Toxic teammates are easy to spot;
Toxic teammates are toxic a lot.
Here’s a list of things that they do.
As you read, you’ll see that it’s true.
Toxic teammates complain.
- About their manager.
- About their teammates.
- About their executives.
- About their schedules.
- About their pay.
- About…well…pretty much everything.
[tweetthis hidden_hashtags=”#leadership #companyculture”]Toxic teammates complain about everything.[/tweetthis]
Toxic teammates find ways to rationalize their behavior.
- They rationalize their negative attitude about their manager by pointing out their manager’s imperfections.
- They rationalize their gossip by saying they didn’t feel like they could approach the person with whom they actually should have been speaking about their problem.
- They rationalize their negative attitude in general by tending to play the victim card.
- They rationalize their behavior by deflecting questions about it.
- They rationalize their behavior by claiming to be misunderstood.
[tweetthis hidden_hashtags=”#leadership #companyculture”]Toxic teammates rationalize their negative attitudes and behaviors.[/tweetthis]
Toxic teammates are divisive.
- They pit teammates against each other.
- They gossip. A lot. Of course they don’t call it that. There are other code words they’ll use for it. But that’s what it is.
- They position themselves as being on everyone’s side against whoever it is those people are “against.”
- They often engage in deceptive and/or disingenuous practices.
- They often paint themselves as crusaders or martyrs, when in fact it is they who are doing the damage to the workplace.
[tweetthis hidden_hashtags=”#leadership #companyculture”]Toxic teammates are divisive.[/tweetthis]
Toxic teammates seek to recruit others to their cause.
- Instead of speaking directly to those with whom they may have issues, they tend to run and tell others secretly in hopes that those others will join them and take their side against people in the organization.
- Because of the above, they thrive on cultivating ongoing conflict. If there’s not conflict, they’ll create it.
[tweetthis hidden_hashtags=”#leadership #companyculture”]Toxic teammates often try to infect others with their toxicity. [/tweetthis]
So boys and girls, when these things you see,
You’ll know what it means — it’s toxicity.
So stand up tall, and be so very brave;
From that toxic teammate, your team you must save.
