5 Workplace Behaviors That Raise Red Flags
“People don’t leave bad jobs, they leave bad bosses.”
— Marcus Buckingham (Author & Business Consultant)
Because it’s generally the fault of poor leadership that renders the workdays bad for people working under it.
You join a company, work for some days, and then something strange happens. Anything that you don’t like, that doesn’t belong in a workplace. You either convince yourself with equally strange reasoning, or you get a dubious one even when you ask someone for it.
Some days pass, and another strange incident. A few weeks later, the earlier mishap happens again. You keep ignoring that they’re just rare events.
When it keeps happening every week, you can’t help but think through it. Why do these workplace red flags keep happening regularly? Is this company toxic? It wasn’t as obvious to you when it happened the first time, was it?
As the pattern becomes clear enough, you can confidently pin it down.
Here are five workplace red flags you shouldn’t ignore even if they’re happening for the first time in front of your eyes.
- Nobody Ever Takes Responsibility
A blunder happens, and somehow nobody made it.
The deadline was missed because of somebody else. The client was unhappy because another department messed up. The bad decision apparently appeared from nowhere.
When accountability is constantly passed around, problems rarely get properly fixed. Everyone becomes more interested in protecting themselves than working out what went wrong.
A workplace where nobody can ever accept “that was my mistake” can become exhausting very quickly.
- Nobody Says What They Actually Think
Discussions become pretty pointless when everyone already knows they are supposed to agree.
If employees rarely:
- Question ideas
- Offer different opinions
- Tell a manager when something will not work
That silence may not mean everybody is happy.
It may mean people have learned that disagreeing gets them nowhere.
Everyone nodding along in a meeting can look like consistent teamwork from the outside. Sometimes, though, individuals are agreeing because they know saying what they actually think will not go down particularly well.
SURPRISING STATS
As per an iHire survey, more than a third of employees (38.8%) who witnessed toxic behavior never reported it, with 45.1% saying they doubted HR or leadership would act.
- The Jokes Always Target The Same People
One poor joke can be a mistake.
Regular comments about somebody’s age, race, religion, sex, disability, or background are harder to dismiss, especially when everyone has learned to laugh along.
Watch the pattern when the humor always seems to come at the same people’s expense.
If it starts feeling like something more serious, information about discrimination claims near Sacramento, CA may help you decide what to do next.
A workplace gag stops being harmless when somebody always has to absorb it.
- Everything Is Always Urgent
Every workplace has genuine emergencies.
If simply everything is treated like one, however, something is probably off. When every email needs an immediate reply, every deadline is suddenly critical, and every task has to be done right now, employees never get the chance to work properly.
Ultimately, “urgent” stops meaning anything at all.
A workplace that constantly operates in emergency mode may not have a hardworking team. It may just have a serious problem with planning.
- Nobody Trusts What Management Says
One undesirable decision will not destroy trust in a workplace.
A long history of promises that never happen might. If employees roll their eyes whenever management announces a change, immediately assume there is more to the story, or refuse to believe almost anything until they see it happen, pay attention.
That reaction usually comes from somewhere.
Trust can survive bad news. It has a much harder time surviving employees repeatedly being told one thing and watching another unfold in front of their eyes.
Another issue that deteriorates management trust is employees losing their valuables at work. Installing smart lockers in the office is a smart way to deal with that issue.
Final Thoughts
Workplace red flags rarely come with a convenient warning label.
More often, they can be hidden inside the little things people laugh off. They can be there in the complaints they do over lunch, or eventually stop mentioning altogether.
What everyone has learned to live with can tell you an awful lot about where you work.
FAQs
Ans: Look out for high employee turnover, poor communication, and a lack of psychological safety.
Ans: The ten unethical workplace practices include: sexual harassment, discrimination, time theft, stealing/misusing resources, breach of confidentiality, bullying/intimidation, taking others’ credit, favouritism/nepotism, ignoring safety rules, fake financial/performance reporting.
Ans: A bad employee can never be relied upon, doesn’t take initiative or accountability, and has a poor attitude and communication.
