Life Of E's » toxic work environment

Toxic Academic Environments – How Persistent Is It?

Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D. — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 13:54:07 +0000

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

Persistence

Persistence

A defining aspect of a toxic academic work environment is whether or not the behavior persists. Are you experiencing a situation that even after talking with someone about particular behaviors, attitudes, or something else, the person persists – or it even becomes worse? Not a good sign. If you have done everything you know how to do, i.e., used all the professional and personal skills you have and it’s not making any difference, you can imagine that things are likely to get worse. Check the persistence of ‘misbehavior’ that is upsetting to you and to others. The longer it continues unchecked, the worse it will get. Toxic behavior in the academic work environment does NOT go away by itself.

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!

Toxic Academic Environments – What’s the Severity?

Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D. — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:53:33 +0000

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

Severity

Severity

The severity is a key issue to take a look at. When someone murmurs “Oh gosh, I can’t believe we’ve got this meeting again” or, “Who made her queen?” or similar statements that sometimes people make, that’s not that the end of the world. It’s neither helpful nor necessary, but it’s really not toxic.

But once it becomes severe and the statements are more personal and more intentionally hurtful, that is when people start to feel fearful. They’re afraid for their jobs. They’re afraid for their tenure. They’re afraid for access to people, access to materials or space. When fear and anger are starting to permeate the environment and really become part of the ‘accepted’ culture, that’s when warning signs should be going off – to everyone (including the department chair, dean, etc.) Of course, sometimes they are the ones who are causing the toxicity, right? But that’s a different article.

Toxic Academic Environments – Are You Losing Good People?

Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D. — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:49:03 +0000

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

Loss of good people

Loss of good people

In a toxic environment, you also start to notice that you’re losing good people. Either you lose them altogether or you keep them physically but you lose them mentally and emotionally. Administrators must pay attention to this. If there’s some sort of unusual turnover in a department or in any other unit, then the administrator ought to be taking a look and wonder (and find out), ‘What is going on and why?”

Toxic Academic Environments – What Effect Is It Having?

Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D. — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 13:45:49 +0000

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

Effect on employees, students, public, &/or shareholders

Effect on employees, students, public, &/or shareholders

Another defining aspect is the effect that the rudeness, fear, or negativity is having. When it has a deleterious effect on the people who work in a department, in a college, in a lab, wherever it might be, you can also assume that it is having an effect on the students (undergrad or grad) and on the general public, i.e., those who are supposedly served by the college or university. No one is helped by this. The public ends up knowing about the problem as will other shareholders or stakeholders (state legislators, etc.). This negativity just keeps building and feeding on itself, and if anyone deludes himself or herself that it’s a secret, it’s not.

Toxic Work Environments – Negative Feedback

Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D. — Fri, 15 May 2009 14:43:04 +0000

A teacher who signed up for Patricia Hutchings’ teleseminar, “Why Be Wiped Out at Work?” sent in the question below ahead of time. Although Patricia addressed it in the teleseminar, I wanted to add some additional thoughts for the blog:

I’d like to know how to cope with working in a school environment where I am never given positive feedback, but only negative. An environment where the only comments given to me are critical, but not constructive. How do you keep your spirit and passion when you are never positively acknowledged for creativity, hard work, and willingness to do whatever needs to be done to help students? I’m on my third school in 7 years with ___ School District, and this harsh working environment appears to be the norm here. If I want to continue teaching here I need some means of coping with this kind of stress because my 13 previous years in other school districts did not prepare me for this.

This is sadly, more common than most of us would think – and certainly than we would hope. Here are a few possibilities for coping:

Leave. Smart people, good people, folks trying to help others (and so on) don’t need to put up with this. Sadly it has become the norm too many places…but one option is to leave.
Bring it up in a faculty meeting (you have to be quite brave to do this). Sometimes, though, you have to ‘go for it.’
Talk with the administrator privately. Use language such as the kind we discussed in the ‘toxic work environment’ workshop (which was recorded and is available).
Talk with individual teachers privately and inquire as to their perceptions. Do this in a non-gossipy way, of course. It needs to be a ‘checking on perceptions’ kind of conversation. “Is it me or do you sometimes feel there is a lot of negativity in our school?’ Something like that.
Try to identify the real source. Is it one person or is it 5 people or is it the entire culture? As Roger Mellott says, “You can’t enlighten the unconscious.” Some people are so clueless there’s no way to reach them. Many people aren’t clueless, however…and conversations may help.

I wish I had easy answers…I don’t. I’d suggest #1 again, though. Life is too short….

If you have not already accessed Patricia’s excellent teleseminar recording and handouts, you may access this webpage, sign up and everything will be sent to you automatically: http://www.meggin.com/PatriciaHutchings.php

Written Communication vs. Face-to-Face – Assertive Language

Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D. — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:54:42 +0000

A question that came in from someone who downloaded the “Antioxidants for a Toxic Academic Work Environment” teleseminar sent in this question:

I enjoyed your workshop, and felt validated in my approach when I heard your examples of assertiveness. I’d like to ask if I should use the “When you do X, I feel Y” approach even when we write letters, or only in personal discussions?

Here was my answer to her:

This is a really good question…

And I think written communication is touchy…even touchier than face to face communication. So, it’s possible to use the “When you do X, I feel Y” in writing…but I think it’s harder because so many of the other means of communication are lost…tone and body language for example.

So my answer would be ‘yes’ in some cases, ‘no’ in others…particularly those where the stakes are high.

Thanks for writing and listening to the teleseminar. Dr. Julie-Ann McFann and I did a number of podcasts recently, we focused on the topic of the ‘toxic’ environment in academia. You can go here for recent podcasts and the shownotes/articles: http://aroundtheacademy.com/