Bad work culture
Company culture refers to the attitudes and behaviours of a company and its employees. It is evident in the way an organisation’s people interact with each other, the values they hold, and the decisions they make. Every workplace has the potential to become unhealthy, including remote offices. The development of bad work culture doesn’t happen overnight. Everyone who works for a given organisation contributes to company culture. It can take only one person to spread dysfunction throughout your company regardless of its size.
Adam Grant talks about the four deadly sins of work culture. The first happens when leaders prioritise results over relationships — getting things done at the cost of treating people right. In this case, a toxic culture can be characterised disrespectful, non-inclusive, unethical, cutthroat, and abusive. The second can happen when a company values saving face rather than getting things done. In this case, we have a false sense of harmony, dishonesty is prevalent, and there is no accountability. The third happens when a culture is all about the rules and a lack of trust and psychological safety prevents new ideas from being explored, and instead, are seen as threats to the status quo. And lastly, the case when there are no rules or established company core values, which means anyone can do whatever they want.
A bad work culture can have profound negative impacts on individuals as well as the business. Employees won't go the extra mile, and rather do the minimum required to get by. Leaders get pushed out and employees get sick more often, which costs your company major time and money. Your organisation can loose reputation and the negative word of mouth can kill your ability to recruit the best talent.
Your culture is a living thing. It needs work to grow and flourish. For individuals to act right, the organisation need to listen to and value its people, implement a sound DEI policy, provide trust and psychological safety, and clearly communicate its core values and beliefs. If you don't intentionally work to create a culture that empowers your people, a default one takes reign and it is usually a toxic one.