By KLTV Newsdesk –

70% of employees indicate that their burnout has been triggered by a toxic workplace. However, not all toxic behaviour stems from the management — certain employee practices like feeling victimized or creating unnecessary competition may be a source of the phenomenon.

Toxic workplace behaviour has been linked to employee burnout, distress, depression, anxiety, and other triggers.

In fact, 73% of employees report their intention to leave the job has been fueled by a toxic workplace, and 70% attribute the phenomenon to their burnout.

“Toxic behaviour—yelling, manipulating, bullying, undermining others, displaying abusive management style—creates a negatively-charged workplace that triggers reduced efficiency, lack of motivation, desire to leave, or burnout,” Diana Blažaitienė, a remote work expert and founder of  Soprana Personnel International, which is a recruitment and personnel rent solutions agency, says.

“Such behaviour can extend from a real workplace to a virtual one through emails or digital workplace platforms and eventually create an environment that is not conducive to thriving teams.”

Although in many cases, the toxic behaviour starts at the management level, sometimes employees ignite it with certain workplace conduct. The expert says that frequently they do not recognize toxic behaviour traits they might be displaying.

“When they feel like their workplace has become toxic and impairs their daily tasks, many employees tend to attribute the issue to their leaders without stopping for a minute to consider whether they might be a part of the problem,” Ms Blažaitienė maintained.

“Every member of a team is responsible for creating an atmosphere that sparks productivity, goal realization, effort, and teamwork.”

The expert pinpoints behavioural patterns on the employee’s part that might lead to a toxic workplace: feeling victimized but not doing anything about it, refusing to take proactive steps in eliminating toxicity from the workplace, passively observing abuse, infusing too much meaning into every feedback or interaction, or creating unnecessary competition with colleagues.

Ms Blažaitienė, therefore, urges staff to reflect on their workplace behaviour and eliminate potential toxic actions. That said, employees shouldn’t attribute all the blame to themselves either.

“As crucial as it is to start the changes within oneself to make the workplace productive rather than demotivating, employees should also be responsible for their mental well-being and identify when the toxic behaviour originates from employers so that they could be vocal about it,” she added.