10/17/2025

If Left Unchecked, Toxicity Can Overtake Your Company

The behavior can result in higher turnover, employee anxiety and the bottom line

The sarcasm, eye-rolls and simmering hostility many experience these days is not just happening out in the world or at family gatherings. It is creeping into the workplace, too, and the price for leaving such bad behavior unchecked is higher employee anxiety, increased turnover and a hit to the bottom line.

"Huge organizations have been brought to their knees by the presence of even one or two of these kinds of people in significant enough positions of power," said Dr. Ramani Durvasula, a clinical psychologist, best-selling author and expert on narcissism, narcissistic personality disorder. "And the idea of 'meeting these people where they are' or accepting them is simply enabling more of that behavior."

U.S. workers have experienced more than a 20 percent rise in instances of incivility at work over the past year, according to data from the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM). Disagreements over political, social, age, and gender issues are the main drivers of this friction. Add in return-to-office (RTO) mandates, layoffs and cost-of-living woes and it is easy to see why more people are behaving badly.

Please select this link to read the complete article from CNBC.