 It is no secret that today's professionals are seeking an environment where they can mentally and emotionally thrive. Work is a now less tolerant of hostile treatment, poor communication and office drama. A recent study by MRT Sloan showed that a toxic work culture presents the most common reason why employees quit their jobs. A toxic workplace can be a breathing ground for negativity, stress and conflict. It could lead to decreased productivity and morale and even have serious consequences on an employee's physical and mental health. Thus, it is important to recognize the signs of an unhealthy workplace and take steps to protect yourself and your career and development. Escaping the onslaught of stress that comes from working in that dysfunctional situation can be a boon to your well-being. We will focus on the toxic work environment, red flags and survival tips. Welcome to Business Insight and Plus TV Africa. I am Justin Al-Qadone. Now petrol shortages, chaos at banks in addition to insecurity and the chronic lack of water and electricity have added to the plight of many in the country. Now residents queue for petrol under the blazing sun for even over four hours while a lot has spent two or more time waiting at cash dispensers. Nigeria's mega city of 20 million people that is Lagos is constantly blocked by traffic jams worsened by the wait for fuel spell in further misery for residents. From the north to the south, the country of about 215 million people is facing a conjunction of crisis. Take a look at this report. This is a popular eduma to market in Lagos state. It's always a beehive of activities but the scenario is unusual. No thanks to the lingering fuel scarcity. Traders here say the situation is becoming precarious and businesses are almost folding up as the power generating sets used to light up their businesses like fueling them. Nigeria has been struggling with inadequate power supply over the years. You see, things are very, very hard. For you to make a living now, it's very hard. For you to get to last one Naira and no one is coming in. Before we go to China, we'll buy, we'll go by ourselves, we'll travel, go there, we'll buy. But now we'll buy by picture because of things are very hard. The first crisis is something else and the currency, the new Naira currency is another problem. We are facing how? People that do business, we are not enjoying the business. We are just coming now because of to find something to be doing, not because we are enjoying. As a Nigerian citizen. I entered Bost Island with 500 Naira. So I'm a 10, I'm not much passenger but people are, the price is too much. So now, just small goose now to even order the surer here, driver will charge you as if you are going to East. So the price is too much. When time comes to the market or to a show, we come late and the prices of the vehicle go up so that which we cannot offer better. We are just managing it. But the first crisis, what we are saying is let the federal government make everything to be okay so that the poor and also we, that in the country, we feel better. Improve whatever anything they are doing so that the masses will not suffer. But if you want the station now, you know that people are suffering to let them use their power to make something in order for us. Even feeding now is very difficult for people to feed, to chop. This first crisis, what is the cost of this first crisis? Is it because of this election about to come or because of the money that is involved? If I may ask, can somebody let us know what is the problem about this crisis? Where does it come from? What is the meaning of this crisis? Is it from the market task, is it from the government, is it from the market task or is it from the individual? We have been coming to market, we have been staying in Nigeria before. It's not today that we are changing money, we have been changing money, we have been seeing the election. How comes no money, no, nowhere, no movement, no food? These are some of the questions beggy for answers as Nigerians across all the strata of the society look forward to an end to the crisis. Customers spend hours in ATM queues just to get cash. The situation is sad as terminals are not dispensed in. They are alleged that the Mew Naira nodes have been hijacked by some individuals as they etched the Apex Bank to take appropriate actions against airing banks. Some of the customers are also bothered about the 10-day extension, said it will not ease the sufferance of the masses. There are some stories that they say that they face batch of money that they disbursed to banks, that the politicians are hijacked by the money. So the bank cannot even issue out the new currency because politicians are hijacked by the money because of the election that is coming. That is what we had. And as it is down, money is so scarce, if you go to POS, they are charging 1500 Naira for new currency. Who does that? It's not good for us. For 10,000 Naira, they are charging 15 for new currency, then 500 Naira for old currency. That's what they are charging us for POS. If somebody like me come in to stand under this sun, this is man in humanity to man, punishment, no queue. I bought fuel, 314 Naira, and therefore yesterday, as I'm coming so, it's almost finished. So what is it with the government? No money, no fuel, life is horrible. However, the central bank of Nigeria is on ground to monitor compliance from the commercial banks in the state. Jim's mom is a deputy director of operations of the APS bank in Keduna. He gives his assessment. Certainly there are appropriate penalties for banks that fail to dispense their money and money in their vaults. But in the case of this bank, we discovered that the money was actually sitting in their vaults where the ATMs were not dispensing anything and customers were loitering around. While a number of them are open and they are transparent and they are very committed to the project, some of them actually have failed to do what needs to be done in line with the guidelines that they were issued and therefore this exercise is to monitor and ensure compliance with the directives of CBA. The residents continue to lament poor services from the commercial banks or call in on authorities to provide other denominations for ease of transactions. They give you ATM cards to come here. That's why it's crowded. They don't give money in sight. You must have an ATM to withdraw your money. That's what they are doing in sight. And the maximum withdrawal of money here is 20,000. If it's not your bank, it's 10,000. Only the new one, the 20 and 15 error, it's not in circulation, so they should provide that too. The CBA has vowed to take decisive actions against any commercial bank which further meets the guidelines issued to them to facilitate transactions while appealing to the public to use all the means. All right, welcome back. Now, a toxic work environment is one where negative antagonistic or bullying behavior is baked into the very culture. In a toxic work environment, employees are stressed, communication is limited, blame culture is rife and people are rewarded for unethical, harmful, or nasty attitudes and actions. Now, bright UK equine guys and author, speaker, digital entrepreneur and transformation coach, known for inspiring profitable and sustainable change through remarkable mental transformation through breakthrough six-sense strategy. He helps with individuals and organizational brands to lead the future by catalyzing their reinvention and exponential growth. He joins us now to discuss more on the workplace toxicity. Many thanks for joining us on Business Insight, Bright. Thank you, Justin, for having me. Thank you. Yeah, it is indeed a pleasure. Let's try to get your own, you know, concept, concerning this main topic for today, a workplace toxicity work or what rather? Make some workplace toxic. Well, workplace toxicity exists just like in relationships. Generally, the workplace is made up of relationships. So when we talk about toxicity in the sense, we're looking about, we're looking at the relationships that exist in the workplace and how healthy or unhealthy they are, right? And then majorly, toxicity is caused by an absence of psychological safety, right? Where someone feels there is an imbalance of power. Normally, when people get into organizations, they aspire to work for organizations that can meet their needs, right? That can provide benefits that meet their interests. And then what they do not see is that beyond the facade, beyond the obvious benefits as it's where, there are not so obvious sides of the organization that will not be advertised. So when they get into the organization, they begin to notice some of these things that impede their own performance and productivity. Things like bullying, things like abuse, things like poor communication and miscommunication, where there are cliques, where there is bullying, you know, there is an imbalance of power. So that's imbalance is actually what creates the toxicity where people are not given the freedom to be who they want to be, the freedom to do their job, their being micromanaged, you know, all of these things, making them feel psychologically insecure while being on their job. So basically, toxicity is just an absence of psychological safety. And where that safety is not present, people cannot be the authentic self, neither can they be by their best work. All right, Bright, you mentioned a lot in passing when you were actually giving us a broad base and perspective concerning this workplace toxicity. Let's try and understand. Are there tell tales such that one should look out for? Because, ordinarily, some people just want to come to the office, stay on your desk and just do their jobs without necessarily befriending some people. But it is almost all the time very difficult to just stay on your own because sometimes you are just by yourself. The trouble or the drama just comes to you. How do you identify these red flags as it were? Basically, they are telltale signs. Yeah, just like generally in relationships, in interpersonal relationships and even in romantic relationships, there are signs and red flags of toxicity that people can look out for. But like I've said, basically, toxicity is absence of psychological safety and it's an imbalance of power. One person is particularly giving to the system, someone else is benefiting from the system without even giving to it. And so one person feels some kind of stress and burnout. Why? Because it's not being refreshed in their own way. When you come into a toxic atmosphere, one of the first things you are most likely going to realize is absence of communication or poor communication. Communications is not direct. It's not straightforward. You are hearing one thing and seeing another. And then another telltale sign is high employee turnover because there is a problem in the atmosphere, which is quite obvious to everyone there. Nobody is talking about it just like an elephant in the room. And then people are just resigning. When you notice that people just resigning without even having to talk about it, yes, that's a telltale sign. Then the other side of it is bullying. Somebody knows that they are doing something wrong. And they are having to bring everybody, or compel other people into that line. And somebody else knows that there's supposed to be a sense of justice. But that absence of justice is lacking. And they have to be bullied. At the end of the day, their sense of agency, their sense of power is seemingly taking away from them. Then the other side is poor work-life balance and stress and burnout, which often occurs when people are given more workload than advertised. And at the end of the day, they are not even paid for doing overtime or doing extra work. Then there is, of course, the issue of conflicts. Because there might be cliques going on here, and then cliques. And then there will be hostility. Because issues are not being addressed. They are unaddressed problems. There are non-voiced expectations. There are boundaries violated. Things like these that are not usually addressed and they begin to spread. These are telltale signs. But like I said, the most important one of them will be their high employee turnover. When people come into an organization and in a very short time, they're leaving. It all stays so long. That is a very important sign that something toxic has pervaded the atmosphere. All right, most people would say it's better to actually catch at this issues of communication gap more openly before they actually get into something very, very difficult to handle. Because some people would say one of the most obvious symptoms of a toxic work environment is turnover. And people don't just leave their jobs. It's either their employers are just giving it to them that they've had it almost up to here. Or they have employees who are just difficult to work with just because they feel some sort of envy because you specifically bring in so much to the table compared to what they do. So ordinarily, they would just gossip about you with their parents instead of addressing the issues or asking you to help. My question right now would be, would you really say it's more complex at the employer level or the employer, intra-employee relationships? OK, so generally, when we talk about toxicity, people usually think that it's more about the person who has a lesser power if you do what I mean. So in a leader versus a follower relationship, the leader is supposed to have more power. In a workplace, the employer seemingly has more power. And the mistake we often make is to think that the person who has more power is always a toxic person. And that's not really the case. There are toxic employers, there are also toxic employees. There are toxic husbands, there are also toxic wives. There are toxic parents, there are toxic children. In every setting, any of the parties can be toxic. The real problem is that top 60 most times is not usually identified for what it is as early as possible. And that's usually because sometimes people might not have a very good sense of self-awareness to know when they are being treated wrong and when their boundaries are being violated. But when that can easily be perceived, of course it can now be dealt with. So whether it's complex from the employer side, oftentimes it's usually more, I mean, it's easy to see from the employer side, right? If the employer is being toxic, if the leader is being toxic, if the person with a seemingly great power in the dynamics of the relationship is the one who is being toxic. I think that's usually more obvious. But when the employee is being toxic with some sense of entitlement, insecurities, and most times it's usually not so obvious because they just feel justified, right? That they need to get certain things out of the relationship. That is the workplace relationship without even giving back to it as much as they want to. All right, it's good that we have talked about them. These are telltale signs and the red flags to watch out for. But let's talk about management and survival tips as we progress because right now most people just would want to stay at those places that are toxic because they have not gotten other jobs. They don't really have the wherewithal to jack bar as it were and yet they just have to seat in and try to survive from day to day in as much as waking up to go to work is like a Hakulian task for them. Let's talk about how one can actually survive in such environment in as much as you have to be there for the meantime. There's always been this talk about trust between colleagues. It is an issue and sometimes it creates a lot of bad blood, beef, in local parlance and of course toxicity as it were. How do you begin to manage a situation where there is seemingly no trust between colleagues? So the first question would be, are we looking at it from the employees side or are we looking at it from the side of the employer? Maybe the HR manager who is coming on board to do something about the issue. So first from the employee side, the employee needs to understand something very important which is the fact that toxicity is enabled sometimes by a sense of powerlessness. Now when I use the phrase a sense of powerlessness it means that powerlessness might be a feeling but not necessarily the reality. Just like when you are being bullied when you are in school, I mean in primary school or secondary school, if you are being bullied you feel powerless but you have some power you can choose to report the bully whether to the principal or whoever, I mean the teacher, the authorities of the school or you can choose to even report them to your parents and your parents will do something about it but if you do not trust that the school authorities will be able to bring justice to bear that is where the issue might come up. The other side of it is for the employee having to think that they might want to leave that environment but again the sense of powerlessness manifests in thinking oh how do I get another job? Oh if I should leave this job, how soon can I get another? You see that kind of thinking keeps them on one spot, it keeps them stagnant. And so you just think okay I just have to endure all of this. It also happens in relationships where we think oh how do I get another? That's sense of powerlessness. Keep people accepting whatever is thrown at them and at some point they begin to internalize it. When they internalize that sense of powerlessness they stay there. On the other hand what would they have to do in order to break away from such that they have to regain their sense of power. They need to associate with people who believe in them who make them see the better sides of them and not just see them as weaklings of any sort. And then some of the times it might be that okay genuinely they are not prepared for an exit. What do we have to do at that point is to increase their, I mean to gain more power in terms of their certifications, ensure that they have the right certifications, just ensure that their CV is right for any role that they will have to apply for. So it means that certifications might be have to be up to date. They have to get into the right communities also that position them for the kind of opportunities that they are looking out for and things like that. So they might need to upscale also. All of that is actually increasing their own sense of power in order to balance the dynamics of the relationships in that workplace. So when they need to leave, they have an option. The problem is when they feel like they don't have an option they don't have a way out. Once they don't have a way out then that's an issue. The other side of it is if it's an employer or the HR person who is trying to step into the whole matter. First and foremost they need to understand that most of the times when people accept toxicity they've been bullied into a kind of sinful silence. And people need to speak up. They only speak up when there is a sense of confidentiality there's a sense of safety, there's a sense of peace where they can actually relate the issues. All right, it's still business insight and plus TV Africa and of course we have a bright Okwinga with us we're looking at workplace toxicity. The red flags are management of it all and of course survival tips. We'll take a quick break and we'll come back. We'll talk about non-verbal feedback the issue of people moving out of the country just because they don't find working in Nigeria but clean for them or anymore. So we'll talk about the Jackbots syndrome and of course a whole lot more when business insight returns. Do join us again. All right, welcome back. It's still business insight and plus TV Africa. Thanks for staying with us bright. Just before the break we're talking about mobility of labor people leaving their workplaces because working in the country has become very, very toxic. How, I just want to get your reaction concerning the Jackbots syndrome and what would need to really do to ensure that people find a bit of comfort at their workplaces. Okay, so very quickly one of the things that I like to that for so long the Nigerian labor market has been linked to favor the employer and then of course create that sense of injustice for the, for a lot of employees and an imbalance of power as a clear. And then it seems like the Jackbots syndrome is actually beginning to address that imbalance and equalize the ground as it were. But the most important thing I also like to say that most times employees, I mean, employers cannot do anything about employees who have chosen to leave or the ones who are already leaving, right? The most important thing they can do is to ensure that they are treating the ones who decide to stay very well. Because that's treatment they give to the people who stay is a statement to both the internal and the external public, right? And in treating people well, the first thing they have to do is to value people, value them enough to ensure that they are meeting not just their needs, but also their, not just their obvious needs, but also the not-so-obvious needs, right? That is very, very much important to ensure that the compensation justifies the workload, ensure that you work on the culture, to be a culture that appreciates people, to be a culture that people really want to be part of, right? Allow for flexibility where and when necessary. Ensure that the work style favor the employee also. Allow those for the younger people who would also be coming into the workforce. That needs to be studied on its own, the millennials, the Gen Zs and the like. Then also you need to have a proper feedback system. In as much as some people choose to stay, they definitely need to be able to voice their concerns. And those concerns when addressed will be, I mean, will prove very useful for creating a system that works for everyone. And that's something also very much important that employees and, I mean, employers and the HR managers need to take a note of the feedback mechanisms that we create, actually ensure that we can inject fresh energy, fresh insight into the culture of the workplace. All right, thank you so much, Embrite. As we just round off, I just want to get just one final comment from you as we close this topic. Either how do we strike a balance in terms of work responsibilities and boundaries, because sometimes they bring about lots of issues at the workplace, very quickly, Brite. Okay, work issues and boundaries. Yeah, sometimes employees could be quite emotionally invested in their work, right? Having a sense of ownership, that helps a whole lot for them to take have a sense of responsibility and commitment to their job. All right, but in terms of establishing the boundaries, that is about their own personal structures. They need to be able to know where to draw the lines in terms of their own family obligations and things like that. So basically what I'm saying is that you have a life outside of work. Their work, I mean, their life should not be all about work, right? Have a life outside of work and manage that well and ensure, for example, that their work do not go beyond certain time, I mean, certain time of the day, where they have to be spending time with their family. So that side of family now brings a balance in its own sense because it pushes them to say, okay, see I need to have time for some other things and then they are able to take a break off work at a necessary time like that. All right, thank you so much, Brite. I wish we had more time to talk more about this issue, but time is never ever your friend when you are having fun as it were. A very big thank you to Brite Uquinga, author and transformation coach for joining us at the show. Would you appreciate your time, Brite? You're welcome, thank you. All right, and that's the size of the show for this week. I am Justin Acadounier. Many thanks for watching Business Insights Returns same time next week. Bye for now.