met the goal by saying that it still was not enough.

Raise Their Voice

There are no circumstances that someone needs to raise their voice at you in a workplace setting. When someone raises their voice and yells, it just shows complete disrespect for the person. People also lose complete respect for the person doing the yelling. Can you get frustrated? Yes. Can you feel heated in the moment? Yes. None of these warrants a person to raise their voice at you. If someone raises their voice then they should not be in a supervisory position because they are clearly not qualified nor have they taken a management class. I have seen many people leave their positions because they were yelled at by their boss regularly.

When reflecting on my career and all of the jobs that I have held, I am sad to say that I judged many employees and coworkers incorrectly and just thought they were the toxic ones. When seeing how they were treated, I now know why they were unmotivated, angry, and eventually left their position. Many good high performers lost due to mistreatment. If a company wants to keep their talented employees they must treat them with respect or else it will continue to be a revolving door of people.