Toxic work culture?
When I first started working in the veterinary field as a brand new veterinary technician in 1998, even though I worked in toxic cultures it wasn’t a thing to recognize, complain about or be able to change. If you didn’t like it you were free to leave at any time, there were at least 3-4 people happy to take your job off your hands.
These days, this is a hot topic in our veterinary community because many of us know how terrible a burnout can be. Our professional organizations and the media tell us we have extremely high rates of suicide compared to the general population and with the whole COVID situation we are seeing unprecedented staff shortages. Perhaps, we are dealing with the consequences of ignoring our needs, mental, physical and otherwise for so long or just not taking it seriously enough.
The rise of corporate practices has also not improved the situation, however, I choose to look at the bright side. We can change that and we can change it at the fundamental level for veterinary students. I feel like we have an opportunity to make changes in our work environments if we act together to improve our Wellbeing as a profession. We need to do this, or we won’t survive and what does it mean for the next generation of veterinarians?
I think the first step is recognizing what a toxic work culture looks like and having the confidence to take the steps necessary to change it or change your situation. This starts with setting personal boundaries because if you don’t feel like your mental and physical wellbeing matters then you won’t do anything about it and end up feeling like a doormat.
So what does a toxic work culture look like? It can encompass many different factors but mainly its an environment that prioritizes profit over people, so customers over employees, does not recognize or reward exceptional performance, employees don’t really have a voice and the lines between work and life are constantly blurred.
5 Signs of Toxic Work Culture:
Little to no enthusiasm
Constant fear of failure
Constant confusion and dysfunction because roles are not clear
never-ending gossip and drama
High employee turnover
Now….be honest how many of these signs can you recognize at your own practice?
What can you do about it? Recognizing the signs is the first step but in any given situation we always have 3 options:
Accept it, change it or leave it.
If you can’t accept it and you can’t leave it then you have to find a way to change it. Change will require communication, setting boundaries and dealing with conflict in an effective and not in an emotional way, getting comfortable with feedback and making it a priority for your own time and space. If you want to learn more about creating a culture of Wellbeing, check out the first course in my Wellbeing series How to Create a Culture of Wellbeing in the Workplace!
