How Do You Know If Your Workplace Is Toxic? | Episode 34 | Reviving Vet Med

Studies demonstrate that team members working in a companion animal practice that is perceived to be toxic have higher burnout scores and lower job satisfaction. With the short-staffing issues and attrition we are experiencing in veterinary medicine right now, a toxic environment is not something anyone wants. The question remains, how do you know if your workplace is toxic? 

In today’s episode, we will discuss the features of a toxic environment so that you can identify whether your workplace is toxic. And in a future episode, we will discuss solutions for some of the situations that lead to workplace toxicity.  

Resources

Exploring the impact of toxic attitudes and a toxic environment on the veterinary healthcare team (article): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4688347/ 

The role of veterinary team effectiveness in job satisfaction and burnout in companion animal veterinary clinics (article): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25148093/ 

Quiz

Is Your Workplace Healthy or Toxic? https://revivingvetmed.kartra.com/survey/isyourworkplacetoxic 

Online Programs

To learn more about our 4- and 8-week online programs approved for CE credit in jurisdictions that recognize RACE, please visit:
https://revivingvetmed.com/programs/

Newsletter

 For more practical pointers and tangible tips related to veterinary mental health and wellbeing, subscribe to my e-newsletter: https://revivingvetmed.kartra.com/page/newsletter 

Questions or Suggestions

Email podcast@revivingvetmed.com

Transcript

Hi everyone! Welcome to another episode of Reviving Vet Med.

You hear people use the phrase my workplace is toxic all the time, but do you really know what that means? Believe it or not, we have research in the veterinary space looking at what constitutes a toxic work environment and the damaging impact that it can have on our teams.

For starters, did you know that campaign animal team members working in a toxic environment have higher levels of burnout and lower job satisfaction compared to those who work in a healthy or effective work environment? With the short staffing issues and attrition that we've been experiencing in veterinary medicine for years now, I am certain that a toxic environment is not what any of us want.

So, in today's episode, we will be discussing the features of a toxic work environment so that you can identify whether your workplace is toxic. And in a future episode, we will discuss some solutions for those situations that can lead to workplace toxicity. So with that said, I am glad to be able to have this conversation with you today to share this important information with you. Let's go ahead and get into the episode.

This is the reviving Vet Med podcast, and I'm your host, Doctor Marie Holloway Chuck and my mission is to improve the mental health and well-being of veterinary professionals around the world.

So, I think most of us would agree with the fact that one of the biggest stressors in veterinary practice right now is the shortage of team members. The Merck Animal health veterinary well-being study in 20/21 showed that this stress of the shortage of qualified veterinary support staff was on the minds of 91% of respondents. And the shortage of veterinarians had increased the most of all, concerns cited in the survey. It was 50% of respondents. Who were worried about? The shortage of vets in 2019 and 82% in 2021, so we know that veterinary medicine inherently has a high level of turnover. When we look at the national average in the US for annual employee turnover, it's about 12 to 15% and a few years ago in veterinary practice, it was already as high as 30%.

And I think that some practice positions now have an annual turnover of about 50%, especially when we think of some of our more client-facing positions. And this in and of itself is an important reason to have a conversation today about toxic work environments. Because, let's be honest, if your workplace is toxic, then that's not going to help you to attract or retain team members.

So, as I mentioned in the introduction, we know that those team members working in companion animal practices that are considered to be toxic have higher levels of burnout and lower levels of job satisfaction compared to those who think that their team is effective and that their workplace is healthy and that research comes out of a couple of studies that were done back in 2014 and at 2019, again in companion animal practices in the US and Canada.

And the way that they looked at those teams from a toxic environment was really in the context of communication, whereby toxic team environments tend to have communication breakdowns. The team isn't working together. There are unconstructive or negative attitudes, and those attitudes create conflict, and that conflict is avoided.

In comparison, the so-called coordinated or effective team environments have structured communication, have teamwork, have individuals in the team working towards shared goals and at the same time, individuals are recognized for their good behavior and are held accountable for their not so good behavior.

So, this is really important research to consider simply in the context of the impact of a toxic environment and what that can mean for the team members themselves with regards to their burnout and their job satisfaction. But at the end of the day, what is it that really defines a toxic environment? And I'm happy to say that once again, we do have some research information related to this and this information comes from a study that was published back in 2015 in Frontiers of Veterinary Science.

And that research comes from Doctor Moore and colleagues out of Southern Ontario in a paper called exploring the impact of toxic attitudes and a toxic environment on the veterinary healthcare team. And this research was done in the form of focus groups, where they did interviews with multiple different members of different companion animal teams in Southern Ontario, Canada.And so, I am going to be breaking down the findings from those papers in the rest of our episode for today.  

So, the first things that the authors determined were contributing to toxicity in the workplace are toxic attitudes and they describe those toxic attitudes as disrespect, resistance to change, avoidance of conflict and a lack of motivation.

They also spoke a lot about negative behaviors and according to the team members being interviewed for the study, those negative behaviors could be leaving tasks for other people on the team to complete persistent pessimism. Criticism of others, demeaning fellow team members, and expressing irritation, anxiety and insecurity.

Now what's really interesting with negative behaviors is that it's not just the behavior itself that causes the problem, it's all of the reactions and responses to those negative behaviors. So what we'll often see among other team members is a bit of self protection where Co workers can become defensive, they might lash out, they might seek revenge. They right do distracting behaviors just to get the attention off of the negative behavior they might withdraw from the team?

At the end of the day, the focus Group interviews revealed that the consequences of negative behaviors seem to affect the emotions, moods, and attitudes of the rest of the team disproportionately to the behavior itself.

So again, this is where people say, well, you know, I've got this individual on my team and they're constantly criticizing and demeaning other people. But, you know, they do such a great job and I really don't want to get rid of them. I'm not going to be able to find another team member to replace them. But I think the important thing to consider is what is the damage that this person is doing to the rest of the team and I can tell you. That it's far.

Exceeding those few incidents of this behavior in and of themself. So another behavior that the focus group interviews identified was that's not my job behavior. So this is where individuals refuse to perform certain tasks. They might think that they're not part of their job, so this could be, you know, a vet tech not wanting to restrain patients or clean up after patients or a kennel attendant that doesn't want to do anything with clients. They say I'm just, you know, meant to help with the animals or veterinarians not wanting to speak to a client that is not their regular client.

So the issue with the that's not my job sentiment is that others perceive this as a control tactic or an ego problem. And ultimately, both of those things erode the sense of team. People start to feel that everyone's not pulling their weight. Some people feel you know better than others for not being in a position where they will do these things. Now, I'll be honest, sometimes  that's not my job, it just comes from miscommunication or a lack of understanding about someone's role and responsibility.

But at the end of the day, if this is causing issues among the team, then it's worth looking at as a contributor to toxicity. The other thing that we can see, or one of the other things that we can see in terms of negative behaviors and attitudes that contribute to toxicity are mood polluters. So these are team members with negative attitudes that might be temporary. So just respond to a difficult client or a difficult situation, or they can be chronic where this person is always.

You know complaining about things or they're always being negative about situations and this tends to have one of two consequences for the team. One is that it can bring the team closer together. They might say you know what, despite this negative person, we are going to persevere. So they all kind of band together and keep going. The other is that everyone else can be brought down, so this is going to depend on who the mood polluter is. But it's important to recognize the impact that they have on a toxic environment as well.

Something else we want to consider is whether or not there is a go to person on the team so the go to person is a person who wants to stay in charge. They want to be in a position of power so they monopolize certain tasks or duties, or they don't share certain pieces of knowledge. This can lead to a lot of frustration, irritation or resentment especially if others look at this, quote a UN quote, go to person and they say, ‘’well, I can do those things, I can take over those tasks. In fact, I could even do it more efficiently or more effectively’’.

So sometimes we see this in terms of labels within the practice labeling team members can create a sense of unfairness. You know? Why is that person the, quote UN quote, lead veterinarian? What did they do to get in that situation and why do they have to be the person that I go to? And again, I think this conflict really comes up when duties for the go to person are not delegated to those who are the most qualified, so when it is a very redundant sort of or not redundant, but a very random reason to put this person in a position of power or and then, of course, there are some negative behaviors that can lead to toxicity because they don't align with practice values and norms. So this could be hurtful comments. It could be rude behavior, could be gossiping, could be bullying behavior. 

Ultimately this creates distrust amongst the rest of the team and is a huge distraction that often results in time wastage, and I talked about this in episode #32 when I talked about bullying in the workplace.

There's a huge detriment that this has to the team, especially when these behaviors are not held accountable. And ultimately, this is what leads to a toxicity cycle in the workplace is that we can have these toxic attitudes that are ignored, that lead to a toxic environment that therefore erodes team performance and can result in burnout. 

Which then can exacerbate more toxic attitudes. I think all of us, you know, have experienced symptoms of burnout, either in ourselves or in other people, where we see some of these negative attitudes come out where they might be cynical, they might be reactive, they might say something that is hurtful to someone else and not because they intend to do so, but because they are feeling burnt out, so again looking at those behaviors that aren't in alignment with what is important to the practice or what the practice values can really lead to.Toxicity in the workplace.

Now, at the end of the day, a toxic environment is a culmination of all of these toxic behaviors and attitudes. Which then, as I said, lead to broken communication and tension among staff members, whereby staff members or team members are going to work not because they want to, but because they have to.

Now there are also other factors that can lead to a toxic environment, and some of these stem from the leadership, some of them stem from each other. And one example is a lack of appreciation. So this can be team members not feeling appreciated by clients. Team members not feeling appreciated by managers or leaders. Veterinarians not feeling appreciated by others techs not feeling appreciated by veterinarians. Certainly amongst the focus group conversations that were being had lack of appreciation was felt most commonly by vet techs.

Sometimes that lack of appreciation is because we really don't know what everybody else is doing or we don't have respect for individuals, capabilities and all that they can do. But at the end of the day, a lack of appreciation can cause frustration, and it can definitely lead to resentment. And outside of the veterinary space, lack of appreciation is one of the biggest reasons why people leave their job.

Another thing that can contribute to a toxic work environment in particular is a team member lacking confidence or skill. So when there's a team member that doesn't have a lot of self-confidence or they haven't been trained appropriately, other team members can feel frustrated that they have to double check that team member or that they, you know, have to pick up the slack and do more work. This can lead to a sense of annoyance.

And that can translate into discourteous or disrespectful behavior. Now, very often this is group related where we can see technicians band Against client Care, team members or the vet spanned against the text. You know the sense of they're not doing their job or you know, they don't know how to do XYZ. Again, ultimately this erodes the team's efficiency and leads to tension amongst the team.

Believe it or not, turnover is another thing that can lead to a toxic environment. And again, we can have turnover because the clinic is expanding because people are going on leave or because people are leaving their jobs, they're burning out or they're moving elsewhere. They're leaving the profession.

Turnover can be stressful, especially for permanent employees, especially those permanent employees who are resistant to change because at the end of the day, if we're resistant to change, we're going to be concerned about who's going to be the replacement? What's their personality going to be like? What skills and abilities are they going to bring to the table? All of these things can lead to a preoccupation and attention in the workplace that can result in toxicity. 

Something else that can contribute to workplace toxicity is this sense of the rules constantly changing where team members are not held to the same rules or standards. This removes the feeling of functioning as a team and it undermines the credibility of the leadership team. So what this means is that you know one team member is permitted to do one thing. Maybe they can wear whatever scrubs they want and they can behave however they want, but yet another team member has to wear the special clinics scrubs and they can only behave a certain way.

You can imagine how this is going to create toxicity if it feels like there's different standards for different members of the team. A lack of consequences is another thing that contributes to a toxic environment whereby when team members are, you know, expressing these negative behaviors or creating conflict within the team that they're not held responsible, they are not held accountable. This can lead to hostility in the environment and tension among the team members. At the end of the day, people feel less motivated either to work or to behave the way that they're meant to behave at work and it, and it erodes a sense of positivity and teamwork in the workplace.

Unrealistic expectations are another contributor to a toxic environment. This can be team members expected to perform tasks that are beyond their scope of practice or that are unrealistic given personnel or facility limitations. So you know, one of the associates goes away on vacation for a week and everyone is just expected to double their caseload to make up for it. That's not realistic.

Conflicting demands is another contributor to a toxic environment. So what this means is that when team members receive conflicting messages from two or more people, they feel tense. They feel uncertain about what to do. They start to get overwhelmed. You know, I'm being told I need to make the schedule, but then I also have to help with getting the lab work done in, in, in the back and and these patients are waking up from anesthesia and I just don't know what's supposed to take priority.

Once again, this is exacerbated by poor communication and an uncertainty about what everybody else is doing. But it can also lead to a lot of resentment as well when some people start to feel really, really busy, overwhelmed or taken advantage of when they see others, perhaps not being as busy.

And again, sometimes this can just be a misconception. You might see someone sitting at the computer for an hour, quote UN quote not doing anything, but maybe they're making the schedule, placing an order, dealing with some paperwork.

At the end of the day, one of the biggest conflicting demands is feeling like a person is working so much overtime and time at work that this is conflicting with their personal time or their family time. And the last thing that can contribute to a toxic environment is a lack of leadership. So this could be that there are multiple owners. And the team members just don't know who to go if they need support, or that the leaders are ineffective and their communication and their conflict management that the owners or managers are absent, they're just simply not available. Or when they are available, they're not fully present or aware of what's going on, or that there's a lack of structure around who to go to in which situations and for what problems?

And at the end of the day, this lack of leadership can lead to frustration, resentment, confusion, inefficiency and ultimately miscommunications among the team, which again all can lead to a toxic environment. So when we put all of these things together, you know the toxic attitudes, such as being the go to person, the mood polluter personality types that conflict with practice values, that's not my job, you know, all of those things can ultimately lead to a toxin toxic environment, especially when they aren't.

And then in terms of contributing to the toxic environment, we can have the rules changing a lack of leadership, a lack of consequences, not feeling appreciated, having unrealistic expectations, turnover or team members that aren't trained or do not have the confidence to do their job and What happens at the end of all of this is that we have situations where employees are not happy. They feel exhausted, they feel burnt out. They don't enjoy going to work because of the tension and the negativity, and ultimately they will end up leaving their job.

So the solutions for these toxic attitudes and ultimately a toxic environment are something I will be addressing in a future episode.

And these are also the focus of one of my four week online programs called from Toxic to Terrific, which is aimed at workplace leaders who want to better their communication, foster psychological safety, promote mental health, resolve conflict and create workplace Wellness. Initiatives.

 So if you are a practice owner, manage your team lead or medical director, it's worth checking out this program. You can visit revivingvetmed.com to learn more. And if you're anything like me and you love taking quizzes, then I have a quiz that can help you to recognize if your workplace is healthy or toxic. So once again, if you go to revivingvetmed.com, you will see that quiz in the resources section. And I will also provide a link for that in the show notes for today's episode.

So I really hope that you have learned a lot today about workplace toxicity, what it means and what the consequences are, and I look forward to discussing the solutions with you either in my online program or in a future episode.

So that's it for this episode of reviving that Med. Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed today's episode, please take a minute to send it to a friend or a colleague. And if you have been enjoying my episodes, I would love it if you would subscribe that way, you get the episodes as soon as they are real.

If you're interested in the assessment that I mentioned in terms of the quiz or blog posts, handouts and posters related to veterinary, mental health and well-being, please visit our new website, revivingvetmed.com. Otherwise, if you have questions related to this episode or suggestions for the future. Episodes you can e-mail me at info@revivingvetmed.com.

I want to thank my amazing assistant Jamie for producing this episode, and I want to thank you for listening through to the end until next time. Take care of yourself. Bye now.