5 Reasons Why Employees Don't Report Bad Behavior

With employers doing year-end reviews, there is often a focus on revenues, accomplishments, and uplifting team stories. However, what leaders don’t see or may choose not to see can be harming their employees.

Unfortunately, sometimes the biggest problems begin with leadership. Some of the best minds may choose to believe they’re right despite the facts speaking otherwise. The reality is that the workplace can be a toxic culture.

Leaders may think their policies allow for an open dialogue when it comes to confronting conflict, and, yet, if an employee dares to report a problem, it isn’t uncommon for a leader to decide to ignore, move, or fire that employee. On the surface, this may look like they’re “taking care of the problem”; however, leadership is failing to admit the real problem, and a toxic workplace environment endures.

Knowing this is likely the trajectory a leader will take is often why employees are reluctant to speak up. It takes a terrific amount of courage to share concerns about unfair work practices with anyone in charge. A woman, who has chosen to remain anonymous, experienced a toxic work environment. She said, “Instead of acknowledging my fear about speaking up, human resources decided to make me a bad employee.”

After weeks, the woman’s anxiety skyrocketed, a direct result of her work environment becoming more toxic after reporting the harassment, and her husband told her to quit. Startled, the woman quit within hours of her husband giving her a bigger picture of just what the stress had done to her body and mind and their home life.

This woman recognizes that she had the luxury of being able to quit without any negative financial impact; however, she says it still impacted her self-esteem. She says, “I took great pride in my accomplishments and that was gone because one person, my new boss, was jealous of me.”

Jealousy within leadership

Jealousy within leadership is not an uncommon factor for making a workplace toxic. And while jealousy may never be mentioned within a policy and procedure workplace manual, it can be the underlying factor for a toxic work environment. At the root of jealousy is insecurity, and an insecure boss can be dangerous. Like so many people, I’ve seen how a jealous boss can sabotage the overall success of a project.

Furthermore, feelings of jealousy can lead to toxic leadership actions. Jealous leaders may, for example, set extremely challenging expectations for a particular employee to meet, and when the employee attempts to clarify things, the leader may suddenly cancel meetings. While on the surface, this can appear like an innocent and busy leader, the employee is left to struggle, often alone.

Feeling isolated is one of the reasons why employees may be reluctant to report toxic workplace behaviors. They know well that once something is reported, it seldom remains anonymous. One employee whom I'll call "Sam" said he heard through the grapevine that his “anonymous” complaint regarding forced overtime was common knowledge among plant supervisors.

Sadly, Sam was complaining about the mandated overtime because it interfered with his custody arrangements for his young children. That reason was somehow lost in the “grapevine.”

While it may be cliché to say that “speaking truth to power” is the way change happens, the reality is that most employees never speak the truth.

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In fact, the statistics from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) say most don't report workplace harassment, as cited in a Harvard Business Review article. The EEOC says, “Approximately 85% of employees who experience harassment don’t bring charges to our agency, and up to 70% never complain internally to their employers.”

5 reasons employees don't make a formal complaint

1. Retaliation: Employees fear they will experience unfair actions from management, including poor performance reviews or new and/or unrealistic expectations that impact their ability to do their jobs. Employees know that their boss can do them damage in more ways than one.
2. Loss of friendships: It isn’t uncommon for employees to make friends at work, and, unfortunately, friends sometimes choose the side of management because of “politics,” resulting in a broken friendship.
3. Isolation: With the loss of support from friends and peers, the employee can feel alone. This sense of emotional isolation can create feelings of loneliness even among the brightest.
4. Firing: People are fired, and employees know their boss has the upper hand. Employees will mentally tabulate these financial considerations, such as benefits, before making a complaint.
5. Physical, mental, and emotional stress: Once a complaint is made, things generally become worse for the employee. Job-related illness is real, Employees are afraid to take time off to attend a doctor’s appointment or therapy session for fear their absence will be a reason for firing.

As with many unfair things in the workplace, it is often the one who endured unjust treatment who suffers. Their ability to perform is stifled, and their support from others quickly dissolves. Moving on to another job or suffering in silence isn’t uncommon.

Seeking professional therapy services is one way to begin healing. Guidance from a therapist can help make one whole and decrease the sense of isolation.