We hear people talking about bad working environments and their terrible consequences but, how can we tell the difference between having a few bad days at work and being constantly unhappy due to a poor or toxic working environment?
Let’s be honest: it is usually hard coping with Mondays at the office after the weekend, but that doesn’t mean there is a bad working environment. One thing is feeling lazy, but a very different one is feeling panic or anxiety once you get to your workplace. Do you feel identified with this situation, or does it sound familiar to you? If so, you might be trapped in an unhappy work environment.
A bad working environment is characterised by a series of clear features that usually take place in most companies: small groups constantly chit-chatting and gossiping, lack of acknowledgement on behalf of your supervisors, undertrained managers, internal communication problems and lack of expectations, among others.
Any of these situations would be discouraging for any of us, who in the end are the fundamental basis of any organisation, and these circumstances have a direct effect on the results both at an individual and at a company level.
A positive working environment is key to achieving not only the professional success of each of the employees – something essential so that they feel fulfilled and happy, at the same time that it helps companies prevent brain-drain-, but also the correct development and growth of the company.
5 tips to surround yourself with a positive working environment
Before getting to the point of considering changing jobs, set yourself some guidelines to help you surround yourself with a positive working environment. Turn all negative things into positive ones and find out if you could really enjoy more your day-to-day; after all, we spend most of our life at work…
- Stay away from negative people.Some people are negative by nature and they are just willing to take any opportunity to criticise the company or a co-worker, or to remind the others how burnt out or badly paid they are. RUN AWAY! Listening to them will be no good to you.
- Personalise your workplace. At BETWEEN we try to make our office our second home, so we try to create cosy spaces where to feel comfortable. That’s why you might see Star Wars action figures in meeting rooms, or pictures of us hanging out together at company’s events on our tables… but not all organisations bet on this company model. Make your workplace feel like home within the company: place a picture of that special person, your pet or, if you want to, bring your desk to life by adding a cactus to it and improve the feng shui… The important thing here is that you give it a personal touch with which you feel comfortable and that makes you feel good.
- Think of the advantages of your job. It’s not always easy to do it when the work environment is not good, but just think that the fact that you are working gives you a lot of advantages, even though you might find hard to see them: you’re getting a wage that provides you a quality of life, you are active and growing professionally and you’re even gaining contacts that may be useful in the near future in case of changing your professional direction.
- Focus on your work. Idle time is one of the worst enemies when it comes to unfavourable working environments. Try to focus on doing your job in the best way you can -don’t think only of the benefit that it brings to the company, be also aware that it is your project and that you may use it as a portfolio in the future.
- Plan after-work activities. It is essential that you break out of the “home-work-home” routine because, even though it is quite usual, and it would probably make you happy in any other period of your life, if right now you are stuck in a toxic work environment, not having anything else to do will just make it worse. Plan on doing something after work at least a couple of days a week; waiting for that moment to arrive will help you face the rest of the week.
Now that you know the keys to coping with a bad working environment, get on it! If after some time you see that the situation in the company is still the same and there is no way of getting over it, we suggest that you take a look at our job offers section. At BETWEEN we offer you a great working environment!
