Life Of E's

Toxic academic work environments are defined by many attributes including the following:

• The length of time it’s been continuing

Length of time

The first attribute to consider is ‘length of time’ that the unpleasantness has been going on. When you experience a day where it just seems like everybody is just biting each other’s heads off, or they’re being snippy, or you have a day of gossip, then I don’t think you call that a toxic work environment. It was a bad day. Or, maybe you have people who might even behave badly for a week. You might see behavior such as the person who makes unnecessary remarks or does things that are undermining someone else’s work. This could go on even for a week and you just think, ‘I hope they start taking their vitamins’ or ‘I hope they start walking more’ or ‘I hope they resolve whatever their home issue is that seems to be coming into play here.’ But once we start to get much beyond a few days, I think you are entering a danger zone. What happens in so many cases is that we think it’s going to go away so we don’t say anything or we keep ignoring it. Maybe we begin talking with someone else to say, “Okay, what is up with Alphonse over here that he keeps acting like this?” And then pretty soon we’ve got some other little cabal going on and it begins to spread. That’s where a toxic work environment can start – and spread. One or two days, three or four days and you probably don’t need to worry. After that ,you want to begin to look at what’s going on, what needs to be addressed.

Please consider what is happening in your department, lab, unit, or college. Check the length of time, persistence, severity, effect on others, and the loss of good people. It’s better to take care of potential problems EARLY. Once a bullying culture has been established, it is VERY difficult to change – and VERY expensive. You can’t afford that and neither can the country.

Sadly, toxicity exists in the academic work environment. If you would like to access a free teleseminar (*Antioxidants for a Toxic Academic Work Environment*) that was hosted by Gina Hiatt of The Academic Ladder (http://www.AcademicLadder.com), feel free to go to http://meggin.com/academicladder.php.

(c) 2009 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., “The Ph.D. of Productivity”(tm). Through her company, Emphasis on Excellence, Inc., Meggin McIntosh changes what people know, feel, dream, and do. Sound interesting? It is!

Tags: Academic Ladder, Gina Hiatt, toxic, work environment