With labour unionization efforts underway at , people and continued delays in , workers appear to be putting their foot down when it comes to less-than-ideal work situations.
Bosses and employees alike should care about the quality of the work environment, research has shown. A in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health determined a toxic workplace "can be detrimental and lead to unnecessary stress, burnout, depression, and anxiety among the workers." Further, it found that negative employee well-being will spread to other workers and bring down the quality of the work they do.
The study also found the inverse: Employee well-being increases work performance, and a workplace that actively supports employees "brings sustainability to organizational performance."
Basically, a toxic workplace is bad news for everyone involved.
On the workers' end, the increased stress and depression of poor work life can also put a strain on interpersonal relationships, said Alisha Powell, a therapist whose areas of special practice include work-life balance.
"Many times employees can bring that stress home to their families, and it's something that impacts their day-to-day life even when they're not at work," Powell said.
In addition to worsened mental health and strained relationships, employees may also turn to drugs or alcohol to cope with the stress, said Dr. Kristen Fuller, a medical reviewer specializing in mental health and addiction with a background in family medicine.
Here, experts share how you can tell if you're in a toxic work environment -- and what to do about it.
Signs of a toxic workplace aren't necessarily as obvious as a lot of people believe, Fuller said. Your mind might go straight to verbal or sexual harassment, she added, but it isn't so straightforward.
"It's any workplace that makes you feel uncomfortable," Fuller said. "Anything that makes you feel like you can't ask for the things you need and that you're not supported."
A toxic workplace can be an environment in which an employee "may feel stuck," Powell said.
"Many times with a toxic workplace, people are not given opportunities to move forward or to get promotions," she said. "Being passed over for promotions or not having any upward mobility can also really impact workplace morale, knowing that no matter how hard you work, there's no promotion that you can gain."
A telltale sign of a toxic work environment is when supervisors micromanage employees, Powell said. When a manager closely observes employees, constantly checking in on every little task, employees can feel like the company doesn't trust them.
"If you're being micromanaged, you're more likely to believe that your job doesn't necessarily have your best interest at heart and that your job doesn't fully trust you to do the role that they're paying you to do," Powell said.
Another not-so-obvious sign of a toxic workplace is the idea that you should be available all the time, outside of work hours.
Employers may ask you to work weekends or longer hours without additional pay, Fuller said, and those can be "smaller red flags" that people often brush off as regular work culture.
Powell said this toxic work culture is also demonstrated when employees feel obligated to respond to work-related calls, messages and emails off the clock, which constitutes unpaid overtime work.
"While most jobs aren't going to say, 'We expect you to respond after the workday has ended,' many times there's an unspoken expectation," she said.
If you find yourself in a toxic work environment, Powell and Fuller both advised that it may be time to look for a new job.
"You can do all the coping mechanisms to deal with it, but I don't think you should be dealing with it," Fuller said. "I think you should get out of it."
Powell said she encourages her clients to establish an internal timeline for their job searches, perhaps setting a goal to begin actively looking for a new job within the next three to six months. She also recommended keeping records of any actions or behaviours in the workplace that indicate an unhealthy work situation while you're in the process of looking for new positions.
However, quitting immediately before securing new employment is not feasible for a lot of people for financial reasons, Powell said.
If you can't just up and leave, Powell had some suggestions. To try to make improvements at work, you should think about what boundaries you want to enforce and begin working on them, she said. If you want to show your coworkers that you're not available outside of work hours, but you're afraid to say it outright, you can set your phone to send calls to voicemail when you're off the clock. Or set your email signature to say that after a certain time, you will only respond the next business day.
If there are issues you want to bring to the attention of your supervisor, you can make it less daunting by writing out a script for yourself, Powell added.
Outside of work, she recommended implementing more self-care practices into your daily routine such as physical activity or a hobby. She also emphasized seeking therapy to manage work-related stress. Some full-time workers can access therapy through an employee assistance program offered by their company, Powell added.
"It's time to bulk up some of those self-care practices so that you're better able to manage stress," she said, "because it's unavoidable within a toxic workplace."
The batteries of the walkie-talkies used by Lebanese armed group Hezbollah that blew up this week were laced with a highly explosive compound known as PETN, a Lebanese source familiar with the device's components told Reuters.
The federal firearm buyback program has cost taxpayers nearly $67.2 million since it was announced in 2020, but it still hasn't collected a single gun.
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The province's public security minister said he was "shocked" Thursday amid reports that a body believed to be that of a 14-year-old boy was found this week near a Hells Angels hideout near Quebec City.
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B.C.'s police watchdog is investigating the death of a woman who was shot by the RCMP after allegedly barricading herself in a room with a toddler early Thursday morning.
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The University of Ottawa's special advisor on antisemitism says he has resigned following posts he made on social media celebrating the pager explosions in Lebanon this week.
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The Royal Canadian Mounted Police has lost 205 firearms since 2020, including more than 120 handguns and at least five fully automatic weapons like machine-guns.
The lawyer for a B.C. RCMP officer convicted of obstruction for telling a witness to delete cellphone video following the violent 2017 arrest of Dale Culver has requested a stay of proceedings.
Israel warned U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin in a call Tuesday that a military operation was going to take place in Lebanon but gave no details, U.S. officials said Thursday. The same day of the call, in an attack widely blamed on Israel, thousands of pagers belonging to Hezbollah militants exploded.
Lawmakers are scrambling to ensure that the U.S. Secret Service has enough money and resources to keep the nation's presidential candidates safe amid repeated threats of violence. It's unclear, though, how much they can do with only weeks before the election, or if additional dollars would make an immediate difference.
A federal law enforcement agency confirmed it's opened an investigation into Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after he allegedly cut off the head of a dead whale and took it home two decades ago.
A judge in a rural Kentucky county was shot and killed in his courthouse chambers Thursday, and the local sheriff was charged with murder, police said.
A 22-year-old woman who became an abortion rights advocate after she was raped by her stepfather as a child tells her story in a new campaign ad for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
Lawyers are set to deliver closing arguments Friday in the trial of a mentally ill man who fatally shot 10 people at a Colorado supermarket in 2021.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tapped Treasury Board President Anita Anand to take on additional duties as Canada's minister of transport on Thursday.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh got into a heated exchange in the House of Commons on Thursday, just minutes after Singh announced his party would not be supporting the Conservatives' first non-confidence motion against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government.
The head of Via Rail repeatedly told MPs a train delay over the Labour Day long weekend was an isolated incident, despite a similar event two years ago.
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Ontario’s Minister of Sport, Neil Lumsden, will donate his brain to research.
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Lebanese authorities on Thursday banned walkie-talkies and pagers from being taken on flights from Beirut airport, the National News Agency reported, after thousands of such devices exploded during a deadly attack on Hezbollah this week.
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Viewers of Jeopardy got a chance to test their knowledge of trivia about B.C.'s biggest city Wednesday night.
British actress Florence Pugh has revealed that shaving her head for her latest movie role was a 'really bizarre' experience that sent her body 'into a bit of trauma.'
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Nike Inc. said Thursday it has named Elliott Hill as its president and CEO, replacing John Donahoe, who will retire next month.
Maple Leaf Foods asserted its innocence in an alleged bread price-fixing scheme ahead of a hearing to determine whether it will be added to an ongoing class-action lawsuit.
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Shohei Ohtani became the first major league player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a season, with the Los Angeles Dodgers star going deep twice to reach the half-century mark and swiping two bags to get to 51 against the Miami Marlins on Thursday.
Vancouver Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko says he's been working his way back from a rare lower-body muscle injury since being sidelined in last season's playoffs.
Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Bo Bichette returned to the 10-day injured list Thursday due to a right middle finger fracture.
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The plant was expected to produce batteries for a million electric vehicles a year. Once up and running, it was supposed to create hundreds of permanent jobs in a small southeastern Ontario municipality. But two years later, spending on the construction of the Umicore plant has been delayed in what the company calls a "significant worsening of the EV market context."
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A growing group of brides and wedding photographers from across the province say they have been taken for tens of thousands of dollars by a Barrie, Ont. wedding photographer.
Ontario Provincial Police executed a search warrant in Walkerton.
Standing up, speaking out, and showing solidarity — survivors and supporters gathered in the core to take back the night in Windsor. The city is just one of a growing list of communities that have declared intimate partner violence (IPV) an epidemic.
The Windsor Police Service (WPS) has seized over $56,000 in drugs and have arrested one suspect.
SERVEONE Canada, a global procurement solution company, has begun Canadian operations in Tecumseh.
In a rare move, the Greater Victoria School District Board of Education has been slapped with a ministerial order from the province requiring it to update a student safety plan – drawing concern around political posturing leading up to an election.
The Union of B.C. Municipalities is asking the provincial government to make transit free for teenagers.
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The Red Bridge, a historic landmark in Kamloops, B.C., was completely destroyed by fire early Thursday morning.
Animal protection officers in British Columbia have rescued three pit bulls – including one that gave birth to 10 puppies – from a rat-infested home in Kelowna.
A Vulcan, Alta., man has been charged with a Lethbridge woman's murder after her body was found in the Oyen area.
A Lethbridge couple got a good reminder as to why you should keep your vehicle doors locked at all times.
Lethbridge residents who live near the police range can expect to hear plenty of shots fired Wednesday and Thursday.
A new community health profile in the Algoma District shows the area is significantly below provincial averages in a number of health metrics.
North Bay Police Service says one person has died following an industrial accident at the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission Rail Yard on Tuesday.
Three northern Ontario residents are charged with drug trafficking after the vehicle they were in got stuck along a bush road off Highway 17 on Monday.
Newfoundland and Labrador's chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
A 16-year-old biennial event aimed at fostering business in the country's eastern Arctic and northern regions has been cancelled indefinitely as a dispute unfolds between Inuit in Canada and a Labrador group claiming to share their heritage.
Jim Lester’s farm hopped on the cow-cuddling trend in early August, and his time slots have been pretty well sold out ever since.
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