Tips on improving a toxic workplace

67% of professionals admit to ‘rage applying’ to new roles – amidst peak frustration with employees.

Over two-thirds of Canadian professionals (67%) have admitted to ‘rage applying’ to a new job since the beginning of the year – with a toxic work environment (51%) being the primary motivating factor.

The trend – which has spiked since New Year appraisals – occurs when professionals retaliate after a bad day at work by firing out multiple applications to new job roles.

Of those who admitted to rage applying in the past six months, over half (56%) stated that they had applied to multiple new roles within a short timeframe. The findings come from a recent poll by recruitment specialist firm Robert Walters of 2,000 Canadian professionals.

Toxic workplaces to blame

The leading issue provoking rage appliers is a toxic workplace culture – with over half (51%) of professionals stating this was the primary reason they took to the keyboard to apply for new jobs.

Over a fifth of workers blamed a lack of work/life balance (23%), followed by 17% who state that an unmanageable workload continues to be an issue.

Just 9% said that a disagreement with management led them to rage applying in the past six months.

Martin Fox – Managing Director of Robert Walters Canada – comments:

“By and large it continues to be a candidate-driven market – with more jobs than people available – so ‘rage applying’ is really something that most employers cannot afford to happen.

“Interestingly, it’s not issues relating to pay or progression that’s creating this reaction, but the work environment itself – something well within the control of the employer.

“Toxic workplace cultures can be very much invisible but the knock-on effect to employee happiness is significant – from a staff members mental and physical safety in the workplace, productivity levels, ideas generation and innovation.

“As a result, we are increasingly seeing more ‘culture matches’ in the hiring process, where both the company and prospective employee are vocal about what kind of worker or workplace they are looking for.”

Lack of confidence in leadership

According to Robert Walters, confidence in leadership is a key factor when it comes to reducing toxic workplace cultures in Canadian workplaces – ahead of an unmotivated workforce and competitive colleagues/culture.

Martin’s top tips on how to improve a toxic work-environment:

1. Put it high on your management’s agenda – ensure that managers understand team morale and a positive work environment is a core responsibility of theirs. Business leaders should raise this in management meetings often, in addition to asking managers what type of activities/initiatives have taken place in the last month to encourage inclusivity.
2. Launch anonymous feedback surveys – a basic initiative that simply not enough employers do! Find out how your employees honestly feel and ask open-ended questions on culture. Take time to read all the collected responses to get a steer on what’s going wrong.
3. Invest time and money – culture does not come for free. The fact is, the workplace is made up of a set of people bought together because of their varying skillsets, not because they would be good friends. As such, companies need to put more effort into helping create a friendly, social, and inclusive environment. These things don’t just happen by chance.

Watch the video interview with Fox here.

(Mario Toneguzzi is Managing Editor of Canada’s Podcast. He has more than 40 years of experience as a daily newspaper writer, columnist, and editor. He worked for 35 years at the Calgary Herald, covering sports, crime, politics, health, faith, city and breaking news, and business. He works as well as a freelance writer for several national publications and as a consultant in communications and media relations/training. Mario was named in 2021 as one of the Top 10 Business Journalists in the World by PR News – the only Canadian to make the list)