Not every workplace is a healthy one. In an unhealthy culture, the organisation might focus heavily on immediate business results, like hitting short-term sales targets or deadlines, while neglecting employee wellbeing, fairness, and positive working relationships. At first glance, these workplaces might appear productive because short-term goals are being met. But over time, these environments damage trust, morale, and motivation. Employees in these settings often feel anxious about going to work, reluctant to be honest with their managers, and frustrated by what they see as unfair or inconsistent treatment. The relationships within the organisation are not built on mutual respect or shared values, which are essential for a healthy and sustainable culture.
It’s important to recognise that a culture doesn’t need to be openly hostile, abusive, or toxic for employees to feel unhappy or critical of it. Even moderately unhealthy cultures — where communication is poor, leadership is inconsistent, or recognition is lacking — can have serious negative effects over time.
Research by Sull and colleagues (2022) identified five common features most strongly associated with toxic workplace cultures.
Disrespectful – A disrespectful culture was cited as the greatest single attribute of a toxic work culture. It is one where employees are treated with discourtesy, disregard, or a lack of basic civility. This might include dismissive communication, failing to acknowledge people’s contributions, or allowing unprofessional behaviour to go unchecked.
Noninclusiveness – The failure to make employees feel welcome, excluding them in decision-making, and cronyism or the preferential treatment of in-groups make up this multi-attribute category.
Unethical – An unethical workplace culture is one where dishonesty, deception, and a disregard for integrity are normalised. This might involve misleading employees or customers, breaking promises, ignoring regulations, or tolerating behaviour that breaches professional or legal standards. An unethical culture harms an organisation’s credibility both internally and externally, and leaves employees feeling morally compromised or unprotected.
Cutthroat – A cutthroat culture encourages ruthless internal competition, where employees feel pressured to undermine one another in order to succeed. This environment is marked by backstabbing, gossip, sabotage, and unhealthy rivalries, often encouraged or tolerated by leadership. Instead of fostering teamwork and collective success, a cutthroat culture creates anxiety, distrust, and constant defensiveness among staff.
Abusive – An abusive workplace culture involves sustained hostile or aggressive behaviour from supervisors or colleagues. This includes bullying, belittling, verbal abuse, or public humiliation. Abusive environments often create lasting psychological harm, high staff turnover, and reputational damage for the organisation. It’s one of the clearest indicators of a toxic work environment and requires urgent intervention.
Negative workplace cultures don’t just damage employee morale — they weaken organisational performance, erode trust, and drive away talented people. Left unaddressed, they create environments where disrespect, exclusion, and unhealthy competition become normalised. The good news is that culture isn’t fixed. Leaders have both the opportunity and responsibility to identify harmful patterns early and take deliberate action to build a positive workplace culture. The vital part is ensuring your leaders have the knowledge, tools and strategies to actually do this. If they don’t – we can help. It is what we specialise in.
Suzanne & Aaron
Employee engagement Specialists
References
Kumar, A., (2016). Redefined and Importance of Organizational Culture. Global Journal of Management and Business Research,16 (44) pp. 15–18.
Sull, D., Sull, C., Cipolli, W., & Brighenti, C. (16 March 2022). Why Every Leader Needs to Worry about Toxic Culture. MIT Sloan Management Review.
