7 Toxic Work Habits

1. Meeting count over real impact

Does quantity trump quality? Feels like super busy, but nothing coming out of it.

Many of the people I coach have very busy schedules (and the resulting meetings). Some of them are part of the engineering team (developers, tech leads, etc.), roles that conventionally require spans of uninterrupted work time.

Across the board (even those in non-engineering and leadership roles) people complain about the amount of meetings, but they don’t seem to realise that this can be changed – they accept that this is the way work should ¹ be done.

A simplification of this would be to use the old adage: “If the meeting could have been an email, send the email”.

2. Using caffeine instead of rest

How many coffees today?

This goes right at the heart of the over-producivity culture we see all the time. Before I discovered speciality coffee I was a huge coffee drinker. I could easily have 4 coffees before lunch time (and many more afterwards). Now I usually don’t have more than two cups a day – most of days only having one.

The issue here is not the brewerage itself (you could substitute energy drinks for coffee), it’s what you are trying to accomplish by doing so. Most people are way to tired to be able to be at their peak performance when working – and it shows.

So instead of grabbing your energising drink of choice next time you feel tired you better start taking care of your health and find ways to rest, eat well so that you won’t need them.

I love long distance motorbike riding. During a 10 hour trip, as a general rule of thumb, you avoid sugar and energy drinks, staying properly hydrated instead (water and maybe a cup of coffee or two during the trip will do the trick). We do this to avoid the inevitable sugar crush you’ll experience when you do have any sugary (or energetic) drink.

3. Late office competition

Face time should be something of the past?

Yes, we all have done this before. I remember a job over 20 years ago. We were completely immersed in this bro culture, where working till really late and showing everyone how late we were working was considered a badge of honour.

There is nothing further of the truth, it cost me my health, my marriage and ultimately I quit from that job to find something where I can be myself and be proud of what I was doing.

Face time, or bums on seats, is not a measurement that you or anyone can be proud of. It’s a sign of a toxic work enviromnent that needs to be revisited and cleaned.

4. Speed-reply culture

Must everything be instant? You can acknowledge and reply later

I’m all about communication and making sure everyone in the team/company has an overview of what they are doing and why so (people need to have real options to be able to act with real impact). But there is communication and there is communication.

Chat systems disrupt your flow. Many companies say that they don’t expect chat to be sychronous. There is a difference in what people say and actually do though.

As a rule of thumb (in remote first and hybrid setups), communication is best done in long form writing (meaning avoiding “chat” tools to communicate important issues). This way, when we do need information we will easily find it in our companies knowledge base (there are many forms of creating a knowledge database for your company, the trick is to make it easily accessible and let people comment or expand that knowledge).

5. Bragging about sleepless night

Is exhaustion your trophy?

There have been many studies about the importance of sleep in cognitive and sports research. Please take care of yourself and make sure to get enough sleep; your mind and your body will thank you for it.

Not resting properly, specially when you are younger, doesn’t seem to have an impact. The truth is that it will slowly creep into you impacting your work and mood in very unexpected ways.

6. Knowledge gatekeepers

Hard to move forward as a team?

I’ve consulted many companies where they had this employee that everyone considered the hero/diva. This person (usually a white cis-gendered male) will do everything they can to retain their hard-earned status in the company as the go to person that knows the darkest corners of the codebase.

These people are one of the most dangerous people in your team. Yes, many times they really have a lot of knowledge and skill, but overall they are stunting the team. Try to convince them to share and become a valued team member (and player) or be prepared to let them go (letting someone like that go will be tough at the beginning, but your team will fill the gap in no time).

7. Stigmatizing mental health break

Why hide your needs?

Some people think that therapy is a bad thing. Therapy is the one thing I do recommend everyone to engage in. It’s the one thing sane people do – to stay sane!

Burnout, stress and other mental aflictions are real and, like their physical counterparts need to be addressed to heal properly (no one would leave their broken arm untreated letting the bone fuse in a strange angle).