This YouTube interview (host SPEAKER A with Peter Nutra) explains what constitutes toxic behaviour at work: behaviour that consistently undermines colleagues or the organisation and that is self-serving (intent distinguishes 'toxic' from merely 'difficult'). The speakers emphasize that single incidents (e.g., outbursts) are not necessarily toxic — toxicity is signalled by consistent patterns. Ramifications include destabilized coworkers, reduced organisational effectiveness, and escalation across contexts if unchecked. Drivers discussed include stress, personality (need for control), and boredom. The video cites a McKinsey Health Institute claim that ~25% of the global workforce is 'toxic', raises the managerial dilemma of retaining high-performing but toxic employees (hypothetical: a salesperson generating 80% of revenue), and argues for growing attention to workplace mental-health guidelines. Ends with a CTA to nakedinsider.com for resources and a teaser about the next episode on the 'saboteur' behaviour.
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Have you ever spent some time with a colleague and you thought he's friendly, he's trustworthy, but you had a feeling of unease? That's probably because you may have come across a person that is displaying a toxic personality or behavior. And with me we have Peter Nutra.
Hello again.
Peter is going to actually discuss with me about what toxic behavior is and how it ramifications around the organization. Yes. So let's start with the basic question. What is toxic behaviour?
Toxic behaviour is any behavior that undermines either the work colleagues on a consistent basis or the organisation in itself. Usually for the highlighting of the personality that's being toxic.
Yes. What is the difference then between a person that is deemed as a difficult employee, compare that to someone who's toxic.
It comes down to intent. A difficult employee can often be difficult around making sure that things happen properly and many people who like to cut corners see that as difficult. So the toxic personality is more self serving. So the intent is to use an Australian term, to big note themselves, to somehow bring their own ego into prominence.
Yeah. So if an employee decides that he's going to scream out loud or kick a chair, does it mean that he's toxic?
No. Having worked in some high stress organizations that kind of, you know, you have little soft balls that you can throw around.
Yeah.
That's not a toxic personality, that's just somebody having a bad day.
So the question then is when do we start flagging a person with a toxic behavior?
When it becomes a consistency, when it becomes the norm rather than the exception.
If left unchecked? Because we see that quite often. What are the ramifications in terms of the person who's doing it to themselves, to their co workers and to the organization.
So for themselves, if they can get away with it in one, in one arena they will obviously try and see if they can get away with it in other arenas. It's pretty obvious what happens to people who are on the receiving end of it. They become destabilized, second guess themselves hesitate to do what they need to do organically and I guess on an organisational level, even though organisations tend to often not notice it, but there is a detrimental effect on that organisation because there is a brake on the wheel internally.
So there was a report that came out from McKinsey Health Institute on employee behavior and it found that 25% of the sort of global workforce was deemed as toxic. Are you a bit sort of surprised? I mean those, those numbers are pretty high. One out of four.
Yeah, that's, that is pretty high. But at the same time, not surprising, just given some of the things that you see out there.
Let's talk about stress.
Yes.
Because stress is quite a big player. How much does that affect people who are displaying toxic behavior?
Stress is an interesting. It's an interesting driver because different people have different ways of handling stress. So some people act out, some people go inwards, and some people take it out on other people. And I guess acting out and taking it out on other people is essentially the groundwork for a lot of toxic behavior.
Is this sort of an underlying. Because we haven't talked about it. What's some of the underlying. Why do they do that?
Because they can. I think there's a lot of personality types involved as well, too. There are certain people who like to be in charge, and they like other people to know that they're in charge. And here's a surprising one. Boredom. People who are bored will do their job, do it very well, and they've got all this spare time in which to. I suppose another word for it is to do mischief.
Not a very good boy. And so the question then leads to how easy is it or difficult for a manager or an executive to actually pick up that one of their employees or several of the employees is behaving and causing harm to the organization?
We're all intuitive people. We all have intuition. Even as a manager, you'll know that there is something going on. It comes down to are you willing to pick up on that and progress that further down the track?
Yeah. Here's a question for you and yourself, Peter, and this is a hypothetical. So imagine you have a salesperson who's a star, and that person generates 80% of the revenue but is highly toxic. Would you fire them?
That is the question, isn't it?
That is the question. Yes, indeed. But it's actually a very important question to consider. What is the key takeaway from this term, this behavior that we see quite a lot within an organization?
I think something to look at is that just as there have been guidelines put around physical health and safety in an organization or in an organization, the awareness is growing more and more that there has to also be mental health as well, too. That's being addressed. And I think I would not be surprised to see if sometime in the future that we would need to conform to certain guidelines further down the track based around that. Just because it's so. It's. It's so widespread.
It is. And that's an interesting discussion in terms of how that looks like and how that's going to be managed. So thanks, Peter. What I wanted to conclude is toxic behavior is a behavior that could basically put an organization in serious harm. And if you have these issues or challenges, reach out to the appropriate people or reach out to us@nakedinsider.com you can get a free copy of the Human side of Cyber or a free consultation around this subject. So again, visit nakedinsider.com to get information. And the next video we're going to be talking, we're going to be starting talking about very specific behaviors is the saboteur.
That will be very interesting.
Okay. So thanks for watching. Thanks, Matt. And stay tuned. Thanks, Peter.
