Is Your Workplace Toxic? 57 Separate Studies Say Blame Bad Bosses

We’ve all worked for at least one bad boss. They were lazy. Arrogant. Boorish. Outstanding examples of the Dunning-Kruger Effect. They would have failed miserably on Google’s key behaviors of great team managers questionnaire. 

Yet for some reason, no one in a position to do so did anything about it.

So we hung in there, and did our best, in spite of our boss.

According to a 2015 study published by Harvard Business School that analyzed data on approximately 60,000 workers, hiring a superstar — defined as a “top 1 percent” employee — will save the average company $5,303.

Yet avoiding a toxic employee — defined as “a worker that engages in behavior harmful to an organization, including either its property or people” — will save the average company $12,489. 

That figure doesn’t even include “savings from sidestepping litigation, regulatory penalties, or decreased productivity as a result of low morale.”

In short, it’s better to fire a toxic employee than it is to find and hire a superstar employee.

The same is true for leaders. According to a 2013 meta-analysis of 57 different studies published in Leadership Quarterly, the negative impact created by a bad boss outweighs the positive impact created by a good boss.

“Destructive leadership” significantly decreases employee job satisfaction. Employee dedication and commitment. Employee well-being. Employee turnover intention, yet another factor in the Great Resignation. Overall performance.

As the researchers write:

As expected, the highest correlation arises between destructive leadership and attitudes towards the leader.

Surprisingly, the next highest correlation was found between destructive leadership and counterproductive work behavior. 

Or in non researcher-speak, if my boss sucks I won’t just hate him. 

I’m also likely to start acting like him.

Bottom line? No matter how hard you try, consistently hiring great leaders is impossible. As Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen says, “If you are super-scrupulous about your hiring process, you’ll still have maybe a 70 percent success rate of a new person really working out — if you’re lucky.”

So by all means be thorough, thoughtful, and deliberate when you make hiring decisions. 

But be even more thorough, thoughtful, and deliberate about dealing with toxic bosses.

Because that will make a much bigger difference on how your employees feel about coming to work every day, and on how well they do their jobs.