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Jenn
Jenn

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My experience with toxic teams

I've quit my job several different times without anything lined up because of the working environment. It is never on a whim or because of a single incident. It is the result of months of trying to make it work and realizing that I am only being set up to fail on purpose.

Toxic teams do not think they are the problem. They just have this bad luck in hiring new people, none of them last. Maybe they think they are the cream of the crop, the elite, you just have to be as dedicated and hard as them to survive. This is false, their behavior and attitudes are driving away anyone that isn't like them.

Things I watch out for at work

There can be a honeymoon period when starting a new job with a toxic team. There may be space and time given to learn and settle in. This is when I have historically started to notice the difference in team culture from what they said in the interview and what I see.

  • No one uses vacation time or sick leave

    Having unlimited sick or vacation time is great. But if you are highly discouraged from ever using it, it is worthless.

  • It is always crunch time

    This is usually why members are discouraged from taking time off.

  • Everything is urgent

    If everything is urgent, nothing is. Tasks and projects cannot be prioritized. The priority of the day shifts to whoever is screaming loudest.

  • Professional development budgets aren't allowed to be used

    There is money for you to go to the conference, but you aren't allowed to go because it is crunch time.

  • Socializing with other teams is frowned upon

    Once again, it is crunch time. Why aren't you eating lunch at your desk?

  • Minimal or no on-boarding

    There is no time to have you shadow someone to learn the job. Questions are frowned upon, you are just supposed to know it.

  • No documentation

    They also didn't have time for any documentation, everything is in their heads. You are left alone to learn as you go.

  • Little or no recognition of good work

    Everyone likes to feel appreciated and that they matter. I like the idea that praise is a vitamin and everyone deserves good actionable praise. If recognition is not given, how do people know if they are meeting expectations?

  • Check-ins are constantly skipped

    I use check-ins as a time for a conversation with my lead or manager on how I am doing and what direction the team is going. If these conversations are not happening, I do not know if I am being effective or how to prepare for later projects.

  • Roadblocks are ignored

    Ignoring a roadblock does not make it go away. It makes it a bigger problem.

  • Jokes or put-downs against me or what I do

    There is a difference between making fun of a tool (e.g. jokes about how hard it is to quit Vim) and making fun of the users of that tool. Making fun of the users is not cool.

  • It isn't safe to fail

    Failure is part of learning. Failure is a consequence of being on the edge of technology. There should be safeguards to prevent failure from being catastrophic.

Things I watch out for in myself

There is often an internal equation or algorithm we use to justify actions we take and our place in the team. Sometimes we explain away everything happening to ourselves without seeing how it really is affecting us.

  • Having to will myself into work every day

    Everyone has off days, but if I am dreading work every day there is usually something wrong.

  • Feeling like I ran a marathon every day after work

    If I only come home and crash every day, either I am really sick or something else is happening.

  • Crying because of work

    Being passionate about work is a good thing but being frustrated enough to cry at the walls and roadblocks that are happening every day is not.

  • Doing everything possible to not be at my desk

    If I feel like I don't have control over my job, I often end up volunteering for several committees or groups so I feel like I have something I can do and get direction through them.

Creating an action plan

Having a good support network is key to surviving a toxic team. Whenever I spot several of the above symptoms happening over a week or so, I reach out to talk with someone. I have talked with my partner, colleagues in other companies, mentors, family, friends, and mental health practitioners. Discussing these actions always helps me to figure out the best plan of action.

  • Take a break

    Use that vacation or sick time and get out of the office for more than just the weekend. Take some time to think and discuss with others about the work environment.

  • Look for a new job

    There can be too many things wrong and or no support from management and HR. In those cases, I start looking for a new job while continuing to work.

  • Stay with the team

    Sometimes, the job is not what you were expecting it to be but you have support through management or HR. In those cases, you can try working through it. This option requires a good personal support network.

  • Quit with nothing lined up

    Sometimes the best option is just to quit. The job is too stressful and is a danger to your health. This option requires having enough money to support yourself while you look.

You are not responsible for fixing the team.

Each time I have ended up quitting without a job lined up, I had been working to try to fix the team but ended up with pushback and was labelled the trouble maker. Some teams cannot be fixed, they have to be destroyed and rebuilt. Don't sacrifice yourself trying to fix them.

Latest comments (31)

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bconfortin profile image
Bruno Goerck Confortin • Edited

I'm currently going through everything in your article and it's extremely hard to cope with.

I am a mid-senior developer working on the new headquarters of a company that has the main office in a different city. I'm leading two other developers on a project shared with the main office.

I'm 4 months on the job and my motivation is already at 0. We were very happy with the new job and we started suggesting minor changes that would benefit the product in huge ways. We found out that if the suggestions aren't coming from the core team (the people in the project for 2 years now), then it's immediately discarded. I talked to my local team and they are all demotivated as well.

There is zero documentation in the code. The "senior" developers from the main office say if the method name is clear, then we don't need documentation. In simple methods, sure. Today, in the daily meeting, I said: "It took me 4 hours to finally find where the problem was, because the code for X feature is so complex. If we had code documentation, this would all be solved in 15 minutes.". Instead of "Oh, then let's start writting documentation", I got hit by "You need documentation to write for loops?". That was not said in a joking tone. It was said in a tone of hostility.

The other day I talked to a person from a different team and our product owner yelled (yes, yelled histericaly) with me, on the daily meeting, in front of everyone. "WHY DID YOU DO THAT? WHO TOLD YOU TO DO THAT? THAT IS NOT MAPPED IN THE SPRINT TIME". I kept my cool and answered all his questions in a normal voice tone, but WTF?

Not to mention that on our code reviews, the "senior" developers of the main office only write things like: "This is wrong." or "Change this for that.". There is no explanation as to why. There are no links to know more about it. They are not teaching, they are demanding.

If I don't work in a toxic environment, then I am afraid to know what one is.

Thank you very much for your article. I'm glad to know that I'm not alone and I'm not the trouble maker.

P.S. I believe the three of us of the local team are looking for jobs, which is bad for the company, since they took 8 months to find 3 developers that passed their tests and got hired.

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mateusaugusto profile image
Mateus Oliveira

Perhaps the problem could be "ourselves" not the team or the culture.

It is easy to quit a job but I think try to create a new environment is a step up in our careers.

"Don't sacrifice yourself trying to fix them"

I think if you wanna be a success people sometimes you must to sacrifice yourself.

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wparad profile image
Warren Parad

Everyone faces a toxic team at one point or another (and if you don't either you didn't notice, or you were one of the lucky ones). The biggest problem is that, as you've pointed out, it isn't always easy to recognize. Or worse, it seems that you aren't in the position to improve that situation. I have found, though, working together with others does help, especially if the whole team is on the same page. In our team, we've recognized the issues with this and want to stay ahead of the game. To do that we've spent time invested in finding tools which help us keep track of our teams. The one we've found to help us the most is Teaminator, it has some simple things, but we use to make sure our team is working effectively. I've tried thinking back to some of the things you mentioned, and I've found we we were able to pull ourselves out of those trouble spots only because we were paying attention.

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dhkamp profile image
David Hölkeskamp

Very good and interesting post. I hope everybody facing those issues get's fine - being unhappy just because of work isn't worth it.

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scrabill profile image
Shannon Crabill

When you are in it, it can be difficult to see you are in a toxic environment. This outlines it nicely.

I agree that a job should not sacrifice your health, mental or otherwise.

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yasserhussain1110 profile image
Yasser Hussain • Edited

Thank you for this post. At my previous place, I was expected to work on Sundays. Everything had urgency but nothing was getting accomplished there. I kept blaming myself for six months before realising that I wasn't the problem. I quit. I am in a much happier place now.

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fundatillus profile image
Josh Clements

This is really well written and accurate. Being exposed to many toxic workplaces in the past, my first reaction is to ask, "how does one fix a poor culture?" I do believe that is your point, though... while some people may be able to change cultures, those of us that aren't suited for organizational transformation need to move on and be productive elsewhere.

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leandrogs profile image
Leandro Gomes

Thanks for your text, Jenn.

This is such a terrible feeling that I keep asking myself if I am the problem...

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gingerchew profile image
ginger

Wow, reading through this made me realize how toxic my job actually is. It’s my first job as a developer so I never really considered that other jobs weren’t like this. That’s something i’ll Have to consider now

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maxwell_dev profile image
Max Antonucci

The "crunch time" theme definitely came up on my last job. It was a mix of designers having skewed priorities on what should be fixed, and arbitrarily strict deadlines by people who didn't fully understand the complexity of the goals. Plus one team member did plenty of "mock the user, not the tools" behavior to much of the staff themselves, which made them exceedingly tough to work with. The work itself wasn't a huge issue despite it being my first job, but it was toxic behavior like that which made me eager to always escape each day as soon as possible.

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piotroxp profile image
Piotr Słupski • Edited

Thanks for this !

One of the projects I worked on had every single one issue you mentioned!.

Literally, everything. On top of that, the manager/product owner had the internal pride of being "technologically agnostic". The frequent drop-ins of "just add salesforce integration" were on the daily.

Every single meeting was drawing the same diagram over and over and over again, due to him not being able to communicate with slack or trello. No documentation as well, not to mention the fact that that the PM expected no tests due to the fast and dynamically changing work environment.

The thing I won't forget was how he described the product : "You walk into a bar and immediately find chicks to bang". In the end, his rhethoric was disgusting.

I quit. I'm so much better off now.

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jlvaquero profile image
Jose Luis Vaquero Cuevas

And what about abusing the knowledge silos created by toxic teams to take adventage and become "essential" for the company? It is using bad things to create worse things. ;)

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vfulco profile image
Vincent Fulco (It / It's)

Really well written! Kudos.

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nilukush profile image
Nilesh Kumar • Edited

Logical points. I agree with most of them. Because of stress, I have developed health problems and I am taking care of my personal health now.

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computersmiths profile image
ComputerSmiths

Great post, reminds me of: i.ebayimg.com/images/g/9yEAAOSw3yd...