Who takes the blame for a toxic workplace? About 79% of U.S. employees blame their leadership for failing to create a culture where there is no place for toxicity. The 2026 Toxic Workplace Trends Report from iHire found that employees overwhelmingly see their leaders as accountable for unethical, unaccountable, or unsupportive management, allowing poor behavior to continue undeterred. With 7 in 10 U.S. workers reporting that they have worked for an employer they consider toxic, it is evident that leaders aren’t quite inspiring the kind of dedication and loyalty needed to rally a workforce today. When employees largely see their management as hostile and unwelcoming, many aspects of their work are affected. Their relationship with the organization is usually the first to take a hit.
Employees largely blame leadership for the toxic behaviors growing in the workplace, but leaders are usually the best placed to resolve such issues. (Image: Pexels)
The Leadership Role In A Toxic Workplace: What Employees Have to Say
A large majority of what happens in the workplace day to day is modeled by management and leadership, their actions shaping employee responses and behaviors in turn. When leaders fail to showcase healthy behavior themselves or curb such toxic tendencies among employees, many are flashed the green signal to proceed with behaving as they please. iHire’s survey of 1,220 candidates from 57 industries across the United States found that 17.2% of workers surveyed said managers rarely or never showcased respectful or professional behavior.
This goes beyond a desire for positive role models in the workplace. When employees do not see healthy behaviors, some are encouraged to drop their professionalism and act as they please. Still others choose to emulate their toxic boss or leadership teams solely to ensure that they don’t get penalized for doing things their own way.
It is possible for workers to still maintain a non-toxic attitude towards their work, organization, and colleagues, but with repeated exposure to such behaviors, workers choose to change, do the bare minimum, or quit. The data proves this, with 47.6% of employees claiming to have quit due to a toxic environment and 1 in 3 admitting to crying at work as a result of the stress caused.
Toxicity in the Workplace Erodes Employee Trust
“Workplace toxicity isn’t always yelling matches and derogatory language. Some leaders are perfectly polite during your direct interactions with them, but they do little to address the behavior of their employees when issues are brought to their notice. They let some managers lead with a tight fist, or allow other workers to blow off some steam with inappropriate jokes and comments during office events. This is why toxicity always breeds more toxicity,” a management and consulting expert told The HR Digest.
Repeated instances of toxic behavior in the workplace, whether prompted by leaders or overlooked by them, causes employee to slowly lose trust in their management. Rather than speak up, they remain silent, allowing the toxic behavior to spread further. About 38.8% of employees who witness toxic behavior never report it, with 45.1% expressing doubt that action will be taken. This isn’t due to their assumption but a result of their observations, as 51.4% of those who have spoken up have seen issues remain unresolved.
Toxic leadership is certainly a problem that needs to be addressed, but toxic workplaces where good leaders fail to take action are often seen as equally problematic. Many of these issues have to do with the nature of communication, or an apparent lack of it. When employers fail to hear and address employee concerns, more workers start to hold back from sharing. Only when problems blow up do they come to the attention of leaders, and by then, it is too late to seek peaceful solutions.
What Employers Can Do to Avoid Their Workplace From Turning Toxic
A “toxic” culture looks different from organization to organization, but they all feature extreme attitudes and behaviors that damage employee well-being and morale. A company might have a great culture and approach to work, but if a single manager is allowed to make their own rules, ask employees to work late, and speak rudely to employees, then the organization as a whole suffers for it.
The first step is to identify behaviors that are considered toxic or starting to lean that way, and address them at once. Leaders should then keep a check on the workplace and set measures in place to forbid such behavior.
Protecting a workplace from a toxic work culture or behavior can look like:
- Training leadership and management on appropriate workplace behavior and identifying signs of unethical or inappropriate behavior
- Setting a clear code of conduct for all employees, including leadership, to follow
- Creating a clear channel for reporting toxic behavior and a straightforward way of resolving it
- Establish consequences for violations of the company policy to discourage unwelcome behavior
- Ensure that all leaders are held to the same standards as workers are held accountable for their behavior
- Conducting regular pulse surveys to understand the state of the workforce
- Take issues of bullying, harassment, and other forms of workplace conflict seriously rather than dismiss it as personal problems for the employees to resolve
- Model ideal behavior in the workplace and encourage employees to do the same
- Check for fairness in all decision-making, whether to identify candidates for a promotion or determine which ideas are selected for a project
- Create a work culture that respects balance in all things, including after-work hours, their right to take time off from work, reasonable workloads, etc.
Leadership is often blamed for a toxic workplace, as they have the most power to address and resolve issues that fester within the organization. Inaction can be the same as promotion of toxic culture, which means it is best for leaders to actively work to fix such issues rather than merely distance themselves from them.
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