Avoiding a toxic work environment and hustle culture

How can hustle culture affect our health?

Employees who work long hours tend to sleep less and make more mistakes. Looking beyond this, constantly staying busy can have a serious effects on your body as well. Studies have shown that working long hours can increase your risk of high blood pressure, heart attack and even stroke.

Toxic work environments and hustle culture at its core negate the importance of mental health and wellbeing, and it’s manifestation physically, for a healthy and genuinely flourishing workplace. By investing in your employee’s mental health you are investing in the success, resilience and longevity of your organisation

One of the biggest fallouts of hustle culture is the burnout that comes with it. With burnout, people may:

• Take longer to do tasks
• Procrastinate or avoid work altogether
• Make more mistakes when doing tasks
• Lose interest in parts of their job they used to really enjoy
• Feel more anxious or depressed
• Feel less able to listen to or care for others
• Sometimes people go on autopilot and don’t even realise that they are burnt out so they just keep going

How to deal with hustle culture

Five top tips to avoid a toxic work environment

Avoiding a toxic work environment and hustle culture are key for inclusive workplace performance and performance management. Business leaders have great power to create and sustain a positive, healthy work environment.

1. Provide meaningful praise and acknowledgement

Praise and acknowledge excellent work, meaningfully. Recognise different ways of working, thinking and communicating when recognising what is considered excellence. Remember to bring in introverts, recognise neurodiversity, appreciate quiet “under the radar” employees alongside the extroverts, dominant voices and more typically recognised definitions of success. The diversity of your team is your strength, ensure everyone on the team or in the company feels recognised and appreciated for the different types of work they do, and the different ways in which they do it.

2. Implement mentoring

Establish a mentoring programme to help new or under-performing employees improve their skills. This supports employees to improve their work performance as well as foster new relationships and improve communication.

3. Role model and rewarding inclusive values

Role modelling inclusive and healthy workplace behaviour encourages and motivates employees to do so too. Encourage and honour boundaries and rest, whilst also seeking to model and provide and inclusive culture. Inclusive Employers can support with our Bitesize inclusion toolkit for team learning  or support through a Culture Review.

4. Request feedback

Asking for feedback from employees at regular intervals is an important part of the process. “Stop – Start – Pause” model can be helpful to for employees to communicate what is not working, what would work, and what needs to be put on hold for the time being in their line management. Leaders and people managers can field ideas and suggestions for how to improve company processes and procedures besides seeking guidance on how to improve the company culture and work-life balance.

5. Address concerns

If employees bring concerns to your attention, it’s important for leaders to make the space safe or them to do so. It can take a lot of time and energy to raise difficult things, so these should be taken seriously. Whilst the space for expression is vital, so is action to rectify the situation and ensure the employee feels heard and supported.

The most effective support and performance management will always be tied to making the wellbeing of your people a priority. Individual and company performance thrives when the culture is cognisant of needs and balance. Inclusive performance management will engender an atmosphere of trust, motivation and a collective drive for shared success.

How can Inclusive Employers support you and your organisation?

Our consultants are able to provide bespoke support for your organisation, every step of the way. From identifying areas where change could be beneficial to training and developing managers, leaders and organisations to create truly inclusive working environments.

Our Culture Review consultancy service is a great way to get independent, evidenced based review of workplace. Get in touch with us directly to learn more about how we can work together.