A new analysis of 1.4 million employee reviews on Glassdoor reveals that toxic workplace culture is the leading cause of resignations, with a 'cut-throat' environment being a major factor. The study by human capital insights firm CultureX found that hyper-competitive workplaces, where employees are pitted against each other, significantly damage company ratings and drive staff away.
Investment banker Anthony, who worked in Hong Kong, described a ruthless culture where the bottom 10% of performers were automatically fired each year. 'You survive long term if you’re political, prepared to put in insane hours and not make enemies of certain people. It’s a dog-eat-dog world,' he said. Such environments breed behaviors like boasting about working longer hours and constant fear of job loss.
Johnny C Taylor Jr, president of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), noted that cut-throat culture is common in professional services like law firms, where only a few make partner. 'By definition, you have to do better than your colleagues if you want to make it,' he said. This competition often starts at the executive level and trickles down to junior employees.
The CultureX research, seen by BBC Worklife, shows that mentions of 'cut-throat' are often linked to issues like inability to speak freely, abusive leadership, favoritism, and negative feedback. Terms like 'Darwinian', 'back-stabbing', and 'two-faced' are frequently used to describe such environments. While only 1% of reviews mentioned 'cut-throat', it had one of the biggest negative impacts on company ratings.
Experts say companies need to distinguish between healthy competition and toxic rivalry to prevent employee exodus. 'Cut-throat is where an organisation over-values competition to the point that their main focus is to beat another company,' Taylor added. The findings underscore the need for workplaces to foster collaboration over ruthless competition.
