The Top 25 Signs of a Dysfunctional Workplace

Throughout time, people everywhere have engaged in the great tradition of complaining about the workplace. But as a boss or an HR manager, how do you know when job complaints are general venting and when there is really something wrong? Part of your job is to make sure that employees are happy and productive, and that can’t happen in a dysfunctional environment.


If you’re having a hard time separating hyperbole from legitimate complaints, it may be worth reviewing the top 25 signs of a dysfunctional workplace. Note that all the examples below — listed in no particular order — are taken from real-world work situations, no matter how unlikely they might seem.


1. Nothing can get done without the boss’s approval. Sure, the boss has the final say, but work should be delegated, with employees taking responsibility for tasks that do not require the boss’s personal time and attention. The organization will be much more productive and empowered if the top dog doesn’t have to sign off on every little thing.

2. Nothing can get done unless employees go behind the boss’s back. It’s one thing if the boss is overly involved, but it’s a serious problem if the boss is actually a roadblock to getting work done. It may be time to call in the consultants.

3. No one is sure who the boss really is. The titles may be clear, but so many people are jostling for the top post that employees aren’t sure who actually makes the final decisions. This can cause more than a little frustration.

4. No one is getting paid on time — or at all. This is very obvious sign that things are going poorly. Even at startups, employees need to be clear about their pay schedule to feel secure.

5. Cubicle mates IM (instant message) each other but never talk. It’s nice to have a quiet office, but some topics require face-to-face discussion. As with email, it’s difficult to express tone via IM, opening the door to misunderstandings.

6. No one contributes in meeting because everyone is busy IM-ing. Meetings are for brainstorming ideas and discussing important topics, not for secret, snarky IM conversations about how boring the meeting is. Pull the plug.

7. Too many pointless meetings are being held. If a meeting has no set agenda or is just being held to rehash previous discussions, axe it.

8. There’s more than one “secret couple” on staff. It makes sense that a lot of couples meet each other at work because that’s where they spend a lot of their time. However, having “secret” couples on staff (some of which involve people that may be having an extramarital affair) can lead to workplace tension and drama.

9. Attorneys outnumber staff. Perhaps your business practices should be re-examined?

10. Reward system? What reward system? You can’t have a stick and no carrot.

11. The IT head gets arrested for hosting porn on company servers. This is a clear case of lack of supervision and not being in tune with what’s going on with the staff.

12. IT rules are so strict that you’re not allowed to know your own computer login. It’s important to have IT security policies, but if the rules are too strict, employees can feel distrusted.

13. Your boss — an eccentric Internet millionaire — offers to pay your monthly salary in gold coins because “gold is more stable than the dollar.” Although management and entry-level employees rarely live the same lifestyle, management should at least show some understanding about employees’ financial needs.
14. Your manager was hired because she listed “whiskey” as a hobby on her résumé. Sure, having quirky staff members can liven up the workplace, but it’s not a good idea to hire someone just because they’d make a good drinking buddy or golf partner.

15. Your co-worker decides to show, not tell, the visiting U.K. executive what a “wedgie” is at an office holiday party. Even at office parties, there should be some sense of workplace propriety. Getting drunk at an office event and misusing the photocopy machine is a similar sign of workplace dysfunction.

16. The boss takes pride in his “wall of shame,” where employee mistakes are posted and circled in red for the entire world to see. Rewards can be public, but chastisement should be kept private.
17. The boss screams at the assistant when there's skim milk instead of half-and-half in the coffee. Just because the boss is in a position of authority doesn't mean that he or she can use that power to bully or intimidate employees.

18. Emergency drills are conducted without employees being told that it’s a drill. In general, the more information you share with your staff, the more they will feel like a contributing member of a team. Hiding crucial information can lead to distrust and a depleted sense of value.

19. At least once per week, you hear quiet sobbing from an adjacent cubicle. One unhappy employee can ruin the morale of the entire office. Try to immediately address any employee issues before they spread.

20. Entire departments go to lunch together every day, leaving parts of the company completely unmanned for hours at a time. Workplace camaraderie is great, except when the network goes down and there’s no one left in the IT department to fix it.


21. What matters is not what you’ve accomplished in a day, but how many hours you were seen “working.” We all know at least one person who hangs around until everyone else goes home or shows up at 7 a.m. just to make a good impression with the boss. However, odds are they are only working seven hours of their eight-hour day. Reward productivity, not time spent at the office.

22. The accounting department has accumulated 23 weeks of paid vacation because no one there has ever taken a day off. People are not machines. Encourage staff to take vacations, or they just might walk out one day.

23. Managers are CCd on every company email, even when it’s just about where to order lunch. This is called covering your back, and it usually happens when employees are not empowered enough to make decisions within their scope of authority.


24. The only way someone can get promoted is if a senior staff member dies. Hope is a powerful incentive to keep employees motivated and on task. If there is no hope of advancement, quality of work and enthusiasm will suffer.

25. No one ever gets fired, no matter how ineffective they are at their job. Finally, while employees need hope, they also need expectations and standards. If doing a bad job doesn’t get a worker reprimanded or even fired, what’s the point of doing a good job?