To some employees, a dull or toxic work environment starts with the way they’re treated by their managers. Many workers are stuck with bad bosses for fear of being unemployed. Workers with a great work relationship with their bosses find labour more fun and engaging. As a result, they easily air out views and concerns and feel understood and valued. A bad boss can be defined as one who bullies employees, is poor at communication, and harasses them physically or emotionally. Such bosses have a commanding tone and believe that if they’re harsh, employees will respect them, which isn’t true, it instead breeds fear. A bad leader can make you feel guilty even when you aren’t at fault. Constant fear has no good outcome, only damage, studies show that fear can ruin one’s decision-making because it raises uncertainty and leaves an individual vulnerable to making impetuous reactions. Some bosses are just narcissists, writes Nina W. Brown, the author of ‘Working with the Self-Absorbed’—in the workplace, narcissists take credit for others’ work, amplify their own accomplishments, and demand an endless supply of favours from their colleagues. She offers realist strategies for changing expectations and urges not to take things personally, respond constructively and decide when it’s best to overlook dreadful behaviour. Bertin K Ganza, the founder of Afflatus Africa, (an African youth Hub that aims to inspire, empower, engage, and connect African youth with the purpose of unveiling and liberating their potential), says that toxic managers in most cases don’t care about their workers’ growth. He explains that such managers just want the work done and submitted in time but don’t bother to know how their employees’ skills can be boosted, yet the lesser skilled a worker, the higher chances of the company staying stagnant or encountering a setback. Ganza explains that companies that offer learning opportunities to their workers can testify how this assists in the growth of the organisation. “Some bosses don’t care about the wellbeing of their workers, they impose on them excessive stress. Employee wellbeing refers to the state of employees’ mental and physical health, resulting from changing aspects within and sometimes outside the workplace. Some of these are great work relationships, relationships with colleagues, access to tools and resources, making rightful decisions that are helpful to their work, and so forth,” he says. Ganza adds that well-being creates efficiency, and healthier behaviours, and boosts morale as they feel valued and their needs are cared for. To him, there is a possibility of employees quitting their jobs if they lack a work-life balance. As this doesn’t only leave them unhappy, but strained as well. Ganza says that toxic bosses are also manipulative, they are good at gas-lighting, they deny what they said, put their faults onto others, or defend themselves always while in the wrong, and take advantage of their workers. He also adds that such managers are poor at communication, a thing that sometimes leaves employees wondering what to do. Ganza points out that bad managers don’t welcome employees’ ideas or suggestions as they believe their decisions should be the ones to be followed, a thing that may shun workers to speak up even when they have great ideas that would benefit the company. According to Dr Roy H. Lubit, the author of ‘Coping with Toxic Managers, Subordinates and Other Difficult People: Using Emotional Intelligence to Survive and Prosper’, many managers engage in destructive behaviour that harms the organisation, their subordinates, and eventually themselves. He writes that working with such managers can be terrifying, whether they are unethical, narcissistic, aggressive or rigid, or simply depressed and burned out. They are known to cause severe harm to their organisations by undermining cooperation and information sharing, diverting energy away from productive work, hindering retention of the best employees, sinking morale, and making bad business decisions.
