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Toxic work environments are bad for people’s health.  Toxic environments are associated with higher levels of stress, unhealthy behavior (smoking drinking, alcohol, sedentary lifestyle), mental health consequences (depression, psychological stress, anxiety), physical health consequences (hypertension, unhealthy weight, cancer, cardiovascular disease), and burnout. In 2008, toxic workplaces cost organizations $16B in related healthcare costs, or almost $23B today. Research out of the Stanford Business School estimated that “more than 120,000 deaths per year and approximately 5%-8% of annual healthcare costs are associated with and may be attributable to how U.S. companies manage their work forces.” In fact, employees were 35% to 55% more likely to have a major disease (such as coronary disease, diabetes, arthritis, or asthma) when working in toxic environments. The McKinsey Health Institute studied the impact of positive workplace attributes (inclusion, sustainable work, supportive environment, freedom from stigma, other wellbeing indicators), compared them to that of toxic environments, and found that they were the single largest predictor of negative employee outcomes (burnout symptoms, depression, psychological distress, anxiety) predicting more than 2x the global variance of all positive practices combined. Even more, toxic workplace behavior predicted 73 percent of turnover intent (McKinsey Health Institute, Conference Presentation for the Society of Industrial Organizational Psychology). Employees in these situations often leave their jobs to prioritize their health without another source of income which results in increased taxpayer expenses for things like TANF, SNAP, and Medicare. These health consequences need to be addressed since they reduce worker productivity while harming the US economy and social support systems.

Toxic work environments lead to negative consequences for American children. A toxic environment can leave parents feeling depleted and unable to engage in behaviors requiring sustained effort, like parenting. “It is estimated that during the first few years of life, one million neural connections form every second in the brain of a child. Sensitive and responsible care from parents and other caregivers is the single most important ingredient for supporting this dramatic surge in brain development” (Perry-Jenkins, Work Matters, 2022). Yet parents with high levels of burnout tend to spend more time being sedentary when they return home, engaging in things like watching TV, rather than activities with their kids. Toxic environments can also “cause parents to be violent or neglectful toward children, even when the parents are philosophically opposed to those behaviors” (APA.org, 2021). These work induced Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), which Robert Block, the former president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, warned “are the single greatest unaddressed public health threat facing our nation today” are associated with chronic health problems, mental illness, and substance abuse later in life. For California alone, ACEs cost $112.5B per year, for North America and Europe it’s estimated to cost $1.33 trillion per year. Workplaces should be held accountable for this harm. It’s clear that toxic work environments impact employees’ children and there is a fiscal and social responsibility to reduce that harm in American workplaces.

We need to work together to regulate toxic work environments. If you'd like to get involved in ending psychosocial harm in the workplace, join us.