How to Fix a Toxic Workplace: A Nonprofit Leader's Guide

Toxicity can’t be fixed with a pizza party. Unless you’re ready for a general strike, fixing a toxic workplace can only be achieved when leadership decides it’s worth the time, resources, mediation skills, and internal politicking. Whether it’s a specific toxic person or a generally toxic vibe, this is a structural problem that requires structural solutions.

Disclaimer: We’re not talking about actual crimes or grounds for firing here. Those require specific legal and HR support. We’re talking about negative behavior like hoarding information, throwing coworkers under the bus, avoiding accountability, or generally making it impossible to get things done in a positive way.

Leadership sets culture. So this one is for the nonprofit leaders: executive directors, CEOs, founders, board members, or anyone in a position to call the shots and make hiring decisions. For those of you who are not running the show, you might want to skip right to the "Making an Exit Plan" section of this post.

Dealing with a Toxic Staff Person

If you are at all tuned in, you might already know who this person is. Usually they are still around because they’re valuable in some way and it would be deeply difficult or disruptive to let them go. In this case, here are three options:

Invest in professional development and mediation

If this person is too valuable to let go (or you think they have the capacity to change), you can focus on addressing the behavioral issues. This might be bringing in mediation or having a deep series of conversations about the problems, then setting specific expectations and a framework for regular check-ins. This one is riskier, but it also might mean you can keep a high performer with the right accountability in place. And we have genuinely (even if rarely) seen it work! Sometimes, the person doesn’t want to be managed in this way, so they start looking for the door without you having to show them to it. (A win-win in our book.)

Create a long-term plan to get them out, then let them go

Write down exactly what it is that makes this person feel irreplaceable and create a plan as if they quit with no notice tomorrow. Would you rehire the same role? Make room in the budget to pay more so you can bring in someone with more experience? Split their responsibilities into a few different roles? Hire a contractor to pinch-hit while you figure things out? Whatever your plan is, start putting it into action. Rewrite a job description, gather a list of prospective contractors, look for other high performers in peer organizations, and consider their background and training to reveal potential pipelines to source folks from. If any of it seems hard or expensive, we promise it’s not as hard or expensive as constant turnover in your other roles as a result of doing nothing.

Just push the eject button

This is often the worst option, both for morale and your actual work stuff that needs to get done. But you might be in a position where you can’t make a long-term plan, and you don’t think mediation will work (or you’ve tried that and failed). So, decide to let them go and deal with the fallout. Pennsylvania is an at-will employer. Explain to your team why you did it, encourage them to share with you any concerns they have about impact on the team and work, and carve out time in your calendar to roll up your sleeves until things are course-corrected.

Dealing with a Toxic Team

This one can be harder to pin down. Sometimes it’s an old guard/new guard situation, where people who have been around for a while are suspicious of new folks, or your team has witnessed a pattern of structural problems that aren’t getting addressed and loses hope. Sometimes it’s both!

Ask them

It’s time to actually ask what your people want. Ask them, “If you could get qualified and trustworthy help, what would that look like?” or “If you could fix one thing about your role or this workplace, what would it be?” And then, do it. Rebuilding trust is a cycle of “promise and prove.” It may take months or even a year to turn things around, but if your workplace is broken, it probably took some time to get that way and is going to take some time to repair it.

More access

One common issue teams have is a lack of access to the executive, whether that’s a lack of an approval process or meaningful feedback. People who feel unsupported will stop believing in you, no matter how genuine and friendly you are. If this is affecting your team, you need to reprioritize how you’re spending time. Make space every single (work) day to ask, “What am I doing to help the staff today?” and then answer that honestly. If your staff is an organizational priority, your proof is in your time and your organization’s personnel budget line.

Dealing with a Toxic Nonprofit Executive

This is for board members, and it’s delicate

Board members often don’t have insight into the culture or daily operations of the organization (no matter how much they think they do), so the first thing is to make sure you have checks and balances in place. Add some version of 360° feedback from staff who report to the ED into the annual performance review. Formalize input from other stakeholders with insight into the organization. If you have an ED who is tanking the culture and not responding to feedback, it may be time to put the topic of Succession Planning on your next executive committee agenda.

The Antidote: Building People-First Policies

It’s not always a person problem—sometimes your issue is that your policies and processes are not serving the people who work with you. Some of our favorite people-first policies are:

• Salary transparency so people don’t feel like negotiations are an every-person-for-themselves arms race

• Flexible work processes that match what your team wants (hey, maybe it’s time to try hybrid)

• Meaningful benefits that your team is asking for like parking or health care improvements, not (*cough*) ye olde pizza party

And then it’s time to focus on who you bring in next. Whether a contractor or full-time, your next hire will affect your culture. If you have too many of a certain personality type or thinker on the team, maybe you need something else. When we talk about diversity, we mean it in all the ways. 

When you bring that person on, have a thoughtful onboarding process that reflects your values and gives them the tools they need to be successful. Onboarding sets the tone for their whole experience, so take some time to make it the tone you want.

✅ Policies & Processes: Need Help?

If you need support with onboarding or off-boarding, Workhorse can help. Reach out for a free 30-minute consultation to learn about our experience sourcing, launching, or off-boarding folks.

Making an Exit Plan

Now it’s time for the non-execs

Whew. We just wrote 500+ words about dealing with a toxic workplace, and we’re tired, so we can only imagine how you’re feeling. Working in a nonprofit attracts a certain kind of person: they are mission-driven to the point that they’ll forgo a corporate salary. They might have trouble saying no. They’re highly skilled and they think, just maybe, they can fix some of the world’s problems.

All these factors can provide the perfect mix that leads to burnout if you’re not careful. Listen, we don’t need to tell you that the job market is tough right now. We are not telling each of you to quit your job. But we do want to check in.

Consider your stress level at work. Do you dread going in? Does it become the topic of conversation all the time when you’re not at work? Do you feel like you have no separation from work, and you’re constantly worried about it? If you said yes to most of these, then it’s probably time to go, even if it feels impossible right now.

✅ Leaving a Toxic Workplace: Need Help?

Check out Jackie's Top Five Strategies for a Successful Job Search. We also offer career coaching, and we help people with placement. Even just the process of looking and considering other options can give you the perspective you need in your everyday and help you draw stronger boundaries. Reach out for a free 30-minute consultation to learn more!

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