The internet is crawling with posts on toxic behavior in the workplace. “Toxic behavior should not be tolerated!” is the most common feedback we’ve been reading for the last several weeks. But what is toxic behavior? Why does it seem to be happening so frequently in the workplace and why does it seem so be difficult to eliminate it?

Toxic behavior stems from disengagement from an employee. Perhaps, they once had the ambition to become more senior in their role, or take on more projects, make more money, or manage a team of people. At some point in their career, they came to their own realization that the opportunity wouldn’t come easily or at all. Instead of looking to develop their skills to one day achieve that ambitious goal, they elected to be upset about it and ensure that everyone around them is aware of their missed opportunity.

This individual becomes, what we call, ‘disengaged.’ The team member is no longer interested. They could care less what happens in the company, they don’t collaborate with the team, and they become very disrespectful. Their overall behavior becomes intolerable by other team members or other departments. They become unprofessional, they could be quite condescending, maybe they raise their voice when they don’t like something. There’s a possibility they talk negatively behind the backs of other people, or, on the contrary, they may be the loudest and most opinionated person but the feedback is very negative. Maybe they challenge their team members to a point that others are afraid to speak up and voice their opinions.

That’s toxic behavior, and it happens when your team member becomes disengaged.

Where is becomes a challenge, is when you have a team member who’s very good at their role, someone who’s a high-performing contributor to the team. This individual is very successful, they either generate a lot of revenue for the company, or they possess a skill that not many people have, but…they bring that negative, unprofessional, condescending, aggressive tone and attitude to the work environment. It’s hard to eliminate because they are contributing grossly to the company’s success. In essence, the company almost depends on this individual (or depends on a good chunk of what they do) in order to be successful.

Even as the manager, who may have documented multiple examples and experiences where employees have highlighted being mistreated or disrespected, your HR or senior leadership may step in to sway you in a different direction, and lean towards keeping this individual on the team.

What many companies, even managers or senior leadership fail to realize, is that the other team members will slowly leave the organization as their patience and tolerance levels wear thin. People will only tolerate that behavior for so long. As humans, we don’t like being in negative situations for a long period of time. It creates stress. Short-term stress then turns into chronic stress and reeks havoc on the body. When employees get to that point, they typically leave and find employment elsewhere. Or, they themselves become disengaged.

As the manager, as long as this toxic behavior continues on the team, you will have high turnover or high disengagement. Your team members will leave, one by one. The same will happen with the new people you hire. Team culture is critical for the future success of the team and the company. If your team is disengaged, the overall performance of the team will begin to tank.

At some point, your company or leadership team will evaluate your leadership skills as a manager and wonder whether you are fit to lead the team. By retaining this toxic behavior in the team, one way or another, your team will suffer as well as performance as well as your leadership credibility. By doing nothing, you will lose all trust and credibility within the team.

As difficult as it may be, finding a way to eliminate the toxic behavior is the best pathway forward. Termination does not need to be the primary solution. Having face to face direct conversations with the individual about their behavior is the starting point. Capturing that feedback in a summary email creates documentation that could be referenced back to if needed. If there have been multiple discussions around the same toxic behavior, a meeting with the individual and HR could be the next step. If that still doesn’t work and there have been more than 1-2 HR discussions, you may want to consider a behavioral improvement plan or termination. Consider your internal company policies to fully understand what steps need to be taken prior to moving in that direction.

In summary, toxic behavior in the workplace, stemming from employee disengagement, is a prevalent issue impacting team dynamics and productivity. Despite its detrimental effects, addressing it proves challenging, especially when the team member is a high-performing contributor. Managers must recognize the long-term consequences of tolerating toxic behavior, including damage to team culture and leadership credibility.

THE MANAGER TOOLKIT