Toxic Work-Culture In 12 Big Companies

Toxic work-culture is nothing new in our country yet a lot of us do not understand what it actually means to be working in a company with such an atmosphere. Amid the increasing discourse around the existing work-culture, let me take you through some signs of what toxic work-culture can look like.

Poor Leadership – 

We all know leadership plays a significant role in shaping the environment of an organization. While a good leader can bring out the best in his/her employees and increase the productivity of the company several times, a bad leader can result in an unproductive environment. 

A leader who fails to support his teammates, engages in micromanagement, portrays inconsistent behavior, uses harsh language or has biases, can most certainly deteriorate the morals of the employees. 

Lack of Communication –

While open and transparent communication brings the team together, unclear and inadequate communication can create a gap between the team members. 

It can also cause confusion and frustration among the employees. 

Therefore, for a healthy workplace environment, the leaders should ensure that their team members feel heard and informed, which will then result in them trusting the leadership. 

Regular meetings with open feedback mechanisms and clear communication channels can help improve this. 

Unhealthy Competition and Blame Game – 

When individual achievements are given more attention than team wins, an atmosphere of unhealthy competition starts breeding amongst the employees. Such instances can induce hostility between the employees and thus, the blame game starts. 

People then pay less attention to their work and are more worried about blaming others for their failures. Thus, the center of attention should be how to solve problems instead of rewarding the one who solves it the fastest. 

Disrespectful and Discriminating Environment – 

A company should be respectful towards it’s employees as it is because of them that it’s running and making profits. However, it is often seen that bosses use derogatory remarks and distasteful language towards their juniors, which then disrupts the mental peace of the employees.

Disrespect based on caste, class and gender are often common in the Indian work structure. To tackle this, companies should have non-toleration policies and these should be enforced with utmost care. Anyone who abuses their employees should be made aware of their action and strict measures should be taken to take them down. 

Work-life Imbalance –  It is important for employees to have personal space and time. A good work-life balance not only keeps the employees happy and satisfied but it also makes possible long-term productivity. 

On the contrary to what should be, we see employees overworked and overwhelmed all the time. 

Organizations only care about their profits and do not prioritize the well-being of their workers. This leads to the burnout of the employees and ultimately reduces the productivity of the company in the long-run.

To tackle this, flexible working hours should be provided, adequate time off and policies that look after the mental health of the employees should be implemented. 

Ambiguous Goals and Undefined Roles- 

It is often seen that employers expect their employees to finish the work of other co-workers in order to achieve targets. However, this puts pressure on the employee who has to stay late till midnight to finish someone else’s work. 

It can also induce anxiety amongst the employees as they do not understand the boundaries of their roles. 

Now that we know what toxic work-culture looks like, let us take a look at 12 organizations with the most toxic work-culture. 

HDFC Bank

A recent case of a top executive using foul language in the presence of employees on a video conference was reported.

Excessively long working hours and unrealistic targets are set which puts high pressure on the employees. They complained of low work-life balance as well. 

Bank prioritizes its profit over the mental health of its employees.

Goldman Sachs

Long working hours implied that most of the junior analysts had to work up to 100 hours a week!

A significant pay disparity exists in the company.

Foreign individuals are given preferential treatment over Indians, especially, within the national software development industry.

Goldman is infamous for having the most demanding culture in the industry.

Reliance Industries

The hierarchical structure of the company allows the employees to be treated as substandard personnel(like slaves). 

Senior staff humiliates the subordinates. 

Employees are forced to work on weekends for wages as little as 300-400 per day.

A lack of adequate number of employees results in other employees not being able to take leaves. 

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)

Reported cases of managers using expletives (for example using expressions such as ‘suorer bacha’).

Human Resources(HR) fails to take any action on such abusive bosses.

Serious pay disparity gap between the long-term employees and the new hires. 

Mid-level management is criticized overly. 

Axis Bank

Charges of wrongful appointments and corruption have been made. Bosses are also accused of nepotism. 

Some employees had complained that the executives had no banking background.

People also accused officials of being drunk on the job and abusing the office.

Capgemini

Reported particularly challenging for entry-level developers.

It was seen that successes and failures were to do with reports of requiring notarized affidavits promising that one would not quit for two years instead of the skill and work ethic of the employees.

Issue of low salaries with low to zero job security.

Deloitte

Low-pay for entry-level employees.

Arbitrary assignment of roles without considering the skill and interests of its employees.

Long working hours that means frequently working late at night and working on weekends.

Indian employees are treated as second-class workers 

The HR department is unresponsive and pays no heed to the complaints and the needs of the workers. 

BYJU’S

High pressure sales tactics are applied and unprecedented telemarketing is reported.

Unattainable revenue targets are set.

Managers misuse their position to assert their power over their subordinates.

No job security.

The staff has also complained of being over-worked, under-paid especially in sales roles.

Accenture

Complaints of heavy workload and unrealistic client demands.

Management structure does not respond to the staff members and ignores the issues reported.

Company’s profits and growth are given more importance than the lives of those who run the company.

Bajaj Finance

Reported toxic working environment more so in sales and collection departments.

Another organization to set unrealistic targets, and pressing it’s employees to achieve them by hook or crook. 

Ernst & Young (EY)

The name shining brightest these days amongst the counting of companies with a toxic work-culture.

EY has been called out for shift working during rush hours or festivals.

Billable hours over an employee’s life.

Work stress that leads to employees collapsing.

Tech Mahindra –

Unresponsive HR and Management structure.

Outdated company policies.

In the past, discrimination based on the sex has also been reported while recently it was also said that the CEO is more concerned with the attire of the employees than resolving their issues.

All these organizations thrive while their employees pay the cost of surviving in toxic work-culture but are these companies responsible alone for such an negative work-environment? Or is there someone else to blame for the glorification of toxic work-culture?

None of these names are surprising but if something is done to improve the working conditions in even one of these companies, then we can definitely call it a miracle.