Life is largely hills and valleys, and most of us at some point in our lives will find ourselves working in a toxic situation. Be it a rogue boss or a gossiping and unhappy staff, somewhere along the course of the fifteen different jobs most of us hold on average over the course of our lives, we’re gonna encounter a less-than-ideal work situation. While walking away and never looking back at the problem job would be the cleanest option, most of us don’t have the luxury to simply leave a job we aren’t enjoying. Life is happening now, and so are the bills, so what do you do to stay afloat when the general morale at the office is in the pits? Here are 8 ways to maintain grace under pressure.
1.) Find some even-keeled coworkers to associate with– No matter how toxic a workplace may have gotten over time, there are going to be other sane people there keeping their heads down and getting on with their work. Find these people, and do whatever you need to do to associate with them and join their little club. They will be your Northern Star as you traverse the rough seas of a difficult work environment. Seeing another employee or two rising above the bad vibes and managing to fulfill their obligations to their employers and to themselves can be quite reassuring when the seas at work at particularly stormy.
2.) Counter toxicity with kindness– It’s not always easy to do, but one of the best ways to prevent yourself from being sucked into a morass of bad attitudes and spite is to focus on not adding to the negativity at all yourself. When a coworker approaches you with rumors, bad news and gossip, you can kindly indulge their request to be heard, then refuse to pick up the ball where it lays. Just shake your head, laugh a bit, thank them for sharing the “news” with you, and let them know you have to get back to work.
3.) Control the environment in your workspace– The fact is, if your workplace is succumbing to a rotten culture, there isn’t a whole lot you can do as one person to stem the tide. But you can control your work area, i.e. your desk, cubicle or office. Since you are the master of this domain, no matter how small, you can build yourself an oasis of things that put you in a good state of mind. Whatever works for you: plants, photos, stuffed animals, action figures. The stuff of comfort, to insulate you against the negativity as it hopefully works itself out.
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4.) Tune out the gossip– Ex-Beatle George Harrison used to call gossip “the devil’s radio,” and it’s an apt image. It’s very hard to purposely avoid or ignore gossip when it’s offered to you, and doubly so when it involves the politics or people of your workplace. Work can be a very button–down place, and the urge to be sneaky and indulge in a bit of the old “he said/she said” can perk even the most ethical and mature employee’s ears up. But if you’re trying to maintain sanity it’s best to tune out gossip not just for ethical reasons, but simply because its impossible to keep up with all the whispers and continue to do a good job at work. Better to pay attention to things that actually happen than entertain the big what ifs, and cross those bridges when you come to them.
5.) Keep your side of the fence clean– It’s the same sort of advice you might get during a separation period from a significant other: you can’t decide the outcome as a whole, but you can at the very least make sure that you behave in a way that you can live with. This means taking care of all the things that are in your power to take care of, with the knowledge that the bigger picture will resolve one way or another on its own. Winnow down the world of your job to just you and your daily duties, and stay on top of them as if nothing in the larger world of the company was discouraging.
6.) Maintain a good work/life balance– Now is when you’ll reap the benefits of having kept a healthy work/life balance, because now is when your life outside work needs to bear the brunt of your happiness. Do what you can to compartmenatlize your days: sailing the stormy seas at work, and then spending your evenings in the most carefree way imaginable. Enjoy dinners, friends, significant others, pets, even bingewatch a sitcom. Remind yourself that you work the job to fund the life, and that the life is the main event.
7.) Find a sounding board outside of work– Despite whatever beatific front we may be able to maintain to rise above the negativity during our workday, most of us aren’t Gandhi. We still need to blow off steam and vent frustrations at some point, to someone. The key is not to do it at work, and not to add to the sum total of frustrations being vented at the office. This is where your friends or significant others come in: talk to them about it, rage at them about the bad attitudes and the low productivity, explain to them how you’re going to go find a better job where they hire grown-ups. And let them now that they don’t have to say anything wise to counter you, and they don’t have to have any answers. They just have to listen so you feel heard.
8.) This too shall pass– Trite and cliched as those words may be, there’s a reason for the overuse: bad situations right themselves through struggle or end due to hopeless damage, and it often has little to do with any hand-wringing on the parts of the those involved. There’s a reason your work culture may have taken a turn for the toxic, and whatever that reason is, it will resolve one way or another. You may have to rouse youself from the security of your job to hunt for a better position at a happier company, but you’ll know when the time comes for extreme measures. Hopefully, some judicious hiring and firings at your current office will revitalize the culture in a positive way. Either way, what you’re facing while working in a toxic environment is a temporary thing, and how you comport yourself during the troubles will be important to your later self-esteem and professional development.
