We analyzed 1.3 million Glassdoor reviews to pinpoint which topics lead to the most negative reviews. Employees grumble about hundreds of topics, but only handful--we call them the "Toxic Five"--are associated with the most negative reviews.
The "Toxic Five" are when your culture is
-Disrespectful
-Noninclusive
-Unethical
-Cutthroat (employees actively undermine one another)
-Abusive
10% of all employees in the Culture 500 sample experienced their corporate culture as toxic.
-That translates to over six thousand employees in the average Fortune 500 company
-Even the healthiest cultures have pockets of toxicity, often linked to specific toxic managers.
In addition to the suffering it they cause for employees, toxic cultures create staggering bottom-line costs for companies
•Toxic corporate culture 10 times more predictive of attrition than compensation during the “Great Resignation” (Sull et al., 2022a)
•20% of employees have left a job because of toxic culture (SHRM, 2019)
•A toxic culture is the strongest predictor of a negative Glassdoor review (Sull et al., 2022b, Sockin, 2021)
•Three-quarters of the most disengaged employees are looking for a job, and their lost productivity costs their employer 18% of their salary each year (Gallup, 2021)
•Employees who view their workplace as unfair are 35% to 55% more likely to suffer from major disease (Goh et al, 2015)
•Unethical culture associated with lower financial returns (Guiso et al., 2015)
Read the full MIT Sloan Management Review article here.