Having a toxic boss can be an incredibly demoralizing and stressful experience. Their negative behavior and attitude permeate the workplace, poisoning the environment and bringing everyone down. Dealing with a toxic boss day after day takes a major toll on employees both professionally and personally.
What is a toxic boss?
A toxic boss displays behaviors that are harmful to their employees and the overall work environment. Some common traits of a toxic boss include:
- Micromanaging employees and failing to delegate
- Taking credit for subordinates’ work
- Criticizing employees in front of others
- Playing favorites instead of treating employees equitably
- Failing to provide clear direction or support
- Encouraging competition and dissent among team members
- Having explosive emotional outbursts
- Belittling, insulting or intimidating employees
- Spreading gossip and rumors
While all bosses have bad days, a truly toxic boss displays these damaging behaviors consistently over time. They prioritize their own ego over the well-being of their employees or the health of the organization.
Feeling demoralized and deflated
One of the biggest impacts of a toxic boss is feeling completely demoralized and deflated. Their constant criticism, lack of appreciation and disregard for employees’ needs takes a heavy toll. Some of the demoralizing effects of a toxic boss include:
- Loss of self-esteem and self-confidence
- Developing a pessimistic, cynical attitude
- Feeling devalued and unrecognized
- Losing passion and engagement for work
- Dreading going to work each day
- Feeling like your efforts are fruitless
When an employee’s spirits are crushed on a daily basis, it becomes extremely difficult to feel motivated and productive. The toxic boss destroys morale to the point that employees withdraw, disengage and may even become depressed.
Feeling disrespected
Toxic bosses also breed feelings of disrespect among employees. Some of the disrespectful behaviors employees may endure include:
- Having their input, ideas and contributions dismissed or ignored
- Having their needs viewed as unimportant or inconvenient
- Being talked down to and patronized
- Having boundaries consistently violated
- Being singled out for blame unfairly
- Being the target of unpredictable moods and outbursts
This steady disrespect from the boss takes a toll on employees’ dignity and self-worth. Feelings of anger and resentment also build when there is no outlet to address the mistreatment.
Feeling anxious and stressed
Toxic bosses also cultivate an environment of fear and uncertainty. Employees may feel anxious not knowing what to expect from their boss’s next mood or outburst. The toxic boss’s criticism, mind games and mixed messages keep employees constantly on edge. Working for a toxic boss can lead to:
- High levels of stress and tension
- Inability to relax or be at ease at work
- Physical symptoms of stress like headaches, stomach problems, muscle tension, insomnia
- Anxiety about interacting with the boss
- Dread of attending meetings led by the boss
Employees exposed to this level of strain for too long are at risk for serious mental and physical health issues. The toxic environment the boss creates quite literally makes employees sick.
Feeling powerless
Toxic bosses frequently disempower employees by failing to provide autonomy, support or resources. Without these things, employees have no real influence or control in the workplace. They are subject to the boss’s whims and mistreatment without any effective recourse. Toxic bosses maintain power by:
- Micromanaging every detail of employees’ work
- Refusing to delegate decision-making authority
- Shooting down ideas without consideration
- Withholding information employees need to do their jobs well
- Undermining employees’ confidence in their skills and abilities
This breeds a deep sense of powerlessness since employees have no ability to control or impact their own work experience. They have no choice but to submit to the boss’s dysfunction.
Feeling isolated
Toxic bosses frequently isolate employees as a way of maintaining control. Without positive connections in the workplace, employees have no outlet for validation or support. Tactics toxic bosses use to isolate employees include:
- Discouraging employees from taking breaks together
- Frowning on friendships and camaraderie between team members
- Criticizing employees who collaborate or help each other
- Spreading rumors or gossip to strain working relationships
- Scheduling employees in different locations or shifts
This forced isolation enhances the toxic boss’s power and makes employees more vulnerable to mistreatment. It removes vital support systems and coping mechanisms.
Losing trust in leadership
The toxicity displayed by the boss also erodes employees’ trust in leadership more broadly. When employees have no reason to trust their direct supervisor, it’s difficult to have faith in the judgment or fairness of upper management. A toxic boss poisons employees’ attitudes by:
- Making them skeptical of leaders’ motives and character
- Destroying their belief that the organization has employees’ best interests at heart
- Making them doubtful of upper management’s awareness or concern regarding issues
- Convincing them that raising concerns will only backfire or go unaddressed
This crisis of faith in leadership can have long term impacts on employees’ morale and loyalty. The attitudes bred by a toxic boss linger even after the boss is gone.
Mental and physical health suffers
The cumulative toll of constant negativity, disrespect, isolation and stress takes a heavy mental and physical toll. Employees working under toxic bosses have greater risk for:
- Depression
- Severe anxiety
- Insomnia
- High blood pressure
- Digestive issues
- Headaches
- Weight fluctuations
- Weakened immune system
The longer an employee works under a toxic boss, the more their health tends to suffer. Much of the damage can linger long after leaving the job if the root issues are not addressed through self-care.
Plummeting productivity
Given the demoralizing, stressful environment toxic bosses create, plummeting productivity among employees is inevitable. Employees drained by constant toxicity have difficulty summoning the energy, focus and motivation for peak performance. Toxic bosses sap productivity by:
- Draining employees’ energy through negativity and turmoil
- Distracting and overwhelming employees with unpredictable demands
- Discouraging teamwork and innovation
- Removing employees’ autonomy and intrinsic motivation
- Causing employees to disengage, withdraw and avoid the workplace
Organizations suffer major bottom line consequences when toxic bosses are allowed to destroy employee morale and engagement. Restoring a positive, healthy culture is key to rehabilitating productivity.
Increased turnover
Given the immense toll of working for a toxic boss, it’s no surprise that turnover and resignation rates skyrocket on teams with toxic leaders. Employees see quitting as the only way to escape the misery. A toxic boss drives turnover by:
- Eroding employees’ passion and loyalty to the organization
- Causing employees to actively look for and apply to new jobs
- Damaging employees’ health and wellbeing to the point they need to resign
- Triggering a mass exodus of many employees at one time
Losing your best employees to avoid a destructive boss is hugely detrimental to the organization. Replacing and retraining new staff is extremely costly.
Toxic culture permeates the organization
When a toxic boss’s influence goes unchecked, their toxicity seeps into the cultural fabric of the entire organization. Their attitudes spread like a virus throughout the workplace. The signs of a toxic culture include:
- High levels of fear, cynicism, pessimism and disengagement across departments
- Lack of collaboration, teamwork and trust between colleagues
- Other managers emulating the toxic boss’s behaviors
- Blame-focused rather than solutions-focused interactions
- Open secrets and closed doors instead of transparency
- High incidence of scapegoating, gossip and backbiting
Restoring a humane, positive culture becomes exponentially more difficult once it has become entrenched. Intervention is needed at all levels of leadership.
Lingering psychological damage
Even after escaping the toxic boss, the psychological wounds they inflicted linger. The attitudes and thought patterns the toxic boss instilled continue to haunt employees. The lingering impacts include:
- Carrying a sense of worthlessness, doubt and insecurity
- Difficulty trusting leaders and colleagues in new jobs
- Cynicism, anxiety and pessimism that persist
- Self-esteem and confidence problems that sabotage performance
- Trouble setting healthy boundaries and advocating needs
Without conscious healing, employees end up carrying toxicity with them throughout their career. The detrimental mindsets shaped by the toxic boss live on.
Conclusion
Toxic bosses leave enormous damage in their wake, both for individual employees and the organization as a whole. From plummeting morale to spiking turnover, their impact on the workplace is deeply destructive. Healing and reversing the effects of a toxic boss require systemic changes to foster a humane, empowering culture of trust and respect.