Have you ever worked in a toxic or contagious culture? It’s not fun. Working in a toxic work culture can be incredibly dark and negative. Whether it’s office politics, backstabbing, or just an air of negativity, these cultures are unproductive. The biggest challenge with toxic cultures is that they become contagious. The more that someone spends time around others who are negative or displaying traits that are not positive, the more negative the impact. In this article, we’re going to talk about ways to avoid being sucked into a negative, toxic, and contagious work culture.
Choose to be Positive Instead of Negative
The number one way to avoid a toxic and contagious work culture is to choose to be positive. Now I know that I’m incredibly idealistic and optimistic in saying that you need to choose to be positive. Unfortunately, there are people you work with who are so negative, whether it’s new ideas or initiatives, they find fault with everything. How you react to others is your choice, however. If you make the intentional choice to be positive and publicly communicate your goal to be positive, you are more likely to attract positivity in return. It might get others to start thinking about there choice of words or their actions around you and others too.
Avoid the Drama of a Contagious Culture
I believe that we create our universe around ourselves, welcoming whatever it is that we choose to accept. If you don’t want drama, and by drama, I mean negativity and a toxic environment around you, avoid it. It’s not uncommon for people to be in a meeting and for it to spiral out of control for instance, where people start complaining about issues they see at work. Some people are bad at gossiping about specific people or teams and what they do or don’t do. Avoid the drama and choose not to engage in a toxic work culture or environment. You could either engage with that, feeding negativity, or you can choose to do something about it and ask that it be stopped. If it’s not stopped, you can choose to leave the room or to stop engaging with it. Doing so might signal to others that this is a topic that shouldn’t be discussed. You can choose to say no, leave, and not engage.
Final Thought
My final thought on this is that everyone defines success differently. For many, success in their career is defined by titles, promotions, and money. For some, like myself, I define success as happiness. I choose to be happy in whatever form that takes. Choosing to be happy for me connects very closely with the overall and environment and culture I work in too. If I was working in a toxic work culture where people were always negative and upset, I know the effect it would have on my morale and enthusiasm. I’ve worked in these toxic work cultures before and have become miserable too. The more miserable others were, the more miserable I became, and that’s why talk about a toxic culture becoming incredibly contagious.
Working in a toxic and contagious work culture has a way of seeping into other parts of your life too. It’s not uncommon for you to be upset at work and bring that upset negativity home with you. The negative impact it can have on your loved ones can also be felt too. I don’t want to be miserable or make others around me unhappy because of a crappy environment that I work in.
So, if you’re not happy doing what you’re doing or working with whom you’re working with, you have the choice to vote with your feet by that I mean get up and leave. Whether it leaves the meeting room or the conversation or sometimes it could mean leaving the organization because it is such a bad place to work. We only have so much time left on this earth might as well spend it doing things where you can be happy.
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