Toxicity in the professional environment is a serious issue that affects the workers’ mental state and well-being, the efficiency of the working process, the relationships among coworkers, and everyone who is concerned with this particular environment. This problem is universal to all kinds of professional settings, and it can have a different impact in each setting.
However, it is especially important to address toxic behaviors in healthcare as these kinds of behaviors can affect not only the employees but patients as well, as patients’ recovery depends on it. Two of the toxic behaviors that can occur in a healthcare work setting are abuse of power and toxic mentoring.
Toxic Behaviors in the Healthcare Sector
Abuse of Power
Description
Abuse of power typically happens when someone with little to no understanding and experience of being a leader is appointed to a leading position. In many cases, someone who has not had this kind of power before perceives their role as authoritarian and believes they must apply authoritarian methods to manage the subordinates.
Often, it happens due to the shortage of experienced managers, and thus, a nurse who is an expert in her job but has never managed teams before is chosen (Albert, Pappas, Porter-O’Grady, et al., 2020). It also happens because such newcomers do not totally understand that their role consists of leading people and helping them be as efficient as possible rather than demanding that the employees obey them.
Consequences
An example of this kind of toxic behavior could be a new manager consistently disrespecting employees by scolding them for unimportant reasons, especially in front of coworkers or patients. When this behavior is repeated repeatedly, the employees start to have feelings of resentment as they do not feel valued, which is transferred to their relationships with fellow nurses (Albert, Pappas, Porter-O’Grady, et al., 2020). The way nurses treat patients is also impacted, and the patients can experience neglect or inconsiderate and rude attitudes towards them. In the end, abuse of power affects all aspects of the work environment.
Solution
In order to fix this problem and change this toxic pattern, there should be intervention at the early stages of the manager’s showing this type of behavior. The appointed leaders cannot develop the qualities necessary for this position by themselves, and thus, they need to be assisted in their working process from early on. By focusing on leaders’ skills and pointing out what they need to do to lead the team properly, such situations can be avoided in the future.
Toxic Mentoring
Description
Another type of toxic behavior is toxic mentoring, which occurs in different kinds of situations when an older, more experienced leader passes their experience on to an aspiring younger leader. In this case, the toxicity can manifest differently, such as, for example, when the more experienced leader forces the mentee to adopt their outdated ways of working and leading (Albert, Pappas, Porter-O’Grady, et al., 2020). At the same time, the mentee lacks independence or idealizes their mentor uncritically; hence, they do not question the mentoring process.
Consequences
These consequences of toxic mentoring could affect the organization in several ways: on the one hand, at the present moment, the work environment needs to be flexible and not rigid; changes are needed constantly. If their management style is outdated, the whole team will suffer sooner or later. If the mentee applies everything that their mentor has passed to them uncritically without adapting it to the team’s needs, it will also have a negative effect.
Solution
What needs to be done in this situation is that both the mentor and the mentee need to realize the necessity of being critical. The mentor needs to filter what knowledge will actually be beneficial to the future leader in the current conditions, and the mentee needs to filter the knowledge given to them.
Reference
Albert, N. M., Pappas, S. H., Porter-O’Grady, T., Malloch, K. (2020). Quantum leadership: Creating sustainable value in healthcare (6th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.