Toxicity at work — no matter where or how we do our jobs — is caused by a range of factors. It is important to recognize that some aspects of hybrid and remote work make toxicity more likely to occur.
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Summary.
Toxicity can be an unfortunate reality of some work environments. Toxic cultures share five attributes: they’re disrespectful, noninclusive, unethical, cutthroat, and abusive. Undeniably negative as these attributes are, there is no absolute, uniformly accepted scale against which we can measure any of them. Making matters more complicated, a hybrid environment by definition means that employees are experiencing their work in very different contexts — some face-to-face, others remote — and those may vary by the day. As a result, hybrid workspaces aren’t uniform; some people may experience a hybrid environment as toxic while others do not. The author presents four mechanisms through which hybridity can lead to toxic behaviors, as well as four strategies for preventing and addressing toxic behavior in a hybrid environment.