Toxic employees are a poison that threatens to contaminate the workplace environment. They spread dissent and discontent among co-workers, lowering employee morale and productivity. Whether manipulators, gossips, whiners, backstabbers or perceived “victims,” these individuals can wreak havoc on any organization. Many companies have toxic employees but fail to deal with them.
If you are a victim of a toxic environment and you are tormented by toxic people the most important thing to do is this; don’t lower your level, stay above them, if you’ve tried reasoning with them, and they aren’t budging, don’t hesitate to vacate their space and ignore them until they do.
WoW, thanks for sharing Mark, it's absolutely difficult to deal with a toxic employee but the problem is further exacerbated when the management is the source of the problem. Every thing happens for reason and the best is coming to you.
My problem was that the toxicity started at the top and when I realised just how ingrained this behaviour had become and attempted to point it out, I was the one that was dismissed. Whilst I was shocked, in some ways it was a great relief that I no longer had to deal with the double standards and confusion in the daily routine. It became obvious that my values were no longer aligned with those of the hierarchy.