Dealing with a Toxic Manager at Work

Working with a toxic manager at the workplace is certainly one of the most frustrating experiences that an employee may face while working. Toxic managers create hostile workplaces, which impacts the well-being of an individual as well as the functioning of the team and overall health.

Toxic leadership can affect the climate of a workplace, employee morale, and organizational performance. The first step in addressing toxic management is accurately identifying and understanding the behavioral patterns that characterize toxic leadership. Toxic management is marked by behaviors undermining or demoralizing employees to preserve fear, intimidation, verbal abuse, micromanaging, inconsistent treatment, gaslighting, no empathy, excessive criticism without any constructive feedback or suggestions provided, inability to give credit for the work of other people, and refusal by the persons in charge to admit their mistakes. It has also been seen that toxic supervision affects both job satisfaction and organizational commitment in a negative manner while increasing job stress, emotional exhaustion, and counterproductive work behaviors.

These toxic behaviors may arise because of various professional and personal reasons. The root cause can be fears and insecurities, limited leadership skills or their inability to handle stress and pressure effectively. Whatever the cause is it might cause a lot of imbalances in the work environment and affect the employee wellbeing and productivity.

Strong emotional awareness and regulation are required in effective management of a toxic work relationship. It requires an understanding of what may trigger your emotions and how you may react to such behavior. When the scenario involves a difficult manager, anger, anxiety, and self-doubt may naturally be our first and natural reactions. Yet, when developing mindfulness in the psychological regulation technique placed between the toxic behavior and our emotional reaction, it becomes very important. Some simple techniques, such as deep breathing, grounding exercises, or the STOP method - Stop, Take a step back, Observe, Proceed mindfully- might keep things emotionally balanced while dealing with difficult situations.

Secondly while dealing with a toxic manager, setting appropriate boundaries and working about maintaining these boundaries will be important. Professional boundaries provide protection for good mental health and a good balance between work and life. In this case, the boundaries may be:

• Setting clear working hours and enforcing overtime boundaries

• Defining proper communication channels and response times.

• Work-related communication outside office hours should be minimal

• Having clear of protocols for deadlines and deliverables of the project

In a toxic workplace, professional identity protection becomes the way to go. You really should keep your long-term sight of where you want to be while continuing to develop your skills and expertise regardless of your current situation. Record your achievements. Look elsewhere for growth opportunities outside of your specific role. Stay engaged with professional organizations. This can keep your professional self-esteem intact and also help you become self aware of your strengths.

Lastly, Documentation is an essential tool in handling hostile workplace scenarios. Detailed records of all communications, incidents, and their effects can form a valuable objective record for many purposes. Dates, contexts, and outcomes of problematic interactions must be included in documentation. Copies of relevant emails and communication must be preserved to look for a pattern and thus to be used as evidence if it reaches up to escalation and if needed consider discussing the matter with HR or a higher-level manager, especially if the behavior is affecting multiple employees.

A toxic manager is very challenging and creates much pressure to preserve mental health because their effects are not just limited to the workplace. Toxic leadership could bring about psychological effects such as anxiety, depression, and burnout that hinder not only the proper functioning of a person at work but also affect personal life. Step away, assess the job, and seek help from a mental health professional if needed.