--- description: Businesses have had to adapt to hybrid or remote work since the COVID-19 pandemic, but has this change significantly affected toxic workplace culture for staff? image: https://gdm-localsites-assets-gfprod.imgix.net/images/capterra/og_logo-e5a8c001ed0bd1bb922639230fcea71a.png?auto=format%2Cenhance%2Ccompress title: Has hybrid or remote work changed toxic UK work cultures? --- # Has hybrid or remote work impacted work culture in the UK? Canonical: https://www.capterra.co.uk/blog/3092/remote-hybrid-work-and-toxic-workplace-culture-uk Published on 20/09/2022 | Written by Eduardo Garcia. ![Has hybrid or remote work impacted work culture in the UK?](https://images.ctfassets.net/63bmaubptoky/ghgluveXWMDN1nnxpAeHd0BGonZANmEPjQQkEUloUsc/25fc385217ab2b25ddd2fc5a7d4e247a/The-impact-of-remote-and-hybrid-work-on-toxic-UK-work-culture-UK-Capterra-Infographic-4.png) > Remote work has brought new opportunities and challenges to the workplace. Employees are increasingly looking to improve their work-life balance, and yet toxic company culture may be a prominent reason for switching jobs. We surveyed UK employees to find out if the switch to hybrid work has had an impact on office toxicity.  ----- ## Article Content Remote work has brought new opportunities and challenges to the workplace. Employees are increasingly looking to improve their work-life balance, and yet toxic company culture may be a prominent reason for switching jobs. We surveyed UK employees to find out if the switch to hybrid work has had an impact on office toxicity. In this articleEmployees are adapting to remote work, but toxicity still existsToxic culture has slightly decreased with remote workYelling, gossiping, and bullying have seen the biggest declineSexism and sexual harassment have decreased slightly for men and womenEmployee monitoring tools can help keep staff on their best behaviourSummaryWork life is not devoid of toxicity. Sexism, harassment, bullying, or nepotism are just a few of the negative facets people may have to deal with at work. With employees increasingly switching jobs, toxic culture has been cited as the biggest culprit for seeking jobs elsewhere. Now that more employees work remotely, is it harder to detect these problems and deal with them? Has hybrid work resulted in a wild-west office environment where it is easier to get away with unethical conduct? Or has the adoption of employee monitoring software provided an effective way to supervise staff behaviour? Capterra surveyed over 1,000 employees to understand the extent to which hybrid or remote work impacts their company culture. This article is the first instalment of our two-part series on company culture and remote work. The full methodology for conducting this study can be found at the bottom of this article. Employees are adapting to remote work, but toxicity still existsToxic culture is present in many workplaces, regardless of whether employees are working from home or in the office. However, not all behaviour like this is reported. Although 40% of our survey-takers had witnessed some sort of toxic work behaviour, 14% of respondents didn’t feel comfortable reporting this to someone from their company. This raises the importance for companies themselves to encourage and train their employees to step up and raise their concerns if they spot any behaviour that can be detrimental to the company’s culture and work environment. This can also be done by providing anonymous platforms where employees can express what they have seen without worrying about being singled out. The stakes are high for businesses that do not deal with these issues, as poor company culture can lead to employees not wanting to go to work or not feeling motivated, subsequently affecting productivity and engagement. Another survey result that highlights the need for businesses to address the issue of toxicity in the office effectively is that for the 27% of respondents who had witnessed and reported toxic behaviour, only 51% of cases were addressed with a positive outcome. That leaves 36% of cases where the issue was addressed but nothing changed, and 13% of cases where the issue simply wasn’t dealt with. Companies should strive for an environment where all reports of toxic behaviour are dealt with effectively. Toxic culture has slightly decreased with remote workFrom our surveyed respondents, 467 employees in different job roles and positions had transitioned from working in the office to becoming remote or hybrid employees both before and after the pandemic began. The rest of this article will focus on responses from this group of employees. Given their experience of office life in both circumstances, we asked them for their insights on remote work and toxic company culture. According to our survey, there was a slight decline in cultural toxicity at work after employees switched to working remotely. While 48% of workers identified their job culture as being not toxic at all before becoming a hybrid or remote worker, the number increased to 53% after they became hybrid or remote employees.Comfort levels about reporting toxic behaviourWe also wanted to identify if the change to hybrid or remote work had influenced whether employees felt more or less comfortable reporting toxic work behaviour. This can be significant for employees who may feel relieved by the opportunity to physically distance themselves from colleagues who were detrimental to their well-being in the workplace. Two-thirds (66%) of respondents felt the same comfort levels, regardless of whether they worked from home or in the office. However, a combined total of 20% felt either somewhat or significantly more comfortable reporting these behaviours since transitioning to remote workOn the other hand, 13% felt somewhat or significantly less comfortable reporting toxic work behaviour from a distance. This statistic shows that businesses need to provide the right tools to increase comfort levels and make sure that reporting at a distance is secure and easy. Yelling, gossiping, and bullying have seen the biggest declineSeveral behaviours can contribute to creating a toxic work environment. We asked survey-takers who transitioned to hybrid or remote work both before and after the pandemic to evaluate the prevalence of 10 toxic behaviours in the workplace, ranging from sexism, racism, and sexual harassment to gossiping, yelling, or nepotism. The results showed that gossiping was the toxic behaviour that had seen the biggest decline with the introduction of remote work. More than a third of these respondents (35%) said gossip was ‘much less prevalent’ or ‘somewhat less prevalent’ than when they worked on site. This was followed by yelling and arguing (31%) and bullying (28%). Sexism and sexual harassment have decreased slightly for men and women Sexism and sexual harassment are some of the most sensitive cases of toxic behaviour in the workplace, as they tend to affect specific groups of people more than others. A Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) Women’s Committee report, for example, showed that 45% of women have experienced sexual harassment at work. While this type of harassment also increasingly affects men, we analysed our data to try and identify if there were any notable differences between genders. The results, however, were strikingly similar regardless of gender. 42% of men and 45% of women stated that sexism was not and is not prevalent in the workplace. When it came to sexual harassment, the numbers were higher: 54% of men and 55% of women stated that these issues were not and are not prevalent at their current job. Fortunately, 21% of male and 20% of female respondents reported that sexual harassment had decreased in prevalence since they changed to remote or hybrid work. When it came to sexism in the workplace, there had been an overall decline in prevalence of 19%, but while 21% of male respondents felt that sexism had gone down, the number was lower for female respondents (17%).Employee monitoring tools can help keep staff on their best behaviourEven before the pandemic, nearly a quarter of UK employees said their employer had already used employee monitoring tools. Now with remote and hybrid work gaining prominence, if managers want to find a way to supervise employees they may need to consider using remote methods of supervision. With a combined total of 61% of respondents stating that they would consider leaving their job if they no longer had the option to work from home (41% say it would be one of the reasons and 20% say it would be the main reason), employers may need to adapt and accept that hybrid work may be here to stay.Employee monitoring tools may have become a solution for managers who want to keep a better eye on employee behaviour. The majority (69%) of all survey respondents said the working environment can influence whether they remain in a company or not. With this in mind, the 25% of employers that remote or hybrid workers said used these tools to track employees working at home should leverage these solutions to look out for harmful behaviour. A combined total of 39% of our survey-takers either somewhat or strongly agreed that the use of these tools helps reduce toxic work behaviour in their jobs, with 32% on the fence and a combined total of 28% somewhat or strongly disagreeing that employee monitoring tools can help reduce toxic work habits. For those employees who are still undecided, training can help show how these tools can be used for good. Rather than seeing monitoring as a form of strict supervision, employees can understand that these tools can help them manage their time on projects, ensure there is fairness in the workplace, or ensure security.However, when using these tools, it is important for employers to provide transparency on what is being recorded, inform staff about the process to follow to report offences, and comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). What types of employee monitoring tools can employers use?Employee monitoring involves using workplace surveillance methods to track indicators of employee productivity, attendance, workload, behaviour, and use of corporate resources. Tools like employee monitoring software, GPS tracking, and email tracking software can track and monitor activities that may have a negative effect on company culture. SummaryWhile the idea of remote, flexible, or hybrid work continues to divide opinion, our survey shows that employees have witnessed some changes in habits and attitudes among their peers from when they were working fully in situ. However, businesses need to step up their game and do their homework to provide the right policies and tools to detect toxic behaviour and encourage employees to report these activities. Working from home does not eradicate bad behaviour, and even if some harmful behaviours like sexism and sexual harassment have seen a subtle decline, it doesn’t mean that these toxic actions cannot be carried out in a digital environment. Collaboration tools and video conferencing tools can be great for getting teams to work together from remote locations but can also be used for spreading gossip and arguing. It’s how you use the tools that count. Similarly, companies can use software to monitor platforms and ensure that any inappropriate behaviour is registered and dealt with properly. Businesses, including those that have not deployed remote or hybrid work, can use monitoring software to help prevent negative work behaviour. At the same time, it is important that employees are aware of how and why they are being monitored and feel safe reporting toxic conduct. Looking for employee monitoring software? Check out our catalogue. ## Disclaimer > Methodology:  To collect this data, Capterra interviewed 1,015 professionals in June 2022. The surveyed candidates had to fulfil the following criteria: UK residentBetween the ages of 18 and 65 Employed full- or part-time at a company with more than 6 employeesWork either on-site (in an office, store, or other central location), hybrid, or remotely at their current company  ## About the author ### Eduardo Garcia Eduardo is a Content Analyst for the UK. Providing research and digital tech tips for SMBs. MA in Journalism and in Diplomatic Studies. 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