The Real Cost of Unhealthy Work Culture
The unhealthy work culture in many organizations is not talked about enough, and I say this because time after time, I come across people who are victims of this situation. When I speak to them, I realize that everyone has reasons for still working their toxic jobs and honestly, can we blame them?
The economy is trending downhill, and the job market is also tough right now, so if these people have to resign immediately without looking for another source of income, who would feed them? Who would shoulder their responsibilities? No one! And that’s how you know it’s so easy to tell people to walk away because we haven’t been at the receiving end with nothing to fall back on.
Yesterday, I spent half my time worrying about a close friend who has been battling work pressure and some level of toxicity in his workplace. Usually, I believe that when a staff member takes a leave from work, they ought to have attempted to finish the bulk of their tasks, especially to ease the stress of the person who would handle their responsibilities in their absence.
For my friend, it’s been different. The senior staff in his department left a huge portion of their work untouched, and right now they’re on a two-week leave. Now, he’s being made to complete their tasks alongside his colleagues who are fewer in number. It gets worse when you think that he’s also under pressure to attend to his own daily responsibilities, and this is the problem with reputable companies. Everyone focuses on the handsome salary compensation at the expense of everything else. So, nobody takes your plight seriously.
Truly, yesterday was the first time I heard my friend sound deeply devastated. It hurt that I couldn’t help as much as I would’ve loved to, especially knowing that he’s currently dealing with anxiety and fear of the next couple of days. And even if I could do more than comfort him, I can’t because a company’s work is always confidential, and I certainly will not be able to handle a task that’s not in my field.
I’m not even sure why I’m putting this out here, but I guess this should be a reminder to check on your friends working highly demanding jobs. Show up for them, do nice things to ease their stress, and if you can, find a way to give them the biggest hugs because that might make the huge difference you never knew could help them get through a difficult time. I’m currently doing my best to be present for him during this time while hoping that he survives this week without breaking completely.
I do hope we all continue to advocate for better working conditions in our society and ultimately, jobs that offer a healthy work-life balance without failing to prioritize the mental health of all staff, regardless of their role or ranking.
Sounds like your friend got messed over by their coworker. Not sure if that in itself makes for a toxic work environment. But I don't know all the details of the culture there either. In this particular case, a decent management would have looked that they had their tasks caught up before going on leave. If not, at least identified and organized to hand off properly.
Oh, I did try to limit my usage of the word “toxic" because I believe this is just poor organization and structure, like you’ve said. Toxic is just to highlight to broader conversation from this.
The compensation is also better than average. It’s just concerning that senior staff can easily leave off bulky work to the juniors without some level of accountability, yet have them treated like they’re not doing enough to meet deadlines.
wish you luck !!!