If you’ve ever felt like you were working under a toxic leader, you’re not alone.
A new report from job-finding platform FlexJobs showed that out of the more than 8,400 U.S. respondents they surveyed, 87% of them have had at least one toxic manager in their career.
The findings are detailed in its Toxicity in the Workplace Survey.
The August survey took a deep dive into the relationship between workers and management and how to foster healthy workplace culture. The findings revealed that many workers think their managers’ have room to grow and drastically improve their leadership style.
Some of the key highlights state that 43% of those surveyed have quit their job because of their toxic boss. Another 28% offered direct feedback to their managers about their toxic behavior and said they were ignored.
The reasons people said their bosses were toxic varied. Poor communication (43%), dismissiveness (41%), and micromanagement (40%) rose to the top of the list.
“Creating and maintaining a healthy and productive work environment is one of the top responsibilities of employers,” the report states. “Unfortunately, as the FlexJobs survey will show, toxic managers are not only prevalent in the workplace but are not being held accountable for their actions. This leads to huge impacts for those affected, as well as the organization as a whole.”
Those impacts have manifested into physical signs of duress for stressed workers.
“Workers experienced increased anxiety (51%), mental fatigue (44%), and physical symptoms (33%) as a result of having a toxic boss,” the report states.