Episode: 494

Episode Title: Don’t Turn a Blind Eye

Organizations can’t afford to turn a blind eye to toxic practices in the workplace. Here’s how they can start addressing them, next on The Perna Syndicate.

Ep 494 show:

Hello and welcome to The Perna Syndicate! All week, we’ve been talking about the number-one reason that people are quitting their jobs, and that’s toxic work culture. Of course it’s best to prevent a toxic workplace from even getting a foothold, but what if your company already has it? 

The first thing leaders should do is recognize the problem. Then, they need to gather as much employee feedback as possible before they create a plan to address the issues. Often, the people who experience the worst effects are those who have the least opportunity to share their problems with senior leadership. 

In general, companies that experience toxic behavior from managers don’t receive enough direct input from employees. Or, they don’t have a consistent or fair process for reporting. This opens the door for a whole cascade of toxic behaviors, not least of which are bias, discrimination, and retaliation. 

Again, an anonymous reporting system is the only way internal issues can be handled effectively, without those in power interfering with the feedback or obscuring the problems. 

Maybe your place of work has failed to recognize and address toxic behavior in the past. Now is the time to change all of that, with a fresh commitment to professionalism at all levels of the organization. 

Whatever you do, don’t turn a blind eye. 

So toxic workplaces are bad: we got it. But is nontoxic good enough? Let’s cover that question tomorrow on The Perna Syndicate. See you then!