How to Prevent Toxic Productivity and Improve Workplace Culture

Over the past couple of decades, work culture worldwide has significantly transformed. It is shifting towards a more employee-centric approach with every passing day. This change stems from the belief that happy employees are more productive than those compelled to increase productivity.

If you keep a proper check and balance, the employees will work more and produce more, which may be somewhat valid. However, overproductive employees burn out quickly and lose interest in the company. 

As the employer, you create an adaptable and flexible environment. You must ensure you do not overburden your employees by chasing unrealistic productivity standards, so much so that it starts to cross into ‘toxic’ territory. 

What is Toxic Productivity?

Toxic productivity means working more than required and being unable to maintain a healthy work-life balance. A person becomes so involved with work that other aspects of their lives start to be affected. 

In an organization, it is easy to move from productivity to toxic productivity because of the workload and pressure from the management. For example, an employer commended an employee for their 24/7 availability for office tasks, even if it is not included in their job description. 

However, this praise sets a precedent to pressure individuals and others to meet such demands to receive recognition.

It is just the beginning, and from here, it will be a downward spiral for both the employee and the employer. Toxic productivity is much more taxing for the employer because if the employee is unhappy, they will move towards a better opportunity however, the company has to hire a new employee and train them. 

In addition to this, employers face many other issues, like

• Demotivated Employees: Employees may feel overworked and disengaged when prioritizing productivity over well-being. This demotivates them to meet unrealistic employer expectations.
  
• Negative Reputation: Now, employees can also leave reviews for their companies. Negative reviews lead to a negative reputation for new employees or clients. 

• Reduced Creativity and Innovation: Creativity and innovation never thrive in an uptight environment where meeting unrealistic demand is the only performance measure.

• Legal and Financial Risks: Neglecting employee well-being and safety can violate labor laws, leading to lawsuits and costly settlements.

Patterns of Toxic Productivity

The effects of toxic productivity become the foundation of an unhealthy work culture, which, in the long run, damages the company’s reputation. To combat such issues, it is best to identify the patterns and take measures immediately to fix them.   

• Encouraging Excessive Overtime: Your employees are constantly working overtime, and you encourage them to do so.
   
• Practice Micromanagement: You closely monitor and control every aspect of employees’ work, leading to a lack of trust and creativity among the team.
  
• Overemphasis on Output: You focus on quantitative productivity measures without considering quality, creativity, or employee well-being.
  
• Praise for Sacrifice: You praise and reward employees who sacrifice their personal time, health, or well-being to meet work demands, negating work-life balance.
  
• Setting Unrealistic Deadlines: You don’t strategize and plan projects with them and impose deadlines or goals that create a sense of urgency among employees.
  
• Ignoring Signs of Burnout: You dismiss or disregard signs of burnout, such as decreased productivity, behavioral changes, and low quality of work. 

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8 Ways to Prevent Toxic Positivity

Identifying toxic patterns early gives you ample time to choose and plan preventative measures that help you break the cycle. Moreover, these create a healthy working space for your employees and yourself. 

Promote Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is understanding the undertone of the behavior of the employees rather than lashing out at the employee’s small mistakes. It is about understanding that employees are humans and prone to make mistakes. 

Emotional intelligence equips you to understand that there might be reasons for employees’ mistakes. Try to find that reason and help the employee through it if you can. This consideration creates a sense of reliability, which leads to loyalty and motivates them to do more for the company. 

Depending on the organization’s scope, you can train your managers to do the same, and together, you can build an emotionally intelligent organization based on reality and trust. 

Provide Mental Health Resources

Your employees’ mental health should be your priority. If employees constantly feel stressed or burned out at the workplace, they will not be innovative, creative, or productive. 

To make them feel better, you need to create a healthy environment. If the issue still lingers, offer accessible mental health resources such as counseling services, therapy sessions, and support networks. 

Providing these resources helps them with their issues and shows your commitment to supporting them. It also encourages them to step forward and advocate for their well-being before the chaos sets in.  

Encourage Open Communication

Communication is the key in every situation. To prevent toxic productivity, communication has to be two-way. Build a culture where open communication is not just encouraged but expected. 

Employees are scared to voice their opinions about workload or deadlines if they feel that they will be considered liars or not be considered for future opportunities. Due to this belief, they work overtime or suffer in silence, which affects their overall performance.  

To encourage open communication, regularly solicit feedback and hold open forums where employees can express themselves freely.  This open dialogue allows you to identify potential issues before they escalate and create a more supportive work environment.

Acknowledge Challenges

Challenges are a part of every job. Even if employees do the same work daily, they can still face challenges. To prevent toxic productivity, you must recognize that unexpected hurdles or personal issues can impact productivity.  

Whenever an employee contacts you with an issue, approach the challenge with empathy and understanding without considering the scale of the issue. It is the right approach to look at the issue from their perspective. 

You can offer flexible work arrangements or temporary workload adjustments to accommodate them. By acknowledging these challenges, you help them with their work, which allows you to achieve your goal. 

Design a Healthy Work Culture

Toxic productivity does not exist in a healthy work culture. It is up to the employer to plan and implement strategies that build a healthy work culture.

Promoting healthy habits like taking regular breaks and encouraging short walks or light exercise throughout the day is the start of building a healthy working space. Encourage team building activities and support healthy work relations among employees. 

You can also offer healthy lunch options, flexible work schedules, and remote work opportunities if the work nature allows it. These measures show your commitment to employee well-being and create a more positive work environment, boosting morale and loyalty. 

Set an Example

Leaders set the example, and others follow, sometimes consciously and sometimes subconsciously. So, you have to be extra careful with your behavior and reactions because they affect the tone of the entire company.

For instance, if you listen to your employees and give weightage to their problems, the managers will do the same with their teams. Like the ripple effect, the employees will do the same among themselves, fostering healthy work relations and a healthy work environment. 

So, avoid glorifying overwork, late nights, or pushing employees to meet deadlines. By leading by example, you demonstrate that an adaptive work culture isn’t a weakness but a critical component of success.

Celebrate Progress

Achieving a goal is definitely a great deal and should be acknowledged. However, you must recognize and celebrate the progress. 

Every employee has a different potential and work nature. If an employee’s work results in the short term, they may get praised more often than those working on long-term tasks. 

Ensure you acknowledge their progress so they don’t feel left out. To do right by you, they might speed up or start doing overtime to complete early, which leads to toxic productivity. So, recognize and reward milestones and small wins, not just completed projects.

Compensate Fairly Through Relaxation and Rewards

Money is the driving force in shaping a loyal, less stressed, and productive employee. Employees must be fairly compensated for their achievements or for completing their year in the company. 

These include monetary bonuses, salary increases, or promotions. You can also offer non-monetary incentives such as gift cards, extra vacation days, or recognition ceremonies. 

You can also compensate by offering relaxation. This can take various forms, such as providing flexible work hours, allowing time off, or organizing wellness activities like yoga classes. 

Rewards and compensations acknowledge individual and team achievements and motivate employees to strive for excellence. In a rewarding culture, employees feel valued and encouraged to perform at their best.

Conclusion 

A company thrives on productivity but works more when it has loyal, invested employees. Loyalty can’t be built on a foundation of exhaustion and guilt. 

By prioritizing employee well-being alongside productivity, you eliminate toxic productivity, prompting a healthy life balance and healthy workspace. Remember, happy and healthy employees are productive employees. 

So, let’s move beyond being my employee and being me profits and opt for a healthy approach to work that allows everyone to achieve positive productivity. 

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