Do you have a quote you live your life by or think of often?

Those quotes that help us, as an employer, to check ourselves and ensure no toxic work environments thrives in our work life.

We spend a great part of our lives at work. It would be nice that where we work is devoid of toxicity from our ‘bosses’.

For many the option to walk away is simply one they cannot consider or afford to.

Their work is the only meaningful source of income for their households and extended family.

They need the money.

How do we create a work environment in which people choose to leave only for greener pastures, so to speak – their career growth on to better things?

At the same time we insist on not looking away when we detect toxicity from an external source – client, donor, etc.

So, on this Labor Day 2025 we share these “signs you work for a toxic boss.”

We share them, specifically for ‘bosses’ to self-check and hopefully self-correct.

We can self-correct and cease the tendency to publicly humiliate subordinates and colleagues.

We can self-correct from micromanaging our subordinates.

Let them flourish and give you credit as they take credit for their work.

Quotes such as: “If it was not for my boss allowing me … I would not have succeeded in ….” should be the norm you aspire.

We can self-correct from using fear and intimidation. You know, the unacceptable “we shall not pay you at the end of the month or job, if you …” type quotes.

Such quotes instantly show the boss’s toxic trait of “doesn’t show appreciation.”

The more you don’t show appreciation of work and threaten not to pay, the only logical effect is instilling self-doubt and therefore making the situation worse.

Learn to appreciate one’s contribution in it’s entirety.

Singling out just one bit that you don’t like and threatening not to pay is the very definition of toxicity.

In doing so, you open up the valid front for employees or contractors to find ways to exit your employ or the job, even prematurely and for lower or no pay.

They will give you the minimum expectation and then exit.

To expect them to give you their maximum in a toxic environment is being unrealistic.

And so, among our favorite quotes: