Toxic workplace culture leading to an increase in ‘rage-applying’ to new role

Two-thirds of white-collar professionals (60%) have admitted to ‘rage applying’ to a new job since the beginning of the year – with a toxic workplace culture (56%) being the primary motivating factor.

The trend – which has seen a spike since New Year appraisals – occurs when professionals retaliate to a bad day at work by firing out multiple applications to new job roles.

Of those who admitted to rage applying in the past six months, almost half (40%) stated that they had applied to multiple new roles within a short space of time. The findings come from a recent poll by staffing firm Walters People, of 2,000 UK professionals.

Toxic workplaces to blame

The leading issue provoking rage appliers is a toxic workplace culture – with over half (56%) of professionals stating this was the primary reason they took to the keyboard to apply for new jobs.

A fifth of workers blamed an unmanageable workload (20%), followed by 18% who state that poor work-life balance continues to be an issue.

Just 6% said that a  disagreement with management led to them rage applying in the past six months. Janine Blacksley – Director of Walters People – comments:

Toxic workplace cultures can very much be invisible but the knock-on effect to employee happiness is significant – from a staff members mental and physical safety in the workplace, productivity levels, ideas generation and innovation.

As a result we are increasingly seeing more ‘culture matches’ in the hiring process – where both the company and prospective employee are vocal about what kind of worker or workplace they are looking for

Janine Blacksley – Director of Walters People

Problem with the culture

According to Walters People, working for an inspiring company culture and colleagues is the number one thing that attracts professionals to a job advert – ahead of flexible work and enhanced benefits packages.

Janine top tips on how to improve a toxic work-environment:

1. Put it high on your management’s agenda– ensure that managers are well aware that team morale and a positive work environment is a core responsibility of theirs. Business leaders should raise this in management meetings often, as well as asking managers what type of activities/initiatives have taken place in the last month to encourage inclusivity.
2. Launch anonymous feedback surveys – a fairly basic initiative that simply not enough employers do! Find out how your employees actually feel, and ask open-ended questions on culture. Take time to read all of these comments to get a steer on what is actually going wrong.
3. Invest time and money – culture does not come for free. Fact is the workplace is made up of a set of people bought together because of their varying skillsets – not because they would necessarily make good friends. As such, companies need to put more effort into helping to create a friendly, social and inclusive environment – these things often don’t happen by chance.