Most of today’s organizations operate based on teamwork, and it is rare for someone to carry out work alone. Healthy communication, honesty, and trust between team members are among the most important parts of teamwork, and they affect mental health in the work environment and team efficiency. If there are one or more toxic colleagues in the organization, the relationship between the members and the team performance will be disturbed. The challenges people create in the work environment also unnecessarily occupy the minds of others and destroy their concentration. For this reason, the employees and managers of the organization should know how to deal with these people. In this article, we explain how to recognize toxic colleagues and deal with them.
Who is Sami’s partner?
A toxic colleague disrupts the order and stability of the work environment with his inappropriate and unprofessional behavior, gets involved with different colleagues, and even creates conflicts between others. These people are usually not very productive, their relationship with other colleagues is not healthy and effective, and they are looking for sidelines more than working. They also frustrate other colleagues and prevent them from focusing on their work, thus reducing the entire team’s productivity. Reducing the team’s efficiency affects the results; in the following steps, it even affects customer satisfaction! Toxic people in the workplace are like an untimely brake when a car accelerates, stopping the organization from reaching its goals.
12 Signs of a Toxic Coworker
Toxic people show different signs and coworkers in the workplace. The most critical sign of toxic colleagues in the organization is an unhealthy work environment and a lack of peace in the work environment. The following behaviors make the atmosphere of the organization unbearable for themselves and other colleagues.
- They are not open to criticism. They refuse to accept feedback and suggestions from other colleagues and do the work however they want, even if their method is not of the required quality.
- They register the work of other colleagues in their name and are not grateful.
- They don’t know the principles of teamwork, they don’t cooperate with others, and they are single-minded.
- They are from the margins, gossiping behind the backs of other colleagues and constantly spreading rumors in the workplace.
- Even if it is not related to them, they interfere in other people’s work, give wrong opinions, and get involved in micromanagement.
- They have difficulty communicating with colleagues; they constantly get involved with others and are always right.
- They are unmotivated at work and do not present their best selves. They may even make fun of colleagues doing well, which demotivates them.
- They constantly blame their work on other team members and fail.
- With their words and behavior, they make others uncomfortable and distressed.
- Instead of effective and constructive feedback, they criticize sharply and humiliatingly and even attack the character of others.
- They are always grumbling.
- These people sometimes have toxic positivity. For example, when a colleague is not having a good day, they ask him not to harm the environment’s energy!
The effect of toxic people on the workplace
A toxic colleague in an organization is like a rotten fruit placed in a fruit basket; if it is not removed, it destroys all the fruits in the basket. Employees of any organization need mental peace to work optimally and focus on their work. Still, toxic people in the workplace destroy this peace and replace it with tension and conflict.
If toxic people are not removed from your work environment or do not change their behavior, your organization will face a series of problems, some of which are:
- The work environment is filled with inappropriate judgments. People do not express their ideas for fear of others’ decisions and lose the motivation to cooperate to achieve the organization’s goals.
- In toxic organizations, drama adventures and peripheral conflicts prevail over work-related mental conflicts.
- Trust and honesty between team members are lost, and teamwork becomes difficult.
- Organizational values such as honesty and responsibility become irrelevant.
- The organizational culture is destroyed. The members constantly clash with each other and forget mutual respect.
- The stress of the organization’s employees increases to a great extent.
- The healthy employees of the organization get tired after a while. They can’t stand the toxic environment, and they quit.
- Job satisfaction in the organization is minimized.
How to deal with a toxic colleague
To maintain a healthy workplace, you must identify which employees or co-workecoworkersibiting toxic behavior; coworkercoworkersir toxic behavior with the right reactions and bring peace and health back to the workplace. The following will explain how to deal with a poisonous colleague and manage their inappropriate behavior.
1. Create boundaries between team members and toxic coworkers; don’t let his words and actions affect your performance or that of other team members. If it is impossible to distance yourself, tell him directly that his words or behavior make you uncomfortable and that he should stop. Over time, this person realizes the boundary between you and himself and communicates with you only for work, not for marginalization.
2. Ignore toxic behavior and talk
Toxic to-work coworkers of two groups of people. Tcoworkersroup is people who listen to them and get along with them. The second group is people who try to convince them that their work is wrong. They engage and argue with the second group. To solve the problem of these people’s presence in the organization, you have to destroy their power source!
For this, you don’t need to turn away wherever you see your colleague. You can excuse yourself and get away from them on the pretext of a phone call, getting ready for an afternoon meeting, or delivering work. Always have a few escape phrases prepared to use as soon as you encounter toxic behavior and talk and save yourself from trouble!
When someone in the organization doesn’t care about a toxic colleague, doesn’t get involved with his gossip and doesn’t react to his behavior, he doesn’t get the attention he needs and gradually abandons his behavior.
3. Change the subject
Sometimes, by ignoring toxic coworkers, you don’t realize they need to encourage their behavior or talk. In this case, you can direct their attention to something else. For example, when they complain and talk about the negative features of the work environment, you can point to a positive feature or even say something about work to take the discussion in another direction.
4. Talk to the managers of the organization about the toxic colleague
If toxic people are in your work environment, they probably won’t listen to your criticisms and will only be stubborn. In this case, it is better to talk about your colleague’s toxic behavior with the organization’s supervisors and managers and leave the management of this issue to them. Do not speak ill of your colleague in front of the manager, and be careful not to affect his personality. Just mention the behavior or speech that offends you. Explain that the toxic coworkers and words have hurt your performance and that your productivity has decreased due to the disruption of concentration.
4. Be careful who you pitch your ideas to
As we said, stealing ideas is one of the toxic coworker coworkers. Try not to talk abrasions in a group where these people are present. If your colleague takes credit for an idea or works by chance, show him gently that you won’t let him finish everything in his name. For example, tell him: “I’m glad you like my idea, but I need to tell the manager and ask his opinion.” After that, we can work together to implement it.”
The article ” How to behave when collaboration steals our ideas?” » It offers you solutions to solve this problem.
5. Put yourself first
Many people join and listen to a toxic colleague for fear of upsetting them. But the reality is that you won’t get paid at the end of the month for listening to or hanging out with toxic people at work, and you won’t get any appreciation. Always prioritize yourself and your daily tasks and focus on the right things instead of poisonous people. Be transparent with toxic coworkers and tell them you hcoworkersties and can’t spend time on their poisonous behavior or gossip.
Should toxic colleagues be fired from the organization?
There is no rule regarding keeping or firing toxic employees in the organization, and managers must decide according to the situation. Sometimes, with proper reminders and reactions, you can manage these people’s poisonous behavior and teach them to work according to the organizational culture and values and not destroy the healthy atmosphere of the work environment because of useless side effects. But when none of the methods of dealing with toxic people work, firing them is probably the best way to deal with them.Last word: Be careful not to become a toxic partner!
We all misbehave at times and become a toxic partner to others. It is essential to be aware of this issue and to restrain ourselves as soon as such behaviors occur. Sometimes, you may not have had a good day due to events outside the work environment and show toxic behaviors. On such days, the empathy of your colleagues will make you feel better, but you should be careful not to continue feeling destructive and harmful behaviors in the workplace. If you see the signs of a poisonous colleague, take action to solve problems by getting feedback from colleagues and, with the help of a professional psychologist, become an influential member of the team.
