It’s the place where you work, shop, office, farm, building site. Anywhere work is carried out is a workplace.

The simple version of saying, "Hell". The very reason you ask yourself at night, "Why am I still alive?" But then you wake up the next morning and you say..."Oh...Yeah"

Workplace deviance is a deliberate or intentional desire to cause harm to an organisation. This can be the organisation which employs an individual or an organisation of which they are a member. It is, perhaps, best described as “voluntary behaviour which contravenes the established norms of the organisation and, in doing so, compromises its viability.”

Workplace deviance can vary greatly, from minor non-violent misbehaviour to extreme violence, up to and including murder, but any of which causes harm or potential harm to the organisation. Broadly speaking workplace deviance falls into two distinct categories, Interpersonal Deviance and Organisational Deviance.

Interpersonal deviance is misconduct which targets specific co-workers and includes behaviours such as gossiping about them, blaming them for things that are not their fault, falsely raising grievances against them and so on. It is believed that these unhealthy behaviours may be due to jealousy of the target co-workers abilities or a sense of entitlement. In other words the misbehaviour has one aim, to benefit the person doing it.

Organisation deviance is behaviour aimed at the organisation itself and most frequently manifests itself as frequent lateness or excessive absenteeism.

Logically enough workplace aggression is specifically aggression that occurs in the workplace. It is commonly found within a toxic workplace and can include a variety of unpleasant behaviours. These can range from verbal, (insulting people, spreading rumours, telling lies or maliciously instituting grievance procedures), to physical attacks (pushing, slapping, punching or attacking with a weapon). It’s the sort of behaviour which, if it was carried out on the street would, in many cases result in arrest by the police or prosecution in the Civil Courts.

As the name suggests this is conflict within the workplace. These conflicts can be due to people with different personalities that just don’t get on well, or different opinions as to how the work should be done. Managers showing favouritism can cause or exacerbate workplace conflict as can the environment of the workplace itself or the hierarchical structure of the organisation.
Workplace conflict is pernicious and unpleasant and if there is no way that this conflict can be resolved you could be better off working for another organisation.

A toxic workplace is somewhere you really don’t want to be as, even if you try to avoid it, you will be dragged into the backstabbing shit that’s going on and it will adversely affect you. It’s a place usually characterised by drama and infighting and where the personal battles between individuals or departments harm productivity. Toxic workplaces are often the result of workers who are, themselves, best described as toxic. These individuals are motivated solely by personal interest, the desire for money, power and status. They will use any means no matter how unethical, mean-spirited or illegal to manipulate the system for their own ends whilst undermining others and diverting attention away from their own shortcomings.

Toxic workplaces have been found to have profoundly adverse effects on the health and wellbeing of the non-toxic people working in them. The best advice if you find yourself working in such an environment, no matter how good the money or benefits, get out as quickly as possible.

Workplace bullying is the persistent mistreatment of an individual or group of individuals by one or more persons in the workplace. This can take the form of either physical or emotional abuse and can cause serious harm to those affected. It can include such tactics as verbal, nonverbal, psychological, physical abuse, workplace cyber-aggression and humiliation. This type of workplace aggression is particularly difficult to deal with as, unlike the typical school bully, workplace bullies often operate within the established rules and policies of their organisation and their society. In the majority of cases, bullying in the workplace is by someone who has authority over their victim and uses their position and power to do this. However, bullies can also be peers, and occasionally subordinates.

Workplace bullying can be covert or overt. It can appear as overbearing supervision, constant criticism, and the blocking promotion chances and may be missed by superiors, or it may be known by many throughout the organisation and ignored. Its negative effects are not limited to the targeted individuals, but can result in an overall decline in employee morale and can even lead to a detrimental change in organisational culture. It is one of the clear signs of a Toxic Workplace so if this happens to you, or you see it happening to others, it might be best to start looking for a new job.