People spend many hours at work, so this activity takes up a large part of our lives.Being happy at work improves our self-esteem and has a positive influence on our life satisfaction.

However, many times, we can live a toxic job, a job that does not fill us, in which the workers make our lives impossible or in which the conditions imposed by the company end up burning or melting us down.

Signs that you are in a toxic job

Therefore, in the following lines we present you with a list of signs that indicate that you are involved in toxic work , and warn you to take measures so that this does not affect your general well-being.

The signs that you’re in a toxic job are as follows.

1. Don’t feel part of the company

Organizational psychologists are experts in measuring the level of satisfaction of workers within the company, and for this purpose they use different variables that allow them to interpret how a worker feels about the organization and the work he or she performs.

The workers who are more satisfied perform better and therefore the company also wins because the results will also improve. Unfortunately, there are many entrepreneurs or company directors who only have numbers on their minds, so they give little importance to the human capital of the organization and the welfare of its workers.

One of the variables that correlates positively with job satisfaction is the degree to which a worker feels committed to the company. We must not forget that people are emotional beings, and when we feel rejection towards the values of the organization, its functioning or the policies within it, we will not be comfortable in the company that has hired us. A low commitment to the company and the idea of leaving it correlate with high levels of stress and burnout and also with job dissatisfaction.

2. Miscommunication

Communication is key in any company not only to make things work better within the company , but a bad communication can create high levels of stress and, as a consequence, dissatisfaction at work by the employees.

Communication does not only refer to communication with suppliers, customers or other companies, but also to communication within the company, for example, with the orders that superiors give to their subordinates (both in terms of verbal and non-verbal language) and how they receive them. Poor communication is synonymous with toxic work.

3. Conflicts with your role

The fact is that poor communication can create problems such as role conflict or role ambiguity , which are phenomena that generate great discomfort in the worker, because he feels confused about the role he has within the company and the functions he performs within it.

For example, when a worker has just been hired and is not properly informed of what to do. This situation will cause the worker to feel a great deal of dissatisfaction.

4. Bad relationship with the boss

One of the big problems we can find in companies is the bad relationship between employees and superiors , which, in fact, is one of the big generators of stress.

This happens because a single person (of higher rank) exerts a great influence on a group of people, so the problems are not only at an individual level but also at a group and organizational level. A poor leadership style will create a toxic work environment, where, for example, an entire department may suffer the consequences.

  • If you want to know more about the types of leadership that exist, you can read our article: “Types of Leadership: The 5 most common types of leaders”

5. Problems with co-workers and lack of teamwork

But the relationship with superiors is not the only type of toxic relationship that can occur in a company, but the relationship with employees can also be a reality in many companies .

While it is true that co-workers can have a positive effect in reducing and cushioning work-related stress, they can also generate conflicting situations, and therefore this is a variable that is always taken into account when measuring the level of worker satisfaction by occupational health experts.

6. Mobbing

In some cases, moreover, phenomena as negative for organizations as mobbing, which is the psychological harassment that occurs within a company, can occur. In other words, it is bullying at work . Mobbing can occur at various levels: between colleagues, from subordinate to superior (where the latter is the victim) or from superior to subordinate.

  • There are different types of mobbing, you can learn about them in our article: “The 6 types of mobbing or harassment at work”

7. You don’t like what you do

Although I have talked in the previous points about some signs that come from the structure of the company and the climate that exists in it, sometimes one can feel that one is in a toxic workplace since one does not like what one does or does it for money . In these cases, it may be better to rethink the situation in order to enjoy greater occupational health. Sometimes it is the fact of not wanting to leave the comfort zone that keeps us in the same workplace even though we don’t like it at all.

8. Demotivation

One of the symptoms that you don’t like your job or that something is wrong with the company is demotivation. When you don’t want to go to work, you hate to see your colleagues, you don’t feel identified with the company or the hours pass slowly, you are unmotivated. De-motivation can have many causes, from the person not being in the right position to the excess work that they have to endure.

9. Poor working conditions

And there is nothing more demotivating than the poor working conditions, which have increased in recent years due to the crisis. There are many workers who endure bad working conditions (overwork, precarious contracts, etc.) in order not to lose their jobs. This added pressure and the fear of being fired at any time can cause irritability , difficulty in concentrating and great anxiety, among other harmful symptoms.

10. Problems with organizational structure and failure to grow

Many employees feel dissatisfied at work because of the bad human resources policies of the organization or because of the impossibility to grow and develop within the company. When someone has been with the company for 7 years and sees that there is no possibility of improvement, they may feel that they are in a toxic job.

11. Stress and burnout

Without a doubt, one of the factors that is affecting workers the most recently and that brings together all the previous points is work stress or burnout. And it is that the causes can be varied: from a prolonged overwork, a bad relationship with superiors or working of what one does not like does not motivate him, that is, being in the wrong job.

Stress causes many problems for workers and for the organisation itself. You can learn more about job stress and burnout in these two articles:

  • 8 essential tips for reducing stress at work