More than two-thirds of U.S. professionals admitted to rage applying to a new job since the beginning of the year, with a toxic work environment being the primary motivating factor.
The trend, rage applying, which has spiked since New Year evaluations, occurs when employees retaliate after a bad day at work by applying to multiple listings for new job roles.
“It continues to be a candidate-driven market with more jobs than people available so rage applying is really something that most employers cannot afford to happen,” says Pete Milne, managing director of Robert Walters North America, a recruitment specialist firm
Of those who admitted to rage applying in the past six months, over half stated they applied to multiple new roles within a short timeframe. The findings come from a recent poll of 2,000 U.S. professionals.
Toxic Workplaces to Blame
The issue provoking these applications is due to toxic workplace culture with over half or 51 percent of professionals stating this was their primary reason for applying to new jobs.
“Interestingly, it’s not issues relating to pay or progression that’s creating this reaction, but the work environment itself—something well within the control of the employer,” says Milne.
More than a fifth of workers or 23 percent blamed a lack of work/life balance, followed by 17 percent who state an unmanageable workload continues to be an issue.
Just 9 percent said that a disagreement with management led them to rage applying in the past six months.
“Toxic workplace cultures can be very much invisible but the knock-on effect to employee happiness is significant,from a staff member’s mental and physical safety in the workplace, productivity levels, ideas generation, and innovation,” Milne says.
Lack of confidence in leadership
According to the survey, confidence in leadership is a key factor when it comes to reducing toxic workplace cultures in U.S. workplaces—ahead of an unmotivated workforce and competitive colleagues and culture.
“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,” says Milne.
Here are some tips to improve a toxic work environment:
1. Put it high on your management’s agenda. Ensure managers understand team morale and a positive work environment are a core responsibility. Leaders should raise this idea up in management meetings often. In addition, they should ask managers what type of activities or initiatives have taken place in the last month to encourage inclusivity.
2. Launch anonymous feedback surveys. This is a basic initiative simply not enough employers use. Find out how your employees honestly feel and ask open-ended questions on culture and work environment. Take time to read all the collected responses to get an idea on what’s going wrong or if things are going right.
3. Invest time and money. Simply put, culture does not come for free. The workplace is made up of a set of people bought together because of their varying skill sets, not because they would be good friends. Companies need to put more effort into creating friendly, social, and inclusive environments. These things don’t just happen by chance, they are created with time and money.
