Workplace Toxicity Quotes

WHAT’S THE ONE thing that most affects how much people enjoy their jobs? First and foremost, people thrive when they feel appreciated by their supervisors and colleagues—and that means they sense the appreciation is heartfelt and authentic.

We all need support, in the workplace and beyond it. When we both give and receive, we stand a much better chance of survival.

Toxic relationships are like a good pasta that has been overcooked.

I view the modern workplace as somewhere that you go to have your long term health severely damaged.

The emoluments of toxic workplace is stress & depression, but by the time taxes are taken out, it's just sort of a haggard existence.

I’m now much less of an asset to the company than I could be. I keep my head down and for self-preservation just do my work with little conversation with anyone. Yet the irony is this: in my self-preservation, I’m actually destroying myself. In bottling up my unexpressed feelings, I’m making myself sick emotionally and physically.

Feedback is a gift only when it comes from a person who has earned your trust.

Everyone has an invisible sign hanging from their neck saying ‘Make Me Feel Important.’ Never forget that when working with people.” Mary Kay Ash

GET TOUGH. Mental and spiritual toughness go together. Deepen your commitment to your most essential values and mentally rehearse the specific ways you can take positive action.

The stereotype is that only men are narcissists, sociopaths, and psychopaths. That is completely incorrect. There are many women who are the cause of a toxic relationship, family, workplace, or church setting.     Please

that I didn't need to suffer to succeed, and a successful career didn't mean compromising my mental health. 

There isn't enough positive self-talk you can practice in a toxic work environment, and there isn't enough strength you can possess to survive.

it became clearer that if there was any doubt in my mind about leaving my job, it had to be set aside.

Trust is a fragile commodity. Know your code of conduct and the values you stand for. Remember: if you wouldn’t want to explain it on ‘60 Minutes,’ don’t do it.

To those who value words of affirmation, criticism feels like a knife in the heart.

When a workplace becomes toxic, its poison spreads beyond its walls and into the lives of its workers and their families.

No matter what I did, it was never enough.

When you’re through changing, you’re through.” Bruce Barton

We need the richness of many good counselors all through our lives and an attitude that nurtures them. That way, we may find the clarity and resilience we need when things go awry.

SEE THROUGH THE FOG

You have to be careful about damaging workers health because those damaged workers may publicly research your toxic workplace to discover what made them sick.

Researching the workplace damage to my health has turned into a fascinating voyage of discovery.

Achieving great accomplishments doesn’t matter much if everyone who helps you get there dies along the way.” Paul White

Bosses use humiliation to dominate.

Never assume the long term biological toxicity of your workplace has been characterized, as it probably has not.

[W]e are the ones to blame for enabling and even nourishing the toxic workplaces. In continuing to cooperate with a profoundly unhealthy and exploitative employment system, we become at once the dagger and the wound. Wounds never heal so long as they continue to cooperate with daggers. In a sense, the cure is in the disease itself. Our silence is the disease. Our serious commitment for change and for exposing power abuses and bullies is the cure.

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is sadness, joy; where there is darkness, light.

. There were also multiple ways of earning an income that didn't pose a threat to my well-being. But there weren't various options to choose from when it came to life. I simply had one life, and it was up to me to create great experiences for myself. I

I keep my head down and for self-preservation just do my work with little conversation with anyone. Yet the irony is this: in my self-preservation, I’m actually destroying myself. In bottling up my unexpressed feelings, I’m making myself sick emotionally and physically.

But the story of BPA is not just about gender: it’s also about class. Or at least it’s about gendered class. Fearing a major consumer boycott, most baby-bottle manufacturers voluntarily removed BPA from their products, and while the official US line on BPA is that it is not toxic, the EU and Canada are on their way to banning its use altogether. But the legislation that we have exclusively concerns consumers: no regulatory standard has ever been set for workplace exposure.5 ‘It was ironic to me,’ says occupational health researcher Jim Brophy, ‘that all this talk about the danger for pregnant women and women who had just given birth never extended to the women who were producing these bottles. Those women whose exposures far exceeded anything that you would have in the general environment. There was no talk about the pregnant worker who is on the machine that’s producing this thing.

Just as most American employers give us ‘at will’ employments, our entire existence has become subject to their will. We have arrived at a point where most of our stress is a result of not knowing whether we will get the next paycheck. Exploitative employers love it this way. So long as we are afraid, they are sure to get 100 percent submission from us. We cannot let our toxic way of working be accepted as the norm and as the typical American work ethics. We deserve and can do much, much better than this.

THRIVE ON CHANGE. Many of us get tired of hearing that mantra, especially when we must cope with changes disrupting what we most care about. Yet the relentless acceleration of change requires flexibility of all of us, whatever our skills and roles. We are hurtling into the future, and the future will soon be a very different culture. Like an immigrant to a land with different customs and languages, we have to continually adapt and cultivate mindsets that maintain both our integrity and capacity to contribute.

It seems we have no clue where to draw the line regarding conversations we shouldn't initiate and questions we shouldn't ask. When it comes to matters of the body, there is already enough hell that one is going through; you do not need to add more fuel to it. Although I may not speak for everyone, I know many of us experience body insecurities somehow. It is a struggle for the vast majority. Questioning people about their weight, sexuality, and fertility are conversations that we should refrain from unless initiated by the concerned parties. Even then, when these conversations come up, it is never an invitation for judgment. If ever there was a time when compassion was needed the most, it is when the affected people bring up such topics. What they need the most are compassion and kindness. And sometimes, empathy is just listening

At first glance, professionalism tries to convince you it’s a neutral word, merely meant to signify a collection of behaviors, clothing, and norms “appropriate” for the workplace. We just ask that everyone be professional, the cis white men will say, smiles on their faces, as if they’re not asking for much. We try to maintain a professional office environment. But never has a word in the English language been so loaded with racism, sexism, heteronormativity, or trans exclusion. Whenever someone is telling you to “be professional,” they’re really saying, “be more like me.” If you’re black, “being professional” can often mean speaking differently, avoiding black cultural references, or not wearing natural hair. If you’re not American, “being professional” can mean abandoning your cultural dress for Western business clothes. If you’re not Christian, “being professional” can mean potentially removing your hijab to fit in, sitting by while your officemates ignore your need for kosher or halal food, sucking up the fact that your office puts up a giant Christmas tree every year. If you’re low-income or working class, “being professional” can mean spending money you don’t have on work clothes—“dressing nicely” for a job that may not pay enough for you to really afford to do so. If you’re a woman, “being professional” can mean navigating a veritable minefield of double standards. Show some skin, but don’t be a slut. Wear heels, but not too high, and not too low, either. Wear form-fitting clothes, but not too form-fitting. We offer maternity leave, but don’t “interrupt your career” by taking it. And if you’re trans like me, “being professional” can mean putting your identity away unless it conforms to dominant gender norms.

Workplace harassment was a feature of USA professional astronomy.

Over time, this results in a workplace in which most people, especially those who are closest to the leader, are chronic yes-men and sycophants and, in that way, the toxic leader is able to maintain a distorted and almost delusional sense that everyone is in agreement

Over time, this results in a workplace in which most people, especially those who are closest to the leader, are chronic yes-men and sycophants and, in that way, the toxic leader is able to maintain a distorted and almost delusional sense that everyone is in agreement with him or her.

A toxic coworker can insert significant stress into your work life, and we know that workplace stress is a form of stress that takes a significant toll on your health. Management and organizational researchers Joel Goh, Jeffrey Pfeffer, and Stefanos Zenios examined the impacts of poor management on health and on the basis of their data concluded that over 120,000 deaths per year and between 5-8 percent of health care costs may be related to workplace management.

Boundaries and documentation are your best defense against toxic coworkers. It is also critical that you keep detailed notes and files on your contribution to product, sales, and other outcomes in the workplace—don’t be surprised if your coworker blithely takes credit for your work. That documentation can be invaluable if there is a need to substantiate your work in the face of his or her claims.

The financial costs are also likely to be quite high. There are no statistics on the cost of narcissistic bosses in terms of productivity, but we can speculate that the cost of toxic behavior in the workplace results in healthcare costs, lost dollars due to disability or inefficiency that results from working with toxic coworkers and bosses, lawsuits resulting from pursuing damages against toxic coworkers and bosses, and other impacts of the toxic workers and bosses on clients, consumers, and the public at large.

Sexual harassment is an important and deeply painful element of workplace abuse, but there is also the abuse people regularly suffer at the hands of a toxic and narcissistic supervisor who is a bully.

DOLINSKY’S IMPERATIVE: “Individuals must take it upon themselves to form and grow bubbles of civility within and external to their organizations. Doing so creates new and deeper relationships across stakeholders. It prevents bureaucratic claptrap and friction from descending like a toxic cloud of dissatisfaction. Friction is reduced, and the spread of the workplace zombie virus is slowed.

DOLINSKY’S IMPERATIVE: Individuals must take it upon themselves to form and grow bubbles of civility within and external to their organizations. Doing so creates new and deeper relationships across stakeholders. It prevents bureaucratic claptrap and friction from descending like a toxic cloud of dissatisfaction. Friction is reduced, and the spread of the workplace zombie virus is slowed.

Of twenty employees, Carlos says he was the only one who hadn't slept with the receptionist. Talk about a dysfunctional workplace! However, he couldn't immediately quit. How did Carlos survive? “I just did my job,” he told us.

The women I interviewed seemingly “opted out” of what Rachel, whom I cited earlier, called “the enormous experiment of engaging in capitalism.” Their choice to leave the workplace can be seen, as some of them suggested, as a resistance to neoliberal capitalism—to its exclusive valorization of the sphere of commodity production and the toxic competitive work cultures on which it depends. Their embrace of full-time motherhood can be understood as an attempt to shift priorities and to put care before competition. It is seemingly removed from the demands of advanced capitalism and the public sphere of work that they left, but which their government promotes and their husbands—mostly in high-powered, high-income jobs—occupy. Yet, as a consequence of heading home—a choice that was in part imposed by the pressures of advanced capitalism—women have become heads of their home who run their families as small enterprises, and endorse “intensive mothering”72 as a means of trying to ensure the invincible middle-class future and security of their children. In rechanneling their professional skills and competitive spirit through their children, and taking on the role of family CEO, these women may be reproducing what many found so brutal in the workplace. They have reproduced neoliberalism in the sense that their children have become human capital—investing in them is a way of increasing good returns in the future.73 In the words of Sara, the former senior financial director, “And the competition lives on, it’s just in a totally different guise.”" (from "Heading Home: Motherhood, Work, and the Failed Promise of Equality" by Shani Orgad)

Then there’s absenteeism. Absenteeism is a purposeful and intentional skipping of work because of conditions people are facing at the job. It’s glorified hooky. It’s a significant financial hit. And it’s rampant in toxic workplaces because people have an oversized need to get out of the office. How expensive is absenteeism? Kaiser Permanente analyzed employee absenteeism and estimated it costs businesses $ 1,685 per employee per year.

In fact, emotions are so shared, organizational psychologists have found that each workplace develops its own group emotion, or “group affective tone,” which over time creates shared “emotion norms” that are proliferated and reinforced by the behavior, both verbal and nonverbal, of the employees.7 We have all encountered office environments that suffer from toxic emotion norms, and now we also know that their bottom-line results suffer because of it.

Things should always be done their way, no matter how brilliant your ideas may be

When you encounter certain things, shame may overwhelm you to a point where even admitting to yourself that you're under unbearable conditions becomes so hard

Corporate culture has no room for your work speaking for itself

Toxic management style grooms you into being a cooperating subordinate.

The majority of the organizations assume that highly experienced individuals in certain areas, perhaps people with over 26 years' worth of work experience in the same company in specific expertise, make for great managers. Many organizations are being led by individuals who have been within the company for a significant number of years

Leadership is about transforming people. It is about recognizing the power you have and opt to use it for the greater good of the transformation of people within the team.

Now, many folks who are suddenly handed leadership positions and lack people skills are the ones whose power becomes a tool to destroy the workplace and the people.

Everything became clear as I continued to hike. I was guilty of hoping that what a toxic environment required me to be would somehow lessen the disregard and ill-treatment. My biggest mistake was changing myself to fit a narrative that was unhealthy and dangerous to my well-being. I opted to survive instead of thriving. Slipping into this state had been my body's final warning.

A toxic workplace doesn't end at the office; it follows you into every part of your life

And sometimes, empathy is just listening. People want to be seen more than being judged

It is hard to function as a human being in spaces where all the focus is on what you do wrong than what you get right.

Many of us remain committed to crossing boundaries with personal questions that have nothing to do with us

The issue with people-pleasing is that you gain nothing from it. You are constantly giving and overextending yourself to people who wouldn't do the same for you. These connections thrive well between parties that lack boundaries. The takers, who don't know when to stop taking, and the givers, who don't know when to stop giving

. The issue with pretending to be a non-creative person and having no wings to stretch is that it kills your soul. Every day you wake up to attend to a workplace that prevents you from extending your wings, you die a slow and painful death internally.

To survive under a micromanager, you have to act stupid, even when you know you're smart. You have to shrink yourself into a non-existent person who has no mind and waits for instructions, no matter how ridiculous those instructions are

If they mention your achievements, it seems they assume it steals the limelight that they so desperately crave

Perhaps the uproar and the tantrum were the realization of the lack of control she had on the outcome of other team members' performance, that despite her desire to only be the one recognized, other team leads were comfortable praising their teammates.

Due to the disbelief from the beginning, you don't realize that you are subjected to unbearable working conditions. There is also shame attached to it that if you quit, you suddenly appear to be weak.

Old folks in the corporate world have created an image that paints their work as mysterious and critical

This, I noticed, has left a lot of teams with high resignations because having experience in specific areas doesn't necessarily mean one has people's skills.

Leadership is about transforming people. It is about recognizing the power you have and opt to use it for the greater good of the transformation of people within the team. Now, many folks who are suddenly handed leadership positions and lack people skills are the ones whose power becomes a tool to destroy the workplace and the people. For some, it becomes a means to control people and ensure that those beneath them feel the power they now have

I had, in the past, heard stories about people walking dead inside, and now I was living on the same page. I felt dead on the inside and still didn't want to make things better for myself.

Numerous times, I had sleepless nights, anxiety attacks, extreme episodes of sadness, and constant exhaustion, which I could have interpreted as warning signs. Still, I was too eager to survive to listen to the warnings. The state I was in forced me to pay attention

. There were also multiple ways of earning an income that didn't pose a threat to my well-being. But there weren't various options to choose from when it came to life. I simply had one life, and it was up to me to create great experiences for myself.

It is very hard to manage staff when you are suffering from the toxic effects of workplace mercury poisoning.

If you are not in tune with your intuition, you can miss the divine signs. Also, you may miss divine detours that lead to a better way. If you don’t trust your gut, you may stay in unhealthy dynamics, including toxic workplaces, abusive relationships, and unsafe spaces.

You can deny my workers compensation for occupational disease and I can tell people you denied me when I was too sick to work because of your toxic workplace exposures.

It was clear that while ACEs might be a health crisis with a medical problem at its root, its effects ripple out far beyond our biology. Toxic stress affects how we learn, how we parent, how we react at home and at work, and what we create in our communities. It affects our children, our earning potential, and the very ideas we have about what we’re capable of. What starts out in the wiring of one brain cell to another ultimately affects all of the cells of our society, from our families to our schools to our workplaces to our jails.

I read a joke somewhere about how Bollywood movies exaggerating about people getting heart attacks as a result of being humiliated was nonsense, because if that were the case, then everyone working in toxic jobs would get one every week. Reading that “joke” actually made me pretty sad about the kind of lives many are being forced to lead. Obviously, people will say they have no choice. Because they need to put food on the table. This is a valid reason. But it’s not just food but also expensive clothes, gadgets, jewelery and accessories. And they need expensive furniture in an expensive house. And then they need an expensive car outside, or maybe two. The more the better The best part, they buy almost all of that using bank loans. Congratulations, now you are a slave till every single one of your debts is paid off, which is probably the next 30 years. Now you just need to choose whom you prefer to make your life hell - Your toxic workplace or the "friendly" people from the collection agency when you default on the loan? What a beautiful life indeed!

Rightwingers are fond of warning about the utter mayhem that will ensue if social justice has its way, but the ‘new heaven and new earth’ can unfold with little apparent change to the physical situation (think of the transformation that can happen in a workplace, when the boss is away). It

the true freedom of this philosophy comes when you are no longer monetarily dependent on an employer.

What happened? What were you feeling and thinking? On the -10 to +10 Scale, how intense were your emotions? How did you react? (fight, flight, freeze) What was the impact of your reaction on others? On yourself? On the group’s goals?

Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize?” ~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

I look in the mirror through the eyes of the child that was me.” ~ Judy Collins

We either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.” ~ Carlos Castaneda

We “create our own reality” by how we choose to make meaning and interpret situations we encounter. Our story creates our feelings, the physiological “warning signs” that we are triggered, and our thoughts about ourselves and others. We are usually unaware of why we created this interpretation and we rarely question its validity or explore the intrapersonal roots that fueled our meaning making. We accept our story as “fact” and are often unaware of how it results in triggered emotions and unconscious reactions.

The ability to observe without evaluation is the highest form of intelligence.” ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

Finally, the review is an assertion of power for the boss, affirming she is the evaluator — not a coach or mentor. This is not a mutual relationship where the boss and worker are a team that mutually strive for goals. It is not uncommon for a worker to fail and be fired while the boss, the one who should serve as a trainer, is promoted. There is no partnership — only finger pointing and blaming with the intent of creating feelings of job insecurity and generating threats to illicit more productivity.

And after they’ve raked you over the coals or simply failed to compliment your effort, be sure and tell yourself you did a good job.

Keeping your personal goals firmly at the forefront ensures you are in the driver’s seat of your career. If you don’t know what you value and what the parameters of your dashboard are, others will define it for you. Breaking or even bending the rules you have established for yourself will always have its price.

Expecting less from your boss can lead to being pleasantly surprised instead of horribly disappointed. Once you stop seeing him or her as an all-knowing supervisor who should be mentoring and supporting you without criticism, you can accept them better for who they are — as fallible, human and petty as everyone else, prone to bad judgment and hamstrung by the limitations of their education, experience and ego.

In the end, you’ll want the power and leverage to quit a bad situation. And it’s okay to quit. Sometimes it’s the only way to save your health or find out what you truly want to be and do in this life. Maybe you don’t want to do anything except take long walks, hang out with your dog, be artistic or musical and putter in the garden. And you know what? That’s just fine. Take a hard look at that dashboard you created at the beginning of this book and see what you really value. I bet somewhere on there is happiness — and you deserve it. So go out there and… don’t work so hard.

Unfortunately, once we have reacted, there is no way to undo our impact.

However, in my experience, it takes significant skill to be grounded enough to intentionally choose effective responses. And one of the biggest obstacles is that we rarely realize we are reacting impulsively, much less recognize the impact we are having on others.

my mentor and co-teacher lovingly gave me some feedback and told me that my content was useful but the way I engaged the participants interfered with their learning.

Holding On, Letting Go,” that was offered through the National Training Laboratory (NTL).

When our feelings are extremely high, we probably shouldn’t trust our initial perceptions or thoughts. If we have an intense, disproportionate reaction, it is more likely that our response is fueled by cumulative impact or retriggered issues from our past. Any impulsive reaction will usually escalate the difficulty of the situation.

If she had, instead, assumed that her colleague was being curious, possibly wanting to know what he needed to do to be selected for similar roles in the future, then she may have felt willing to mention the 2 previous projects she had co-facilitated and how her research was related to the focus on this team’s goals.

We can also use The Cycle as we anticipate how we may feel triggered in future situations. We can imagine how we might typically react unproductively and then visualize and practice more useful responses

While I may not appreciate someone’s actions in the moment, it is useful to try to understand and relate to the possible underlying reasons for them. When I shift my focus away from my negative thoughts to think about the reasonable intent and unmet needs of the people whose behavior is the source of my trigger, I am more likely to feel greater empathy and enough distance to de-escalate my emotions to a level from which I can choose a productive response.

The young child asked, “Which one will win the fight?” And the grandfather replied, “Whichever one you feed.” If we replay and obsess about negative thoughts and criticisms, we will strengthen them, and they will win.

Just like an athlete improves their performance by visualizing success, we can anticipate potential triggers and practice effective responses. In your journal, write about the following: What is a situation in the near future in which you anticipate you could feel triggered? Write out the common unproductive intentions you have thought in similar situations.

To create new positive tracks, add this practice to your morning routine: Imagine 3-4 activities you have planned for the day State aloud your positive intentions for each one or write them in your journal Repeat these intentions a few minutes before you start each of these activities