10 Signs of a Toxic Workplace: When it’s time to walk away

In today’s fast-paced world, having a healthy work environment is essential to maintaining personal well-being and professional development. However, not every job supports this.

A toxic workplace can harm your mental health, physical health, self-esteem, and career progression. But how can you identify the warning signs before it’s too late?

Toxic Jobs

What is a Toxic Job?

A toxic job is one where the atmosphere is emotionally and mentally damaging. This negativity can arise from poor leadership, dysfunctional teams, or unrealistic work expectations. Over time, these factors lead to heightened stress, anxiety, and burnout.

In a toxic workplace, employees may feel undermined, micromanaged, or manipulated, making it nearly impossible to flourish. While every job presents challenges, a toxic environment makes maintaining balance and job satisfaction extremely difficult.

 

How Do I Know If My Job is Toxic?

Recognising whether your job is toxic can be tricky, particularly if you’ve become accustomed to certain behaviours. However, there are some clear indicators that often point to a negative work environment:

10 Signs of a Toxic Workplace

Here are 10 signs that you might be in a toxic workplace and how to recognise when it move on:

1. High Employee Turnover

If colleagues seem to come and go quickly, it’s usually because they feel undervalued, overworked and stressed. High staff turnover is often a key indicator of toxic work environments.  Ultimately toxic workplaces tend to overlook high staff turnover as being a legitimate issue that could be addressed and instead continue to hire without doing anything to understand the cause of the high turnover – as a result, the environment doesn’t change unless there’s a major structural change to senior management and business operations.

2. Poor Communication

If communication from management or between team members is inconsistent or unclear, it’s a major red flag. In toxic environments, you will often see many team members who are unaware of what’s going on, and as a result, a lot of tasks and deadlines are then rushed and happen last minute, causing unnecessary stress to employees.

Transparent communication is fundamental to any healthy work environment.

3. Unrealistic Deadlines

Does your manager frequently overload you with work, ignoring your capacity or deadlines? Or making you consistently work after your contracted hours for no repayment or time lieu?

Consistently unrealistic workloads can lead to burnout and foster anxiety.

If you have already communicated about being overloaded with work or deadlines to your manager and they don’t acknowledge it while continuing to apply pressure, this is going to lead to feelings of burnout and stress.

While some stress in the workplace is inevitable, if you’re experiencing a constant unrealistic workload and consistent feelings of stress, then you might be in a toxic workplace.

 

4. Negative Atmosphere and Low Morale

In a toxic work environment, negativity and low morale are widespread. This can be caused by a lack of recognition, constant criticism, or hostility between colleagues.

If you have a constant feeling of dread being in the office, and find that other people experience similar, then you’re possibly working in an office with a negative atmosphere and low morale.

More recently, Gen Z and Millennial workers have taken to social media to talk about the “Sunday Scaries”, which is a term used to describe the feelings of anxiety, stress, or dread that people experience on a Sunday evening as the weekend ends and the start of the work week is creeping closer.

It’s more than an “I’d rather not go to work tomorrow, I wish the weekend was a little longer” and instead an extreme anticipatory anxiety, causing the feeling of heightened nervousness or worry about something that hasn’t happened yet. The “Sunday Scaries” are often caused by a negative atmosphere, poor work-life balance and burnout

If you’re experiencing this feeling, then it’s likely you’re working in a toxic environment.

5. No Work-Life Balance

Are you expected to respond to emails at all hours or work on weekends? Are you consistently expected to work late with no notice, and for no additional overtime payment or time in lieu?

A toxic job doesn’t respect your personal time, making it hard to maintain a healthy work-life balance.

While sometimes you might find it’s necessary or beneficial to work late, a toxic workplace will expect this of you – you might even experience cases where managers get frustrated and badmouth people who finish on time and when they’re supposed to.

If your employer consistently has no regard for the fact you have a life outside of work and expects you to be working and responding to messages at unrealistic hours, then you’re probably working in a toxic work environment.

6. Micromanagement

Micromanagement can be seen as a large contributor to a toxic workplace environment. If every detail of your work is scrutinised and you have no autonomy over your tasks, it signals distrust.

This isn’t to be confused with constructive feedback, which is useful to employees’ development provided it’s delivered appropriately. Instead, micromanagement involves a manager closely monitoring and controlling an employee’s work, often to the detriment of the employee’s success and motivation.

Micromanagers are generally quick to point out any mistakes or negatives to employees and don’t bother providing any praise or positive feedback.

Micromanagement generally installs fear in employees, they fear making any kind of mistake no matter how small due to the reaction this might get from a manager.

This tends to stifle creativity, cause stress and erode your confidence.

7. Disregard for Employee Wellbeing

In a positive work environment, leaders provide guidance and support. If your manager is dismissive, unapproachable, or indifferent to concerns, this is a clear sign of a toxic job.

For example, these managers often won’t care to ask about how you’re feeling with your current workload or take any notice if you let them know things are getting too much. These managers might make you feel guilty if you ever need reasonable personal time, such as to go to a doctor’s appointment.

Often these employers might expect you regardless of circumstances. Another example to look out for is how they treat their employees who have experienced a sudden bereavement.  If a manager fails to offer any kind of words of support or is reluctant to let people take any form of bereavement leave, even for a couple of days – then this is a sign of a toxic work culture. Good managers have a high level of emotional intelligence and have clear plans in place for times of crisis, such as an employee requesting a couple of days off for bereavement leave.

8. Constant Crisis-mode

The company or department is always in “emergency mode,” with urgent tasks and last-minute requests being the norm. This creates an ongoing state of panic and stress for team members, which makes it difficult for employees to plan or prioritise their work effectively.

Ultimately this tends to be as a result of poor planning, lack of communication, or consideration for employee wellbeing – if this is a regular occurrence in your workplace then you’re probably working in a toxic environment.

9. False or Unrealistic Promises

In a toxic workplace, there is often little to no chance for career progression. Generally speaking, the business might try to lead you on, by offering the false promise of a promotion or pay rise if you complete tasks that are generally outside of your job remit, work late, or take on an increased workload

If you do undertake this for an extended period of time and nothing ever succumbs and instead you keep being told “soon”, or “when the time is right”, then you’re probably working for a toxic work environment that doesn’t value you.

If your hard work goes unnoticed and there’s no room for development, it might be time to reassess your situation.

10. Unclear Expectations

Unclear expectations in the workplace can be a significant source of frustration and stress, contributing to a toxic environment

When employees are given vague or shifting expectations, it can make it hard to know what’s expected of them. This leads to confusion, frustration, and anxiety about their job performance and security.

Unclear expectations can be a result of vague job descriptions, inconsistent feedback, unclear chain of command, infrequent or poorly conducted meetings, ambiguous communication and much more.

Quitting a Toxic Job

Is It Okay to Quit a Toxic Job?

Yes, it is absolutely okay to quit a toxic job. Staying in a harmful work environment can have long-lasting effects on both your mental and physical health. Although you may feel guilty or uncertain about leaving, especially due to financial concerns or a sense of loyalty, your well-being should always come first.

 

How to find the right job

If you’ve come to the realisation that you’re working for a toxic workplace, then it’s best to get ahead start your job search. However, you want to ensure that you don’t jump from one toxic workplace to another.

In order to do this:

  • Assess what you want from your next role.
  • Use this information to make a list of questions surrounding things you’d like to know about any business you might be interviewing for.
  • Update your CV, ensuring it is laid out appropriately
  • Reach out to a recruiter that specialises in your sector
  • Practise your interview technique
  • Come prepared with a list of questions you have not just about the job role, but about the company too. For example, you might want to ask questions on company culture, team size, expectations, how success is measured, and working patterns.

Recognising the signs of a toxic workplace is vital to safeguarding your health and career. Don’t ignore the warning signs—if your job is doing more harm than good, it’s okay to prioritise yourself and move on. Your next role could offer the supportive and positive work environment you truly deserve.

 

If you’re considering a career move, check out our latest vacancies and see if we have the right thing for you!