Toxic Boss

Working for a boss who pushes you to do better, challenges you to become the best version of yourself. But, working for a toxic boss could be detrimental to your mental health.

Whether your boss makes sarcastic remarks or thrives on embarrassing people when they make a mistake, dysfunctional leadership is a serious problem. In fact, research shows just how damaging toxic bosses are to both employees and the corporation as a whole.

What Makes a Boss Toxic

Just because a someone is disorganized or inept doesn’t mean he or she is toxic. Some people just the lack appropriate leadership skills needed to do their job. But a toxic boss will proactively engage in harming others self-esteem.

They may use scare tactics or intimidation to maintain control. They often bully and pick on their employees. They may try to gain compliance by embarrassing and threatening their employees.

Toxic bosses usually exhibit narcissistic traits. They abuse their positions of power and often they lack empathy for other workers.

The Damage Caused When Your Boss is Toxic

If you’ve never worked for a toxic boss, consider yourself lucky. Those who’ve had the misfortune know first-hand how miserable it can be. What’s most alarming is how misery in the workplace spills over to employees’ personal life. How can you feel happy when you spend right or more hours absolutely miserable?

Toxic Behavior Spreads Like Wildfire

Toxic bosses aren’t just bad for their employees and they are lethal to company’s entire culture. When the boss is toxic, their behavior often spreads among the ranks.

Under toxic leadership, employees tend to become overly critical of one another. They may also take credit for someone else’s work and they behave more aggressively toward their fellow employees.

Even more disturbing is that the rude behavior, such as sarcasm and negative comments, leads to mental fatigue among most. Just think how tiring it is when you’ve been working on a project that has not end in sight. Now combine that with a toxic boss looming over you day in and day out. Consequently, employees will have less self-control, which makes them more likely to be disrespectful to co-workers.

Disrespectful behavior isn’t just bad for morale though: it also hurts a corporation’s financially. Unhappy employees equate to a lack of productivity, which in turn, lead to a loss of revenue.

What Can Be Done

Unfortunately, far too many companies measure a one’s success by examining their short-term performance. And oftentimes, toxic bosses make short-term changes which mimic improvements.

To avoid criticism, threats and scare tactics, employees work longer hours under the reign of a toxic leaders. Sadly, when their hard work doesn’t lead to positive results, it further escalates the toxic behavior.

Employees need to recognize the ripple effect that working for a toxic boss can have. Great leaders inspire people to be their best. But toxic bosses will leave employees struggling to get through the day, happy that they’ve dodged a bullet.