Contents
How to stay motivated in a toxic work environment
Psychology
Priming the positive, looking for escape routes, relying on the “mirror effect” and maintaining self-confidence are the keys that experts advise to survive a suffocating environment
Un performance lower, feeling alienated and noticing heaviness and apathy every morning before work are signs that indicate that we are in a place where we actually feel compelled to be and where we do not have the ability to choose how to do our work, as explained by José Miguel Sánchez, psychologist, manager coach, motivational speaker and author of “The experience of resetting” or “Powerful as a child.” When we feel like this, the time will have come, as he advises, to make decisions, because staying in a toxic environment or harmful like that without doing anything to change it will end up harming our health, both physical and psychological.
Sometimes it is difficult to identify the focus of conflict or what makes us feel bad, but other times it is possible to focus clearly on a third party, or a boss or partner (or even a subordinate) that complicates our work on a daily basis. «To identify them we must be aware of the emotions that it provokes in us when we work with them. Thus, we should maintain a safe distance (or even distance ourselves) from someone who generates us sadness, rage, anger, go to, uneasiness, apathy o anguish when we are by his side, “he raises.
Two toxic profiles
But are there really “Toxic companions”? The expert identifies a common note in the people who could receive this qualification: they show up as victims before us. “These people blame everything that happens to others. They are never responsible for what goes wrong and they assure that it is always others who lead them to do things in a way that is not appropriate, “explains the author of” The experience of resetting, “which ensures that these people who live in A continuous complaint can make an environment “toxic” and being by their side ends up becoming a kind of “life sentence.”
What is an organizational psychopath?
It is a profile that can occur in a company and that is characterized by using any means at their disposal to make life impossible for the person they decide in a company. Normally, as José Miguel Sánchez clarifies, it is usually someone with power, who exercises it explicitly with those who do not follow him or with those who do not agree with him (or her). In extreme cases, you can practice workplace harassment as a weapon to generate suffering and for that person to leave the company.
In “The experience of resetting” the expert refers to a study in which they identified that one in five CEOs in North American companies shared attributes similar to those observed in psychopaths. «They are usually people seductive, manipulative, cold, imposters y liars, who continually look for minions and who show little or no ethics in the actions they carry out ”, defines the manager coach.
Paradoxically, victimizing employees and organizational psychopaths share a characteristic: they are governed by the “External locus of control”That is to say, they will always blame others for what happens to them and it will always be another person or entity who is responsible for ensuring that things do not turn out or are not done as they wish. “For this reason, both the victimizing employees and the organizational psychopaths end up being toxic to the rest,” reveals Sánchez.
Once both profiles (victimists and organizational psychopaths) have been identified, How should we act with them? The expert assures that with the victimizers what works best is not to reinforce their complaints, nor to maintain them over time and, of course, not to feed them. “The best thing is to ignore these people,” he proposes.
As for organizational psychopaths, the ideal would be to spend as little time as possible with them. If that is not possible and leaving the company is not an option, it usually works, as recommended by the coach, to feed your ego and not confront it. “Even so, we must be aware that living with a person like the one I describe in the work environment has a high cost and that, at some point, we must evaluate whether it is worth paying for it,” he argues.
What do I do if I am boycotted in a meeting?
- Don’t take the boycott personally.
- Distinguish between what is work and what you are, since it is likely that the boycott is aimed at the responsibility you bear and not towards yourself
- Be assertive. Tell the other person what you think of the situation by describing the facts, without conflicting.
- If the above does not work, express your feeling about how the situation that is being created is affecting you and how it is removed from the topic of the meeting.
- If you must come into direct conflict, build, don’t destroy. Seeks to reach a satisfactory solution for both parties.
- If all of the above does not work, you must decide if you have the obligation to continue in that work situation.
Ideas to stay motivated
One of the expert’s advice is to accept that this position has a series of conditions that, if you could, you would change, but since it is not possible, you have no choice but to prioritize the positive that you have. “We must focus on what you do like about the work you carry out, from the relationship with your colleagues or with clients or users, to what you are learning about yourself or the task you perform …”, he says.
Also, it is important to have escape routes that allow you to disconnect after work hours. “Playing sports, sharing moments with family or friends or having a hobby are activities that help to live from a more positive side a work environment that can be suffocating”, reveals the author of “Powerful as a child.”
Trust him mirror effect it can be a useful resource. As the expert explains, when we generate and connect with positive emotions, others detect them and are attracted to them and may even try to imitate them. Therefore, if we try to work from Positive emotions that do us good, performance will increase because we will be giving the best of ourselves and it will be easier for others to decide, consciously or unconsciously, to imitate our behavior.
Finally, it recommends maintaining security and self confidenceregardless of the environment you are in. “Believe in yourself. Motivation comes from within and we must manage ourselves from our ‘internal locus of control’ to focus on ourselves and better isolate ourselves from the environment ”, he clarifies.