Many workplaces have elements of toxicity.
We suffer from toxic cultures, toxic workloads and toxic people.
Of course not all of these elements are at play all of the time, or all at once.
An organisational culture can be toxic for one person and not for others: individuals who are different from others in their workplaces may feel isolated and penalised, whilst others seem to be recognised and rewarded for largely similar achievements.
Many people report having unmanageable workloads: schedules which eat into social time, recreational activities and sleep cycles. Workloads which are demanding, stressful, require high levels of precision and are under relentless time pressure, are both commonplace and difficult to manage over extended periods.
Increased reports of burnout, extended sick leave, and poor mental health are often consequences of this kind of toxicity.
The third kind of toxicity we see in workplaces comes from individuals, and it is these individuals who can do the most damage: capable of devious and careless behaviour which can destroy people, teams and ultimately, their organisations.
Toxicity in the workplace is often passed off as ‘banter’, ‘business decisions’, or reasonable expectations for performance.
People find they lack a proper vocabulary to define what is happening to them, and unaffected co-workers seem unable or unwilling to recognise the problem.
This course opens the lid on otherwise unspoken toxic behaviour and provides the terminology to recognise, identify and verbalise toxicity.
The various roles of the organisation, the law, and individuals to protect people from workplace toxicity will be discussed.
You will learn about psychological tools and techniques to recognise and protect yourself and be introduced to self-repair strategies to facilitate better mental health.