By Terminate These Toxic Relationships Immediately.
We may not be able to control the toxicity of other people, but we can control how we respond to them, and this has the power to alter the course of a relationship. Before a toxic relationship can be neutralized, you must intimately understand what’s making it toxic in the first place.
Toxic relationships develop when one person’s needs are no longer met or someone or something is interfering with the ability to maintain a healthy and productive relationship.
Terminate These Toxic Relationships Immediately. Photo Courtesy
Relationships that lack forgiveness and trust.
The frustrating thing about this type of relationship is that it takes one mistake to lose hundreds of “trust points” but hundreds of perfect actions to get one trust point back.
To win back their trust, it’s crucial that you pay extra close attention to detail and that you’re not frazzled by the fact that they will constantly be looking for mistakes. You have to use every ounce of patience while you dig yourself out of the subjective hole you’re in. Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day.
Relationships that are one-sided
Relationships are supposed to be mutually beneficial. They have a natural give and take. In the workplace, this applies to relationships with people who report to you (they should be getting things done for you and you should be teaching them) as well as with people you report to (you should be learning from them, but also contributing).
These relationships grow toxic when one person begins to give a disproportionate amount, or one person only wants to take. It could be a manager who has to guide an employee through every excruciating detail or a colleague who finds herself doing all the work.
If possible, the best thing to do with this type is to stop giving. Unfortunately, this isn’t always possible. When it isn’t, you need to have a frank conversation with the other party in order to recalibrate the relationship.
Relationships that are idealistic.
Terminate These Toxic Relationships Immediately. Photo Courtesy
Idealistic relationships are those where we begin to hold people in too high a regard. When you think your colleague walks on water, the relationship becomes toxic because you don’t have the boundaries you need in a healthy working relationship.
For instance, you might overlook a mistake that needs attention or do work that violates your moral compass because you assume your colleague is in the right.
This loss of boundaries is extremely toxic to you, and you have the power to set the relationship straight. No matter how close you may be with someone, or how great you think her work may be, you need to remain objective. If you’re the one people are idealizing, you need to speak up and insist that they treat you the same way they treat everyone else.
Relationships that are passive-aggressive.
This type takes many forms in the workplace, from the manager who gives you the cold shoulder to the colleague who cc’s e-mails to your boss. One of the most common forms of passive aggression is a drastic reduction of effort.
Passive-aggressive types have great difficulty receiving feedback, and this can lead them to leave work early or not work as hard. Passive aggression is deadly in the workplace, where opinions and feelings need to be placed on the table in order for progress to continue.
When you find someone behaving passive-aggressively toward you, you need to take it upon yourself to communicate the problem.
Relationships that are punitive.
Punitive relationships are those where one person punishes the other for behavior that doesn’t align directly with their expectations. The major issue with punitive types is that their instinct is to punish, without adequate communication, feedback, and understanding. This belittling approach creates conflict and bad feelings.
To survive a punitive type, you must choose your battles wisely. Your voice won’t be heard if you dive right into every conflict. They’ll just label you as someone who is too sensitive.
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