Are you aware of the concept of the toxic work environment?

As you’ll gather from the name, it’s not a carefully-designed new system for maximizing work satisfaction and productivity. Rather, it’s an accidental phenomenon that is becoming all too common.

Why ‘toxic’? Because working in such an environment like this can be bad for your health. Not because you’re clearing up spilled chemicals or handling hazardous substances. It could be an office, a shop, a school: the point is that the people around you may be ‘toxic.’ Their negativity literally makes you sick.

Sometimes it’s workplace bullying. Sometimes it’s managerial incompetence. Other times it’s a lack of trust or of recognition. And often, it’s an unfortunate prevalence of ‘emotional vampires’ who only have negative things to say. It should be no surprise that these different characters are often found in the same workplace, because negativity breeds negativity, incompetence breeds distrust, stress and anger breed bullying.

When you find yourself surrounded by these issues and dreading to go to work, that makes it a toxic work environment. Often the best thing you can do is to quit. But if that’s not an option, you need to look after your own mental and physical health in the meantime while you get the rent paid.

To look after your health:

To protect yourself in the workplace:

The infographic below was created by resume.io and it outlines a full daily plan for coping for with a toxic work environment. Recognizing the problem and learning to protect yourself and support others is the best way to combat the toxicity.