Many times an unhealthy work environment is obvious. But, often there are sneaky, almost unnoticeable signs that you’re in an unhealthy work environment.
What happens is you end up experiencing the repercussions of the unhealthiness. Then, because you can’t point to something obvious in your workplace you assume there is something about you that is making you feel not great.
If somehow some of these sneaky signs are happening in your workplace, I want you to be able to identify and see them clearly. This will allow you to problem solve more accurately.
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8 sneaky signs of an unhealthy workplace
Let’s dive into some of the signs that point to an unhealthy work environment.
1) Public vs private persona from leaders
- One sign of unhealth is when people in leadership act differently when they are offering therapy or in all-staff meetings than they do while interacting with you one-on-one.
- Obviously, we all act differently in different contexts. That’s completely normal human nature.
- The concern is when the character of their personhood is a different character in one context compared to their true character that is seen in private.
2) Your complaint is your problem
- When your complaint is framed as your problem, that is a sign of an unhealthy workplace.
- Complaints are framed as: “You’re too sensitive.” or “You can’t keep up.” or “Everyone else doesn’t seem to have a problem with this.”
- Sometimes the response to a complaint sounds really supportive. But, the thing that you are complaining about isn’t related to the kinds of solutions that are being suggested.
- An example of an unhelpful response might be: “Thank you so much for sharing your complaint. I see that this is really affecting you. We want you to feel supported. Have you considered seeing your own personal therapist?”
- Instead, a healthy workplace might respond to a complaint by saying: “Can you please tell us more about your complaint? What feedback do you have for us? What is going on within our system that might be contributing?”
3) Leaders “talk bad” about clients
- Another red flag is when people in positions of leadership talk badly about clients behind their back or use othering language.
- It’s also not healthy when someone, who is not in leadership, talks badly about a client in a group setting and those in positions of authority don’t gently correct that way of speaking.
- To clarify, I definitely think that venting, for the sake of receiving support from our colleagues, definitely has its place. But there’s a difference between “talking bad” for the sake of othering or villainizing a person versus honestly sharing the difficulty in hopes of receiving support and assistance.
- When folks in management are speaking negatively about clients it sets a tone for that work environment.
4) The ends justify the means
- Another sneaky sign is when the ends are used to justify the means.
- The problem is when harmful structures are justified by pointing to positive outcomes, or something that aligns with the company’s values.
- Let’s say you are feeling overworked, you have 38 clients on your weekly caseload, and a ton of admin. Then someone in authority responds by saying: “I know you are working so hard and you’re seeing so many clients. But, just think, now we’re able to help so many more clients because we’ve upped our productivity.”
- It sounds good when the feedback is delivered, but when you parse it apart it actually has a very manipulative quality.
- It makes it a lot more disorienting or confusing when someone is using kind and supportive sounding phrasing to tell us something that is unhealthy.
5) Defeatism
- I had trouble deciding the wording for this sign of an unhealthy work environment.
- The word I chose was “defeatism”.
- Defeatism is when leaders respond to difficult things happening by saying, “Yeah, that’s just the way it is.” or “It’s like that everywhere.”
- Of course, you are fully welcome to hold this perspective within yourself.
- But, it is harmful when someone in a position of power offers that as a response to someone coming forward with a complaint or frustration.
- It’s not okay to morally justify an action or practice by pointing out that it is happening in a majority of places.
- A healthy organization/boss would say: “I wonder why my valued employee is complaining about that? It must be important to them, so I should treat it as important.”
6) Hollow concessions
- A sign of unhealthiness is when hollow concessions are given instead of sincere apologies.
- Culturally, we’re stuck on this idea that if someone/a company says the words “sorry” or “I apologize” that equals an apology.
- Most of us are familiar with the hollowness of: “I’m sorry if I offended you.” or “I’m sorry that you feel offended.” There is no ownership at all in these statements.
- A genuine apology sounds like: “I realize I messed up in these specific ways. Here are the ways I’m observing, so far, that making those choices has caused specific damage/harm. Going forward, here are the specific changes I’m going to make so that I minimize or avoid making that mistake again.”
- The specific changes that are included in the apology should be measurable ones that the apologizer can be held accountable for.
7) Gossip
- A sign of an unhealthy work environment is gossip. Especially from the top down.
- Gossip, to me, is when you speak about someone for the sake of disparaging them. Rather than for the sake of seeking support.
- And, a boss shouldn’t be seeking support from an employee.
8) Lack of clinician support
- Finally, a sign of unhealthiness is if you find that you have a lack of clinician support.
- There may be a very genuine reason why a clinician is not getting enough support. It may not be the boss’ fault, but it’s still an unhealthy dynamic within the workplace.
Thoughts about the mental health system
It doesn’t feel right to write this article without acknowledging that the mental health system, as a whole, is unhealthy! There is not enough support for the mental healthcare system. There are good people working in the system doing everything they can to do a good job. Nonetheless the system remains unhealthy.
I want you to feel empowered to know that just because your boss/organization means well, there may still be unhealth. It may not be their fault, but it doesn’t minimize the fact that you may be working in an unhealthy work environment.
You should be empowered to see that clearly and make whatever decisions are best for you. Even if you chose to stay where you are, you can now see your environment for what it is.
My hope is that, in time, workplaces can be more self aware of their part as a cog in the greater system. And then use that knowledge to be more compassionate to their employees and acknowledge their needs and experiences.
Feeling unhappy?
One effect of an unhealthy work environment is feeling discontented with your work life. If you feel unhappy as a therapist, you are not alone.
Since it’s common for therapists to feel unhappy or burdened by various aspects of our work and our jobs, I thought it would be helpful to make a little triage checklist of sorts to help correct course.
Or maybe you have a full caseload but still feel unhappy? If so, I have an article that explores some reasons for why you may be feeling this way.
I hope if you are experiencing unhappiness in your job that you’ll consult with some folks that you trust to see where things may be going off-kilter.
Until next time, from one therapist to another: I wish you well!
-Marie
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