Is Your Workplace Toxic?

How do you avoid being the type of supervisor you hated when you started out? How do you know if you have a toxic work environment (and whether it's your own fault)? How do you deal with the folks who are TOO helpful? In this live stream excerpt, Adam Savage answers these questions from Tested members @monkeycircus509, @SuzyRevenge and @Vickie-Bligh, whom we thank for their support and questions. What are YOUR toxic workplace stories?

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Intro bumper by Abe Dieckman

Thanks for watching!

[tested]

With thanks to Tested members @monkeycircus509, @SuzyRevenge and @Vickie-Bligh for their support and questions.
Is your workplace toxic now, or have you ever worked in a toxic environment?

[s.crawford]

I once had a boss that never took me aside when I got things wrong. I even once asked him why he never chewed me out over mistakes. He honestly told me "Crawford, I have chewed out many employees I have managed over the years. But you I never needed to. I could tell you felt bad for your mistakes. I saw you asked for help to improve. I saw you kicking yourself harder than I ever could and on your own you improved, you took the extra effort to avoid future mistakes and i never had to say a word. You took responsibility and you managed yourself. I knew if you needed my help, you would have asked. The only job I had to do is keep upper management out of your way so you could this day, he was the best boss i ever had.

[AaronCederberg]

“Companies don’t like to fire a bunch of people at once because it hurts the stock, so instead the fire people consistently throughout the year and tank company culture to the point that nobody can make decisions” is the kind of unexpected nuggets of life/business/philosophical advice/thinking that makes this channel one of the best.

[krisCrashTV]

As my mechanic once said (after assembling my bicycle wrong), it's the people who DO the WORK that MAKE the MISTAKES
and then we both laughed and he fixed it.
so if you fire the people who make mistakes you probably fire the people who are more productive, and then you get new people who make the same mistake. The same person doesn't often repeat a mistake, after all.

[TheVagolfer]

Adam, I've run a construction company for 40 years, and you give a lot of good advice here. I've found the 3 most valuable things I have learned to say are "I apologize, "..."It was my fault, "..."I'll take care of it." This is the first step to being a good manager.

[SingularityPoint]

"You cannot demand respect unless you give it. You can only demand respect if you give it."

I love it.

[philopharynx]

The best bosses I've had have considered their job to be the guy who cleans the highway. They get the obstacles out of the way so that you can do your job as efficiently as possible.

[RjWolf]

Complaining with moderation is one of the best team building exercises. Work places that treat complaints as betrayal are toxic as hell.

[ChrisMcCarroll]

The company I work for had a major system failure today. I did what I could do to resolve the issue. An hour before I leave this happens. Other people have to deal with the repercussions overnight. Other people have to deal with the repercussions tomorrow when I’m not there. So I sent an email explaining, what happened. What I was doing to resolve it. The owner of the company called mad that I communicated and fired me. Later found out the system failure was because he didn’t pay the bills.

I am freaking out right now. I have no job prospect and I have no way to pay my bills next month because I am paycheck to paycheck.

But I’ve also been in the most ridiculously toxic environment by one of the most horrific human beings on this planet. And right now, I cannot be any happier to be out of that environment.

But it’s funny that such a wonderful video about toxic workplace came out today. It helped inspire me to walk out and take control

[bobbyjoedill]

My mom taught me one thing about being a leader in a company (or owner), "Being fired should never be a surprise".

[Sigh_Bold]

What I find facinating is how much of this applies to parenting as well. Punching down, giving respect to ask for respect, taking blame ect.

[batlrar]

I really like the part about the guy you worked with having a sudden epiphany and turning his life around. It reminds me of something my dad once told me about how he was turning his life around because he got home and saw a message on the answering machine, and when he played it, he heard his own voice yelling empty threats about what he would do if the chores weren't done when he got home, laden with swear words. This was the first time he had heard that side of himself directed towards him, and he just sat there thinking about what things look like from a third person perspective. It's hard to think of yourself as the bad guy because every choice you make is what you think is right in the moment, so sometimes you need to take the time to think of things in a more objective way to really turn your life around.

[Johnny-Joseph]

The most toxic person I ever worked with was a professional victim who was convinced the world was out to get her. The day she was fired was the happiest of my professional life

[NitaKerns]

Ughh I had a boss who would micro-manage and then not manage at all. They wanted to be a part of every single tiny decision (that the rest of the staff were completely capable of handling), but when bigger decisions needed to be made... they were out of the office and not taking calls (or acting annoyed when we did get a hold of them). It was absolutely frustrating, even though I loved the company and the work.

[ItsKrispyKev]

I constantly got into trouble from my work peers for working to fast.
Unfortunately for me my manager never rewarded me for working my ass off but instead would give me everyone else's jobs to do as well. No pay rise but triple the work load.
I soon got tired of that thought and just decided to stop working so fast. I would always make sure I was the last one finished any job.
I hated that place. Its what made me make the leap to being self employed.

[jasoncoates]

I work alone as a sole proprietor... so yes, extremely toxic. I really need to speak with HR.

[rachelbrown]

I think one of the key things that makes owning your mistakes possible is ensuring that the work culture isn't one based around blame and where it is OK to make mistakes. I constantly try to reinforce an attitude in everyone who works for and with me, that mistakes are an everyday part of working, nobody get's into trouble or get's grief for making mistakes, and fortunately my boss is exactly the same. You learn more from your mistakes and they improve your end result and processes going forwards.

[smilingeyes]

Used to work in an environment where the supervisor would sacrifice himself to make sure his crews got a fair shake. He was over custodial, security, and event staff, none of whom got the institutional respect they deserved. He was always bringing goodie boxes for his folks and doing little things to let them know how much he appreciated them. He made it a point to be an active part of the working crews, not just their supervisor. He would make sure they got to go home at a decent hour even if it meant he stayed all night to finish a setup. He would put himself on the line any time executive staff ever got in a huff about his crews. He was strict without being harsh and would always try to be the positive light, sometimes to the point of sitting in his office with the door closed and tears streaming down his face because he hated to be the bearer of bad news. He even wrote himself up for an infraction no one else saw or knew about because he was adamant he couldn't enforce rules on his crews that he wasn't willing to enforce on himself. He eventually took a much better position in a far-removed part of the organization, but to this day his crews still talk about him. More than once they've let him know a position had opened up and asking if he would please come back.

[ChefSarah]

I've had bad bosses, and wonderful bosses. When I was in a management position I wouldn't ask my coworkers to do a job that I wouldn't do myself. Stay humble.

[modularcuriosity]

You sir, just gave a master class in leadership. In fact, I'm going to share this video with my team. I've had both types of managers and I try to be very self aware of how my interactions with my team affect everyone.