Red flags of toxic work environment in physiotherapy setting

Toxic work environment can be encountered in many forms. There can be physical, chemical, and health hazards. The office culture may turn a blind eye towards unprofessional behavior including unethical practice, sexual misconduct  etc. Please don’t ignore any of these factors. These are all serious issues. Having said that, in this article today, we are exploring more subtle red flags of a toxic work environment which may not be obvious at first. 

Getting paid way below the market rate. 

It is very common for new graduates to be hired as an observer/ volunteer. Which basically means you don’t get paid for your work. Volunteering provides valuable experience. You are often encouraged to get this type of experience at the start of your career. 

But, make sure there is a timeline for that. Your employer needs to clearly communicate to you when you will be paid. If there is no set deadline, you make a deadline for yourself. Once you get the experience you need, leave! Move on to the next thing or venture out to get a new type of experience. 

Getting paid on time and at par with market rate makes employees feel secure at your job. Make sure you know how much people with your level of experience and education are getting paid outside of your workplace. In other words, know your worth!

Having you work to the point of burnout

Burnout has become increasingly common among physiotherapists. I know people starting their day at seven in the morning and continuing to treat patients till nine even ten at night.

No matter how passionate you are, if you continue to work in this fashion you are going to be fed up pretty soon. During the day you need to set up a time for yourself. You need to decide a fix time for work in your day. Please consider saying “no” for the work outside of that time.

It is always a good sign that your clinic is in demand and patients are lining up for your services. But it is unfair for you if your employer consistently expects you to pick up the slack. If more number of patients are arriving at the clinic, your employer needs to hire more PTs.

Expecting you to work even when you are sick

Your health needs to be your priority. If your employer wants you to come in for work when you are sick, it is time to consider moving on to the next job. Working when you are sick is not only a deterrent to your health, it also increases the chances of your patients, your colleagues contracting the illness from you. 

Being from the medical field, you already know that if you don’t give your body enough time to heal, you are going to take a longer time to recover. You may be able to pull off a couple of days of work when you are sick, but ultimately it catches up with you. So do yourself a favor and speak up to your employer that you need time to recover from your illness.

No time spared for learning new things. 

I understand that things can get very busy when you have tons of patients waiting for treatment. Patient’s treatment takes priority but learning shouldn’t take the backseat. Request your employer to spare a time where all of you can sit together and discuss relevant topics.

In that spare time, you can practice different techniques on each other. Or you can go over recent research and discuss the key points. You can simply brush up on your basics. This evolves you professionally. Additionally, you can serve your patient’s better!

Poor communication

At some point in time, most of the companies will have a communication breakdown. But if it is happening consistently it isn’t a sign of a positive workplace. 

Poor communication can manifest as multiple people receiving different messages, messages being unclear, and employees not having access to higher leadership when you have a problem to discuss. Not listening to your problems, not allowing you to speak up or holding a grudge against you for voicing your opinion can reflect on poor communication in company culture. 

Fuzzy messages and a repressive work environment can become frustrating very fast. If you experience this at your workplace consider a switch.

Threatening to fire you based on things out of your control.

This is one of the most damaging red flags of toxic work environment according to me. It goes without saying that you need to follow high ethical standards and conduct yourself professionally at your work. But despite that, if your employer threatens to fire you, consider changing jobs. 

Things outside of your control can be the number of patients visiting your clinic per month, amount of revenue the clinic as a whole generates, amount of people interacting with the company’s social media handle etc. 

Even though these factors are directly related to your work, you can not control who decides to visit the clinic, company’s social media accounts or company’s website. Your job is to do high quality work. If you are doing that, it should be enough. 

Quick note for the employers

If you notice some of the things mentioned above are a part of your company culture, make sure to take steps to fix the issue. Simon Sinek explains it well in this quote, “You customers will never start loving the company until your employees love it first.”

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