The word toxic has become a bit of a catch-all when it comes to workplaces people didn’t enjoy. You’ll hear it over coffee chats, exit interviews, Reddit rants, or whispered over cubicle walls:
“That place was so toxic.”
It’s a word with bite, and it gets used often.
But here’s something to think about, what are we really saying when we throw the word toxic around like that? Is it about one awful manager, an unspoken annoying rule, a culture misfit… or is the whole place really a hazardous zone unfit for human occupation?
I think it’s a bit like peanut butter.
PB is a relatively neutral food. Some people love it smooth. Others won’t eat anything but crunchy. (You should know that I am a huge crunchy fan!) Some people can’t stand the taste. And others?
They’re actually allergic. Anaphylactic. Like EpiPen-in-the-bag, could-end-up-in-the-hospital kind of allergic. The peanut butter isn’t evil. It’s not plotting against you. But for some people, it’s just not going to be ok. That doesn’t make peanut butter bad. It just makes it not for you.
I once worked in a job where my office was, I’m convinced, a repurposed storage room. It was underground. No natural light. Low ceilings. Cramped. I’m not exactly tall, but I could easily touch the ceiling with my hand. Every morning, I’d walk in there and feel like I was descending into a dungeon. For me, it was soul-draining. The lack of light, the claustrophobia, I hated that job. Hated it! I labelled that place as toxic.
Yet people still work there. I see them on Linkedin and I think the are crazy. They apparently like it. They don’t see a dungeon like I did, they see a space to get their work done. Some of them even enjoy that underground bunker vibe. Weirdos.
It’s easy, after a negative experience, to want to call the whole company out. And sometimes, that’s valid. But other times, it’s worth pausing to consider whether it was the whole place or just your corner of it. Was it the culture? Or was it one manager? Was it the company? Or was it the role you were in? It’s not about excusing bad behaviour or brushing things under the rug. It’s just about being honest with ourselves about what really didn’t work.
And let’s be open to the idea that your peanut butter is someone else’s favourite lunch.
So before we call something toxic, maybe it’s worth asking: is it really dangerous peanut butter… or just not your spread?
Desk Lite 
Thoughts?