80% of Employees Say Their Workplace Is Toxic

Posted3 months agoActive3 months ago

signa11

16 points

19 comments

fastcompany.comOtherstory

calmnegative

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Workplace CultureEmployee SatisfactionToxic Work Environments

Key topics

Workplace Culture

Employee Satisfaction

Toxic Work Environments

A survey found that 80% of employees report working in toxic environments, sparking discussion on the causes and consequences of such workplaces.

Snapshot generated from the HN discussion

Discussion Activity

Moderate engagement

First comment

24m

Peak period

0-12h

Avg / period

2.4

Comment distribution19 data points

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Based on 19 loaded comments

Key moments

01Story posted
Oct 14, 2025 at 7:50 AM EDT
3 months ago
Step 01
02First comment
Oct 14, 2025 at 8:14 AM EDT
24m after posting
Step 02
03Peak activity
10 comments in 0-12h
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04Latest activity
Oct 18, 2025 at 11:17 PM EDT
3 months ago
Step 04

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Discussion (19 comments)

Showing 19 comments

carlosjobim

3 months ago

2 replies

When it all boils down, you're there doing a job for money because the only way they can get somebody to do it is by paying them. It is a negative thing in your life. That's why you're getting paid to do it.

JohnFen

3 months ago

2 replies

> It is a negative thing in your life. That's why you're getting paid to do it.

This just isn't automatically the case.

If you have a dream job that fulfills you in every way and is nothing but a positive (I've had three such jobs), you still need to eat, pay bills, etc. So you still need to be paid for it.

How positive or negative the job is doesn't enter into whether or not people need to be paid to do the job.

lm28469

3 months ago

1 reply

> If you have a dream job

Then you're already too deep the capitalist propaganda... Ignorance is bliss

JohnFen

3 months ago

Consider it a hypothetical, then, just to explain how it's not true that if a job were perfect, then people would do it without getting paid. It's a simple point: people need an income to live. If a job is perfect in every way but doesn't pay, then nobody could afford to have that job.

carlosjobim

3 months ago

2 replies

We can safely assume that at least 80% of people don't have a dream job.

JohnFen

3 months ago

Yes, we can, but that doesn't take away from the point I was making.

more_corn

3 months ago

Even when you have your dream job you might not have the dream boss or some shitty colleagues might be bringing you down. I worked in a Silicon Valley startup where some disgusting employees liked to put boogers on the wall of the bathroom. Haha funny joke. What are we 12?

proc0

3 months ago

The biggest problem that I see, is the vagueness of the employer-employee contract. You get hired for a specific job, but in practice employers always demand more and more, and they know they are leveraging the fact that it's hard and/or impractical for most people to switch jobs. They know that employees will do anything they are told because if not someone else will. It's a form of subtle exploitation.

You get hired to work on a small team, but soon enough you have 2x the responsibilities but you only get a small raise. Or you are hired as a technical person but very quickly you are pushed into managing teams and learning the rest of the business. All of this is adds up and it feels like you were hired to do X, but now you are doing XYZ, just because if you don't you lose the job or don't get a small raise.

badpun

3 months ago

2 replies

The fundamental relationship of capitalism, i.e. capital owner employing people to work for him and make him money, is quite toxic. No wonder it seeps into the workplace relationships.

AndrewKemendo

3 months ago

1 reply

This is exactly right and people want to ignore the fact that unless you play the capitalism game, you basically die.

There are no alternatives

badpun

3 months ago

1 reply

Yep. Toxicity is just built in into foundations of our society and, like you said, at this point there are no alternatives.

munksbeer

3 months ago

1 reply

Probably built into the foundations of life.

badpun

3 months ago

1 reply

Hunter-gatherer tribes have healthier dynamics than settled neolithic societies ( like ours).

munksbeer

3 months ago

1 reply

What does that mean, "healthier dynamics"?

All life is a strife for resources. Strife is conflict.

badpun

3 months ago

1 reply

The important question is where you draw the boundary line for the conflict. These groups are fighting together against the environment, whereas we are both fighting the environment and against each other (in capitalist system, everyone is competing with everyone else all the time). Hunter-gatherer tribes basically implement some form of socialism, with little to no private property and cooperation instead of competition.

AndrewKemendo

3 months ago

1 reply

All true, however those groups cannot survive because colonialists will just genocide them and capitalists will raze their territory in order to build a mine or other infrastructure for capitalist consumption

badpun

3 months ago

1 reply

That's true, however the question was "what are healthier dynamics (than our current society)", not "which dynamic wins out in the long run".

AndrewKemendo

3 months ago

You have to be alive to be healthy at all

Sick is healthier than dead

morgango

3 months ago

Capitalism is based largely on coercion. The overwhelming majority of people would not be doing what they do most of the time if their needs were already met.

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