When employees go rogue, office culture will go toxic. Demanding bosses, lofty goals, and excessive workloads create stressful situations. It creates a perfect storm that bleeds into the personal lives of employees. But these things alone won’t cause employees to go rogue or office culture to become toxic.
When employees go rogue, and office culture becomes toxic, leaders in the organization have to deal with the damage. It causes leaders to spend their time repairing customer relationships, attracting new customers, and replacing employees who resign. When leaders have to focus on damage control, it diverts their attention from growing the business and the employees. And yet, leaders can be the cause of the damage because they inadvertently do things that cause employees to go rogue, and office culture to turn toxic.
To understand why employees are going rogue, and office culture is toxic, inspect these five areas because poor leadership could be the root cause.
Company core values are absent.
Strong company core values provide a moral compass. They clearly outline the expected behavior that everyone should follow. Core values can’t be words hanging on the wall. They can’t apply to some and not all. There has to be accountability for every employee to act in accordance with them. If core values are absent, or worse, not talked about, it opens the door for employees to go rogue, and office culture to turn toxic.
Employee feedback isn’t actioned causing employees to go rogue, and office culture to turn toxic.
What employers think and what employees think can be very different. By not considering employee feedback, leaders run the risk of seeing lackluster efforts from their team. Acting on employee feedback is vital for retention strategies, innovation, employee initiative, and the bottom line. Employees go rogue, and office culture turns toxic because employees don’t feel heard.
Leaders lack accountability for themselves.
Leaders who lack accountability cause employees to go rogue, and office culture to turn toxic. They blame employees rather than coach them. They avoid giving performance feedback because they can’t have difficult conversations. Leaders who lack accountability gossip about their employee’s ineffectiveness. Most of all, they fail to communicate their expectations.
Leaders practice office politics.
Employees go rogue, and office culture turns toxic when leaders engage in office politics. Office politics bring false promises to get someone to do something. Office politics is when leaders play favorites with employees outside of their performance levels. Leaders engaged in office politics spread rumors that damage someone’s reputation. Even more so, they use pressure rather than inspiration or support to drive performance. Leaders who practice office politics allow their self-interests and agenda to come before business goals.
Poor communication causes employees to go rogue, and office culture to become toxic.
Poor communication is one of the leading causes of workplace stress. It tells employees that the leaders don’t care what they feel or think. As a result, it demonstrates that they only care about getting the job done. Poor communication from leaders causes confusion and mistakes because people aren’t clear on expectations. It creates an environment where employees get information through word-of-mouth, thereby encouraging gossip.
Employees don’t come to work with the intent of going rogue or contributing to a toxic culture. Instead, it is is a consequence of poor leadership. Leaders inadvertently open the door for employees to go rogue and the office culture to turn toxic by not correcting these five areas.
Last updated on July 9th, 2020 at 06:05 am
