How to Spot Signs of a Toxic Work Culture in a Job Description

Want to be able to tell a workplace is toxic before you waste time applying? This post is all about signs of a toxic work culture in job descriptions.

It doesn’t take long to figure out a workplace is toxic once you start a new job. But wouldn’t you rather know before you even apply? In this post, we list common phrases in job descriptions that show signs of a toxic work culture. We also translate them for you, so you can avoid the misery (or at least know what you’re getting into before you accept the job.)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

How Learning the Signs of a Toxic Work Culture Can Save You Time and Misery

6 Job Description Phrases That Show Signs of a Toxic Work Culture

Should you still apply if a job description has a toxic phrase?

HOW LEARNING THE SIGNS OF A TOXIC WORK CULTURE CAN SAVE YOU TIME AND MISERY

Applying to new jobs is stressful. A person can stomach only so many 20-page applications. Not to mention companies that want you to write a heartfelt cover letter, manually enter your job history, AND submit your resume! It’s way too much for a job that’s probably going to leave you with PTSD.

If a workplace is toxic, you’ll be lucky if a rogue employee warns you while you’re interviewing. Most people have to wait until they join a company to find out their boss is a micromanager. And at that point, they’re probably knee-deep in therapy bills and too burnt out to find a new job.

Wouldn’t it be nice to know a job is terrible before you spend time applying? Fortunately, job descriptions often contain hidden signs of a toxic work culture. And if you learn to translate these coded phrases, you can spend your time applying to jobs you’re more likely to enjoy.

6 JOB DESCRIPTION PHRASES THAT SHOW SIGNS OF A TOXIC WORK CULTURE

Unless you know someone at the company or there’s been a public workplace culture assessment, it’s hard to tell from the outside whether an organization is a good place to work. But if you see any of the following phrases in a job description, you should think twice before applying. We’ve also taken a (somewhat satirical, but also truthful) stab at translating what they mean.

1. “Our employees work in small teams.”

This phrase screams grind culture and burnout. You normally find it in job descriptions for roles in large corporations. If you’re a junior-level employee, you’ll have way more work than your boss should reasonably expect you to do. If you’re managing a team, you’ll have no one to delegate to and end up doing most of the work yourself. Either way, you’ll make way too little money for the amount of work you’re doing.

2. “This role has a competitive salary and room for growth.”

You’ll normally find this one in a description for a job at a small company or nonprofit. Here, the manager knows they’re going to underpay the person hired for this role. Nine times out of ten, the job description won’t even include the pay range. If you get this job, your workload will likely increase slowly over time. The organization will never give you the promotion the job description promised, and they’ll bring in outside hires for open leadership positions. Then, your boss will ask you to get the new people up to speed.

3. “We work hard and play hard.”

You’ll be assigned way more work than you can reasonably get done during normal business hours. But management will still expect you to attend after-work happy hours and weekend social events. Oh, and you definitely won’t get paid extra for time spent on these non-job-related activities. But at least you’ll get free food!

4. “Candidates must be able to produce high-quality work in a fast-paced environment.”

This phrase comes straight from a posting for a job at a Fortune 100 company. You’ll probably make a lot of money, but your boss will pressure you to get things done at sub-human speed. And your work had better be perfect, or they’ll replace you with one of the two thousand other people that applied for your job.

5. “We treat everyone equally.”

The company knows it’s good for business to be socially conscious, so they claim to treat all employees the same. But leaders probably aren’t going to make structural changes to make sure everyone’s treated fairly. And if you happen to be a racial minority, a woman, or someone easily recognized as LGBT+, management will ask you to be in every marketing picture. They’ll also pressure you to lead an employee resource group and ask you to spend extra time recruiting other diverse employees. But they won’t pay you extra. “That wouldn’t be fair” to everyone else.

[RELATED POST: 5 Ways to Spot Inclusion in the Workplace]

6. “We offer unlimited PTO.”

This offer seems enticing, but you’ll be too busy to actually call off. Plus, your manager will have to approve time-off requests, and they’ll always give you a hard time. If you do manage to go on vacation, your colleagues will ping you the entire time.

SHOULD YOU STILL APPLY IF A JOB DESCRIPTION HAS A TOXIC PHRASE?

So what do you do if you find toxic phrases in a job description? Should you still apply?

First, you should know that a job description with only of the above phrases doesn’t always signal a toxic work culture. If a job posting only includes one or two, it’s probably safe to apply. Even if there are more, you can still ask about the workplace culture once you get further along in the hiring process.

The main advantage of recognizing signs of a toxic work culture is not that you avoid demanding workplaces altogether. We all know U.S. work culture is toxic, regardless of where you work. Our goal is that you’re able to tell what kind of workplace you’re walking into before you accept a job. At that point, let the applicant beware!