Preface

A netizen recently wrote to me, inquiring about a period in my work experience that seemed particularly unpleasant. Coincidentally, there's been a lot of discussion recently about the topic of "toxic workplace". I thought it might be useful to share some of my thoughts on the characteristics of a toxic workplace, as a reference for others, and at the same time, explain why I found that particular work experience to be so unpleasant.

Obvious Problems

Let me first point out a few signs from the surface of a team that can help determine (or at least raise concerns) whether a workplace or team is problematic:

1. High Turnover Rate
If a work team has people leaving every one or two years, this indicates that the team lacks cohesion and suggests that there are underlying management issues. I believe this is a very obvious negative characteristic.

2. Funnel-shaped Seniority Distribution
If you're a junior employee in a team where the members with mid-level seniority (5-8 years) are a minority, for example, in a team of ten people where only one or two hold senior or lead engineer positions, and the rest are either fresh graduates (the majority) or highly senior members with over 10 years of experience (technical managers or directors), then it's clear that the team structure has a significant problem.

Why is that? Members with less than 3 years of experience are typically in a learning and growth phase, heavily relying on guidance and leadership from senior team members. However, highly senior members often have a substantial gap in both experience and technical knowledge compared to those in the learning phase, so even if they try to lead, a communication gap frequently arises.

Additionally, depending on the department and their role within the company, highly senior members are either handling critical responsibilities alongside mid-level members or are in a semi-retired state. In this scenario, if the mid-level members were to leave, the team would essentially be split into two disconnected layers (with no bridge between the junior and senior members).

Internal Problems

If you're still unsure about the above characteristics, let me mention a few more signs that require some time to observe:

1. Negative Emotions Brought Into the Team
When any member of the team (whether a supervisor or a subordinate) brings negative emotions into the group, it is absolutely a major taboo in the workplace. I've worked in companies where upper management (directors or department heads) would curse at engineers with offensive language or make extremely unpleasant remarks, even going as far as verbal abuse. There were also supervisors who would blame their subordinates for mistakes.

If you find yourself in such a work environment, I would strongly recommend that you start preparing to leave as soon as possible. I can confidently tell you that a team like this will never thrive.

Another consequence of negative emotions in a team is the emergence of toxic competition. Colleagues start to sabotage one another, mock, despise, or shift blame. I've seen cases where people from other departments, when about to leave the company, sabotaged their own colleagues by making a mess of the handover process. I won’t go into the details of the situation, but such low, childish, and even twisted behavior, in my opinion, stems from negative emotions infiltrating the team—another reason why it is such a serious issue.

2. Lack of Communication or Synchronization Between Upper Management and Direct Supervisors
In principle, a subordinate’s tasks should be assigned by their direct supervisor. If higher-level management wants to delegate tasks, they should first communicate with the direct supervisor to understand the situation before assigning the tasks. This happened to me in one of my previous experiences. At the time, my workload was already overwhelming, and I had many tasks assigned to me that I was either unfamiliar with or had never handled before. Then, on Monday morning, I discovered several new tasks had been assigned to me, each with deadlines.

When I reported this to my direct supervisor, they had no idea that these tasks had been assigned to me. Over time, this kind of situation happened repeatedly. It wasn’t until I had completed some of these tasks that I realized the upper management’s approach was to push people to grow quickly, essentially forcing us into rapid development. This led to a culture of overwork, with overtime becoming the norm.

There are many reasons behind the emergence of overtime culture. In this kind of situation, I suggest you first communicate with your supervisor. If things don’t change, then it’s probably best to prepare to leave unless you feel that the compensation is worth it.

3. You Are One of The Very Few, or Even The Only Person, Growing in The Team
If after some time, you find that you are one of the very few, or even the only person of your seniority level who is experiencing growth, possibly even surpassing those with more experience than you, your team may have several issues. It could be that the goals set by the supervisor are unclear, the tasks assigned are either lacking in development opportunities or are insignificant, or the overall work atmosphere in the team is extremely negative and lacking energy. You might be the only one actively working, or it could be due to unequal distribution of resources.

These kinds of systemic team problems are very difficult to resolve, especially if you notice that multiple signs I’ve mentioned seem to be present. I would advise you to continue maintaining a positive work attitude and safeguard your career development, but I sincerely recommend that you do not expect to change the entire team. This would only lead to unnecessary mental exhaustion.

Last updated: Sep 17, 2024