Not many of us can say that at some stage of our careers, we haven’t experienced a nasty working environment. Workplace cultures have a real impact on our psychology in and outside of the workplace, therefore, it’s important to embed yourself into one that is both inspiring and fun at the same time.

Negative working environment

The impacts a negative working environment has on the business as a whole are plain for all to see. From a reduction in employee engagement or productivity levels to a decline in general morale, so much can be said about how negative working environments affect our psyche that when we see one, it can often make our blood boil.

Nasty working environments tend to rub off on us.

Humans are social animals. We thrive in situations that allow us to communicate and engage with others around us.

You’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

As Jim Rohn so rightly puts, we are the average of our social circle. We spend around one-third of our lives working! That’s a considerable amount of time and your life spent in compulsory social situations, so it’s important to make sure these are the right working conditions for you.

If you take the rule of five, the amount of time you spend at work and define whether that is a negative working environment or positive one, you can begin to see the impact it is having on you, positively or negatively.

Not all working environments are nasty, some might be bitchy, some might have a ‘gossip culture’, but what you’ll find is that due to the rule of five and the amount of time you spend at work, these little nuances and traits you may not see happen to be creeping into your everyday character.

It’s also foolish to think this can be stopped — these nuances are customary in most working places, but it’s the nasty work environments that you should be careful of. You don’t want to turn into a backstabber, a bitch or a bully within the workplace.

Our productivity levels drop in negative working environments

When confronted with negative working conditions and difficult personalities or situations, our productivity levels drop.

Lacking productivity and engagement at work

If we’re spending most of our time dealing with disputes, engaging in debates, or gossiping about others, our focus turns from making a difference in the workplace to hampering it without realising that’s what we’re doing.

It’s believed that a culture of ‘bad work’ is developing and it’s not hard to see why. After finally coming out of the recession, employability is on the rise, but the skills for the jobs required are not necessarily up to scratch. Combine this with working environments that restrictive and provide no freedom and/or autonomy, the result is an economy that is currently 15% less productive than before.

But as we’ve discussed, bad culture spreads, and when negativity cascades from the top down, it’s only a matter of time before the entire company is consumed with a negative energy and the economy becomes even less productive.

Moving working cultures forward

Whilst not always easy, turning a negative working culture into a positive one is possible. However, this takes buy-in from all areas; senior management down to the IT team. That’s where the hard work takes place — convincing everyone the importance of promoting a positive working environment takes real drive and effort, but the rewards are astronomical.

A culture is often reflective of those residing within it. Even if the people at the very top aren’t necessarily providing hands-on support for instilling a positive culture and practice, that doesn’t mean the people on the front-line can’t! Those that have bought-in to the ideologies of a wonderful place to work, full of empathy, compassion, inspiration, and fun are the types of colleagues we want to be around and work with. Surrounding yourself with these types of people will only allow for their positive nature to rub off on. Soon the positivity becomes infectious and spreads across the rest of the business, impacting the mood within the workplace.

Positive workplace

Positive working environments lead to increased employee engagement and a rise in productivity. Employees that are happy within their working environment, do what they do best — they focus on their work and what they’ve been brought in to do. The result is highly focused, highly engaged and happy colleagues delivering above and beyond the expectations set by both the employer and the employee.

Regardless of buy-in, often seeing is believing. In a skeptical world, even the most positive sometimes need convincing and this is where you need to lead by example to drive the changes to the environment you wish to see. Each day you need to remain positive, helpful, attentive and caring. One of the toughest challenges is doing this under pressure or extreme circumstances and this is where one’s true character shines through. A suggestion would be to outline 3 positive things you must do each day in order to encourage change and lead by example. This being, of course, a principle of Positive Psychology which is something that should most certainly be practised regularly in today’s world. A more positive culture can impact future generations to lead much more positive lives and change the course of humanity to a much more positive one.

The most important thing is to never give up on the goal. You may need to stay agile in your approach, monitor what you deem to be a success and amend accordingly to recognise short-term wins and how you can use these to continue your progress in developing a better working culture. It takes time. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither will a positive working culture!