You might think your job has toxic vibes. It turns out the person running your company might feel the same way.
In a recent Businessolver survey, 52% of CEOs said their workplace culture was toxic. That’s a 10 percentage-point increase from 2023 and, notably, higher than the nearly one in three employees who said there was a noxious culture where they work.
The findings on toxicity at work are significant because people who say their culture isn’t beneficial are 47% more likely to report suffering mental health issues, according to Businessolver, which develops tech for managing employee benefits.
But hold up. CEOs who believe they’re sitting atop a bad-for-you culture would seem to be in a position to solve the problem. Right?
Yet, Rae Shanahan, chief strategy officer at Businessolver, told Business Insider that in many instances, company heads underestimate the impact that managers have on their teams.
She said that toxicity within an organization is about fear and that moves to reduce those feelings must start from the top.
“The CEO can’t fix it, but the CEO can certainly set the stage,” Shanahan said.
Young workers, in particular, could be looking to leaders to act. In the survey, 65% of Gen Zers reported a mental health issue, while only 38% of boomers did the same.
CEOs are having a hard time, too
Businessolver also found that many corporate chiefs are struggling with their own mental health challenges. Fifty-five percent reported having had mental health issues in the past year, a jump of 24 percentage points.
Those challenges haven’t necessarily translated to a change in how those with mental health concerns might be perceived inside organizations.
Among all survey respondents, CEOs were most likely to concur that companies regard someone with a mental health challenge as “weak” or a “burden.” About eight in 10 CEOs said this was the company’s view, whereas 72% of HR professionals and about two-thirds of workers said the same.
Shanahan said it’s possible some CEOs think showing empathy makes them look weak — and that they can’t attend to the needs of shareholders and drive the business while also trying to foster a more positive environment in the company.
“Sometimes people feel like, if you talk about empathy, that you’re being soft and you can’t hold people accountable,” she said.
The survey involved about 3,100 workers in the US — about 400 of whom were CEOs — and ran from mid-February to early March.
How to address the problem
Shanahan said one approach that might help companies better understand their cultures would be to treat workers more like customers. The UX teams that design products and services, she said, could be deployed to learn more about how an organization acts toward its employees.
That might involve digging into what happens, for example, when an employee joins the company. What types of communications do they receive? Do they get conflicting messages?
Beyond that, the fix could involve looking at what workers say will help their mental health. About nine in 10 employees stated that measures like flexible working hours, open-door policies, and encouraging time away from work are important to helping fortify their mental health.
“If we have people that are performing — let’s deal with the outliers — but let’s treat the vast majority as adults and let them integrate their work and their home life,” Shanahan said.
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