Depends on who you are in that environment...if you have formal and informal power, maybe you could try changing it. Of course, it also depends on who the toxic people are and how much powerful they are as well.
The only efficient answer to the bad consequencies of the kind of environments you refer to is an organisational one. It is necessary to change them in order to make them taking into account the respect workers deserve about working conditions, consideration from their hierarchy, etc. Any answer based on the individual behaviours does not work.
The main trouble is that the foreseen developments in work organisation tend towards an increasing in individualization of tasks to the detriment of work collectives. These collectives have a protective role for individuals. You can see some examples of these tendencies in some strategic foresight studies:
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Depends on who you are in that environment...if you have formal and informal power, maybe you could try changing it. Of course, it also depends on who the toxic people are and how much powerful they are as well.
In a steadily toxic work environment, my first choice would be the second one of the main question of the thread (Talk out and risk your livelihood). In case of not substantial change, finally I would follow the third path (Walk away and retain your sanity).
To get psychological comfort in a poisonous environment that starts inside the brain, most people say, "I can not do it, what happens at work is something that makes me feel uncomfortable." But perhaps that is not entirely true. "If you see yourself as a victim and helpless about what happens, your reaction will be tense, anxious and angry, but if you choose to consider you own the place and work, you will feel strongly about what is happening." Talking with yourself is strong and dominates the place. Although surrounded by negative.
The problem is that when psychopaths get into power, then they set little traps in the workplace to catch people out and then to attack and harass them.
It is hard to defeat a powerful psychopath. Walk away, but then find the next psychopath at the next workplace.
Learn to live with them- let them run rings around one?
Stay away from such work environment if you can. If you find yourself in such environment and cannot change it, it is better to seek a new work place rather than to stay and suffer.
Physical signs of a toxic work environment. A toxic workplace can be defined as any job where the work, the atmosphere, the people, or any combination of those things cause serious disruptions in the rest of your life.
I think this comes about when there is a mismatch between the needs of the organisation and the needs and skills of the workforce.
Forcing employees to conform is the wrong way to go.
Rather try to: Communicate the difficulties, get people aligned to the same goals, offer training and then monitor the situation- this is a much more humane way to run a company.
Intimidation and brute force just does not work and it does not unlock creativity and loyalty