'When things get tough, how do you uphold your values and your mission?'
Research has shown a decline in workplace toxicity with the rise of the hybrid or work-from-home model.
But that doesn’t mean the fight to prevent malicious behaviour in the workplace is over for HR.
“Anytime there are human beings gathered together, we have the opportunity for toxicity,” says Wayne Turmel, master trainer and coach at The Kevin Eikenberry Group, a training and development organization, in Las Vegas.
“It’s not what we want but it’s often what we get. As people are talking about going back to the office, there’s this rosy set of glasses that we put on like we were all working in the Garden of Eden before everybody got sent home.”
This is where true leaders are born, according to Jenna Bayuk, founder at Kinship Kollective, a consultancy in Vancouver.
“I would like to believe that the toxicity levels have lowered but it really comes down to how leaders are equipped to handle those situations and the culture they’ve created,” she says.
“When things get tough, how do you uphold your values and your mission? What my experience has told me is a lot more people are aware; people are speaking up, companies are upholding their values and taking action when those things occur.”
Viral-type work trends, such as rage applying or quiet quitting, are being looked at as signs of growing toxic behaviours, says Bayuk.
Virtual toxicity
With video calls becoming more accepted in today’s workplace, behaviour such as gossiping may have evolved in the way it’s being carried out, according to Turmel.
“As a matter of fact, in some ways it’s gotten worse because when you left the meeting room, and somebody said: ‘Can you believe that happened?’ At least you looked around to make sure if somebody was watching, you have to be careful. Now you get off a Zoom call, and you get on a call with your best friend, and it’s 20 minutes of ‘Can you believe that stuff happened?’ And nobody knows that’s going on.”
Meetings done virtually do not show completely how people are truly feeling, says Bayuk.
“You don’t get the same read on body language, subtleties, and how to navigate if somebody is stressed and not speaking up so with tech, unfortunately, there is less emotional intelligence, [and] subtleties that get missed.”
A study done by Western University, the University of Toronto and the Canadian Labour Congress, found that more than 70 per cent of workers experienced some form of toxic behaviour.
Training on virtual toxicity
This means more training on how to read people virtually is a great idea, she says.
“It takes a pretty trained eye to notice some of those things going on so there is definitely some awareness and retraining some leaders need to look at if their whole team is going to be remote.
“It takes a lot of emotional intelligence to really be able to catch those and be able to have those honest, collaborative conversations, virtually, with everybody feeling safe instead of in-person,” she says.
But don’t discount the role of culture, says Turmel.
“On the surface, there are some things common toxic behaviours that can certainly be mitigated or eliminated by the fact that we’re working remotely and there isn’t as much physical presence. Now, that being said, a lot of that depends on the culture of the company and how leaders support or continue, whether it’s positive or negative culture.”
Canadian HR Reporter recently spoke with Kathryn Bird, a partner at Ogletree Deakins, in a podcast about the legal liabilities of poisoned workplaces.
HR monitoring
For HR, it’s important to continually monitor for bad behaviours because once they start, they won’t stop on their own, says Bayuk.
“You can say, ‘We have these values,’ and then you have people who are allowed to perform and have no consequences when they go outside those values or are really difficult people to work for or start to be that toxic person,” she says.
“That’s what [employees] watch for: ‘Can so-and-so get away with this?’”
If they can, and there’s no action or no communication strategies around the why or what’s happening, “that’s when that toxicity starts to breathe,” says Bayuk.
“So it’s really looking at ‘Does what you say get backed up with what you’re willing to do?’ And that’s the simplest way to look at it to understand — but also stop — anything before it starts.”
