Toxic workplaces leave employees sick, scared, and looking for an exit. Here's how to combat unhealthy conditions

For many Americans, work is demoralizing, frightening, and even traumatic.

In APA’s 2024 Work in America survey, 15% of respondents labeled their workplace as somewhat or very toxic. Among those living with a cognitive, emotional, learning, or mental disability, 24% reported a "toxic workplace" experience. The survey also found nearly 3 in 5 respondents said their employer thinks their work environment is a lot mentally healthier than it actually is (59%), and nearly 2 in 5 said they worry that if they told their employer about a mental health condition, it would have a negative impact on them in the workplace (39%).

Toxic workplace is an abstract term to describe infighting, intimidation, and other affronts that harm productivity. Mindy Shoss, PhD, a professor and industrial-organizational psychologist at the University of Central Florida, sums up a toxic workplace with a single word.

“Toxic workplaces drain all the energy and excitement out of employees and replace it with fear,” Shoss said.

The U.S. Surgeon General’s Framework for Workplace Mental Health and Well-Beingopens in new window underscores the sweeping impact of toxic work cultures. Chronic stress from workplace abuse can lead to depression, heart disease, cancer, and other illnesses, Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy, MD, wrote.

Toxic workplaces can involve ethical and legal offenses, such as sexual harassment, discrimination, and whistleblower retaliation, said David Yamada, director of the New Workplace Institute at Suffolk University Law School. In other cases, the toxicity involves bullying or unreasonable workloads. The result—in any context—is high absenteeism, low productivity, and soaring turnover.

A 2022 study in MIT Sloan Management Reviewopens in new window cited toxic work cultures as the top driver of employee attrition—well above job insecurity or lack of recognition for performance. The report said leading contributors to toxic work cultures include:

• Failure to promote equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI)
• Workers feeling disrespected
• Unethical behavior

People who believe they’re being mistreated at work can look for corrective options in their employee handbook, from their union, or from an attorney, psychologists say. They should also consider whether their organization’s human resources department takes employee complaints seriously, Yamada said. In many cases, seeking a new job may be the best recourse, he added. Employers should investigate complaints and concerns about toxic work conditions as soon as they emerge, Yamada said. They should look for and eliminate discrimination or sexual harassment to avoid legal exposure, and establish policies and procedures to address bullying, he said.

Shoss encourages workplace wellness audits to assess whether workers feel supported, encouraged, and treated fairly. Organizations should build a culture of respect and safety and evaluate leaders on their conformity with those values, she said.

Leslie Hammer, PhD, a professor at Oregon Health and Science University who studies the effects of workplace conditions on mental health and well-being, supports training leaders to build healthy workplaces. Hammer has developed and evaluated several 1-hour computer-based interactive trainings that teach supervisors how to identify, assist, and support employees who are at risk for decreased health, safety, and well-being. The trainings have boosted employee job satisfaction, reduced the number of people planning to quit, and lifted personal well-being, according to a 2021 article in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychologyopens in new window.

The Surgeon General’s framework provides a solid guide for employers who want to foster a healthy work environment, Shoss said. The framework recommends that organizations:

• Minimize physical hazards, discrimination, bullying, and harassment
• Reduce long working hours, excessive workloads, and resource deficiencies that hamper employees’ ability to meet job demands
• Normalize mental health care as a resource for employees
• Operationalize EDI policies to address structural racism, ableism, and implicit bias
• Engage employees in organizational goals and mission statements to foster enthusiasm and commitment