What are toxic manager behaviours and how do they affect the team and company? Read the steps employers and HR can take to spot and change these behaviours.
Many HR professionals have heard the saying that people leave managers, not companies. It is an exaggeration, but it holds an important truth: how an employee feels when they arrive at work in the morning is shaped most by the behaviour of the manager they work with most closely. A toxic manager, who shouts in front of everyone, checks every detail, never forgives a mistake, or claims credit for success while pinning failure on the team, may appear to get results in the short term, but over the long term erodes the team's health, trust and productivity. In this article, I look at toxic management behaviours, their causes, their cost to the organisation, and ways of recognising and changing these behaviours, for business owners, senior executives and HR professionals.
What Is Toxic Management?
Toxic management is when a manager repeatedly shows behaviour that creates insecurity, fear, humiliation or excessive control in their team. What matters here is not a single bad day or a single harsh sentence but a repeated pattern. Every manager can become impatient from time to time, make a wrong decision or give harsh feedback. The problem is when these behaviours turn into a management style and create lasting pressure on the team.
A caution should be given at the outset: in everyday language, labels such as "narcissist" and "psychopath" are often used for this type of manager. A personality disorder can only be diagnosed through a specialist assessment; inside an organisation, such labels may be wrong and also make a solution harder. Rather than discussing the manager's personality, focusing on their observable behaviours and the effects of those behaviours is both fairer and more useful.
What Are Toxic Manager Behaviours?
Toxic management can show up in different ways. The most common behaviour patterns are:
Anger and humiliation
- Shouting, reprimanding or humiliating people in front of everyone
- Sarcastic comments, demeaning remarks disguised as "jokes"
- Laying into people by message or email when angry, harsh messages at midnight
- Unpredictable reactions that change with the manager's mood
Excessive control and distrust
- Checking every step of every task, never delegating authority
- Constantly overturning employees' decisions, having the same work redone
- Keeping information to themselves, keeping the team away from the big picture
This topic is so common that it deserves an article of its own; for details, see the article on micromanagement.
Unfairness and inconsistency
- A divide between favourites and those "on the blacklist"
- Taking credit for success and blaming the team for mistakes
- Applying the rules differently depending on the person
- Making promises and not keeping them, changing decisions without explanation
Neglect and indifference
Toxic management is not always loud. Managers who ignore their team, give no feedback, see an employee's struggle as "their own problem" even when they notice it, or are never reachable, create insecurity in a different way. Finding a void where support is expected leaves the employee alone.
If the behaviours become systematic, persistent and aimed at a particular employee, the matter can move beyond management style and reach the level of psychological harassment (mobbing). In that case, the employer's legal obligations come into play.
Why Does a Manager Behave Toxically?
Understanding toxic behaviour does not mean excusing it, but to make change possible, the causes need to be seen. The most common causes in the field are:
- Being made a manager without management skills: In many organisations the best technician becomes the foreman and the best salesperson becomes the sales manager. Technical success does not mean skill in managing people. A person made a manager without training may repeat the management model they saw themselves.
- Pressure from above: A middle manager who is constantly pressured by their own manager may pass that pressure down. The feeling of being caught in the middle is an important factor that feeds both burnout and harsh reactions in middle managers.
- Anxiety and a need for control: A manager with a high fear of making mistakes tries to reduce uncertainty through control. Micromanagement is often more an anxiety response than a show of power.
- Burnout and fatigue: An exhausted manager can be more impatient, angrier and less empathic. According to Gallup, managers' engagement at work stands at 22%, down 9 points since 2022 (Gallup, 2026).
- The organisation's reward system: An organisation that looks only at results and never measures team climate unknowingly rewards the harsh manager who hits targets.
- Cultural patterns: Beliefs such as "authority is built on fear" or "don't give them an inch" are passed from generation to generation in some organisations as part of management style.
The Cost of a Toxic Manager to the Team and the Company
The price of toxic management falls first on the team, then on the company.
On the team: Being constantly on guard, sleep problems, anxiety, physical tension before going to work, loss of self-confidence and burnout. Employees do not take risks, show initiative or admit problems for fear of making mistakes. Psychological safety in the team disappears; for details, you can read the article on psychological safety.
On the company:
- Staff turnover: In one analysis in the UK, around 40% of the costs of staff leaving were attributed to mental health problems (Deloitte, 2022). A concentration of departures in the department with a toxic manager is a common picture.
- Absenteeism and presenteeism: Employees either do not come in, or come in and remain mentally distant.
- Loss of engagement: In Turkey, only 8% of employees are genuinely engaged with their work, while 36% say they experience anger on a daily basis (Gallup, 2026; 2025 data).
- Safety: An employee who is afraid does not report near misses, faults or their own mistakes. In production facilities, this means a direct risk of accidents.
- Legal risk: When behaviours reach the level of psychological harassment, the employer may face claims for compensation and for termination for just cause.
The greatest cost of a toxic manager is the bad news the organisation never hears from them.
The Employer's Legal Responsibility
Article 417 of the Turkish Code of Obligations (Law No. 6098) requires the employer to protect and respect the employee's personality, to maintain a workplace order in line with the principles of good faith, and in particular to take the necessary measures to prevent employees from being subjected to psychological and sexual harassment (TBK, Art. 417). This obligation applies whether the person carrying out the harassment is the company owner or a manager appointed by the employer; in other words, the employer is also responsible for the behaviour of its managers.
Article 24/II of the Labour Law No. 4857 gives the employee the right to terminate immediately for just cause where the employer uses words and behaviour that affect the employee's honour and dignity, or engages in provocation, intimidation or serious unfounded accusations. Although mobbing is not named in the law, in practice these provisions are considered together with TBK 417. For details, see the article on workplace mobbing and employer obligations. In specific cases, a lawyer's opinion should be sought for legal assessment.
How Can an Organisation Deal With Toxic Manager Behaviours?
Dealing with a toxic manager is not limited to warning or dismissing that person. The organisation also needs to change the conditions that allow these behaviours to arise and continue. Practical steps include:
1. Put expected manager behaviours in writing. Define clearly what the organisation expects of its managers in areas such as respectful communication, feedback, delegation and team development.
2. Assess managers on behaviour, not only results. Team surveys, 360-degree feedback, and department-level staff turnover and absenteeism indicators can be added to performance evaluations.
3. Set up an early warning system. Exit interviews, anonymous reporting channels and regular field visits by HR make it possible to notice problems before they grow. The same manager's name coming up repeatedly is a signal.
4. Protect the employee who reports. Unless there is clear assurance against retaliation, no one will speak about their manager.
5. Give the manager concrete feedback and offer support. Set out the behaviour and its effect with concrete examples; for instance, instead of "you're harsh," say "in last week's meeting you criticised loudly in front of the team and two people took leave the next day." Then set clear expectations, a timeline, and coaching or training support.
6. Provide management training before promotion. New managers should gain skills in feedback, conflict management, emotion regulation and talking with an employee who is struggling. In the World Health Organization's guidelines on mental health at work, the recommendation with the strongest evidence is to train managers in mental health (WHO, 2022).
7. See the manager's own load too. The workload, team size and support of a manager under chronic pressure should be reviewed. This does not excuse the behaviour, but it is necessary for sustainable change.
8. Take firm steps if necessary. If behaviour does not change despite support and time, and employees continue to be harmed, the person's management role should be reconsidered in light of both the organisation's legal obligations and its responsibility toward other employees.
Suppose that in a textile factory the production chief always meets targets, but in the past year the department has lost a significant number of staff and employees are wary of speaking in front of them. Management failed to notice this picture because for years it looked only at the numbers. In this situation, the chief's success against targets and the department's hidden cost should be assessed together; the chief should be offered both clear expectations and development support. At the same time, the question of why the organisation looked only at results should be asked.
Prevention Is Easier Than Cure: Manager Selection and Promotion
A significant part of toxic management begins with the wrong person being made a manager with the wrong preparation. For this reason, adding a few simple checks to promotion and hiring processes pays off greatly in the long term:
- Assess manager candidates not only on technical achievement and their record of hitting targets, but also on how they work with their colleagues. Views gathered from the team they have worked with can tell you more than an interview.
- In interviews, ask behaviour-focused questions such as "What do you do when someone on your team makes a serious mistake?" or "When did you last have a conversation with an employee who disagreed with you?"
- Give new managers regular meetings in their first months with an experienced manager or an external expert. Management is learned not only from books but by sharing experience.
- Collect confidential feedback from managers' teams at the end of their first six months and review this feedback together with them for development purposes.
These steps will not completely eliminate problem behaviours, but they ensure that such behaviours are noticed early and that the manager is given a chance to correct them.
How Do You Get Started in Your Organisation?
Needs analysis: Data on staff turnover, absenteeism, complaints and exit interviews are examined by department and manager. Confidential team surveys and interviews conducted by an external expert make visible what employees cannot comfortably say within the organisation. The aim is not to produce a "list of culprits" but to see which teams need support.
Programme: Practical training for managers, individual coaching and feedback sessions, putting manager behaviour principles in writing, and confidential support for employees are planned together. A process that is spread over months and reinforced is more meaningful than a one-off seminar. You can see how such programmes can be structured on the corporate services page.
Measurement: Team surveys and HR indicators are repeated at set intervals. The monitoring indicators recommended by the International Labour Organization include absenteeism, resignations, reports of violence and harassment, use of support services, and employee surveys (ILO, 2026).
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between a tough manager and a toxic manager?
A tough manager sets high standards and gives clear, direct feedback, but maintains respect and behaves consistently. A toxic manager creates ongoing insecurity in the team through humiliation, fear, unfairness or excessive control. The difference lies not in how high the expectations are but in how people are treated.
Can a toxic manager change?
Many managers can change their behaviour when they see its effect concretely, with clear expectations and appropriate support. For change, it is important that the manager acknowledges the problem and that the organisation follows up consistently. However, the outcome cannot be guaranteed in every case.
How can employees report their managers safely?
A reporting channel that protects confidentiality and operates outside the manager's chain of command is needed, along with clear assurance against retaliation. Handling reports within a set time and informing the person concerned of the outcome increases trust in the channel.
How can employees affected by a toxic manager be supported?
Alongside addressing the organisational problem, it helps to offer employees confidential individual counselling and, where needed, to do restorative work within the team. If there are serious signs such as thoughts of self-harm, the person should be directed to specialist support, and in an emergency 112 (Turkey's emergency services) should be called.
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Eda Erkan Alapala
Klinik Psikolog. İstanbul Kent Üniversitesi Klinik Psikoloji Tezli Yüksek Lisans mezunu; bilişsel davranışçı terapi, çocuk merkezli oyun terapisi ve çocuk-ergen psikoterapisi alanlarında eğitimlerini tamamlamıştır.
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