Dive Brief:
- When a workplace is toxic, 79% of U.S. employees blame bad leadership, with respondents citing unethical, unaccountable and unsupportive behavior, according to employment platform iHire’s 2026 Toxic Workplace Trends Report.
- The second most cited issue was poor communication from leadership, with 72% of workers saying toxicity was the result of managers who weren’t clear or transparent. Furthermore, 39% of respondents who observed toxic behavior didn’t report it, with 45% saying they didn’t trust HR or leadership to help and 36% saying they feared retaliation.
- Another 17% of respondents said their supervisors rarely or never demonstrated respectful, professional behavior in the workplace, and only about 30% said they saw this kind of behavior often, per the report.
Dive Insight:
The study surveyed 1,220 U.S. workers and found that 69% said they’ve worked for an employer they consider toxic. That is down from the 75% who said the same thing in iHire’s 2025 report, but many of the reasons for toxicity at work have stayed the same, per the study.
“While it's encouraging that fewer workers reported experiencing workplace toxicity compared to last year, employers still have more work to do,” Launi Vawter, iHire's chief of staff, said in a statement. “Our findings reinforce that leadership sets the tone for workplace culture, and when employees don't trust management and HR to address concerns, toxic behaviors can persist.”
The consequences of having a toxic workplace extend beyond individual employee experiences and can have a debilitating impact on organizational health, per the study. Nearly half of employees said they quit a job because of workplace toxicity, while 62% have discussed their bad work experiences with other people. Meanwhile, 26% have told job seekers to avoid seeking a job at a toxic organization.
A third of respondents said a negative workplace had made them cry on the job, while 43% said they always or often felt burned out.
When employees did report toxic behavior at work, more than half of respondents said nothing was done to fix the issue, and 41% said conflict always or often goes unresolved.
Artificial intelligence is also having an impact in the workplace, with 49% of employees saying they were neutral or unsure about AI's effect on their company culture, and 19% saying AI was making things better due to increased productivity (65%) and better work quality (55%).
On the other hand, 10% of respondents said AI was negatively affecting their company culture, with 53% of negative respondents citing decreased human interactions and less collaboration. Forty-four percent of respondents said workers are being replaced by AI, and 38% said company leadership had unrealistic expectations due to AI.
Workers laid the responsibility for fixing workplace toxicity primarily on leadership. Employees said their biggest requests were clear communication from management (79%), better work-life balance (65%) and training to help managers display appropriate workplace behaviors (64%).
“Organizations that prioritize accountability, communication, and trust, and use AI to strengthen, not replace, human connections, will be best positioned to retain talent and build healthier workplaces,” Vawter said.
A recent study from The Harris Poll found that six out of 10 adult U.S. workers said their current boss was toxic, and 7 in 10 said they’ve had a toxic boss at some point in their careers. That research suggested that the biggest cause of bad managerial behavior was systemic failures rather than character flaws. Nearly half of workers surveyed said their company cared more about investing in AI than in management training.
