When ‘toxic culture’ enters the cliche handbook, it’s time to stir contents of a petri dish

Labor frontbencher Clare O’Neil on the ABC’s Insiders, yesterday:

I think my experience … is that there’s increasingly a culture in … Parliament House that feels really toxic.

Where does this toxic culture come from? Henry G. Harder, Shannon L. Wagner and Joshua A. Rash, Mental Illness in the Workplace (2014):

The toxic workplace is fast-paced, profit-driven with poor people-management practices.

The New York Times, March 11:

Regular gatherings of young people in politics … are also notorious for alcohol-fuelled inappropriate behaviour. “At one of them, a Queensland Labor man threatened … me,” said Tammy Franks, a Greens member of the South Australian Legislative Council … Jacqui Munro, a former Liberal staff member in NSW, says the “mixture of older adults and young staffers” in political workplaces can produce situations where professional and personal boundaries are poorly defined … (Munro continued) “People can be inappropriately ­handsy, and sometimes get away with things because it’s considered a bit too difficult to manage in a long-term sense … Franks said she, too, sees signs of a “toxic culture”.

At junkee.com, Michaelia Cash’s slur highlights a toxic culture in Australian politics, March 5:

Michaelia Cash’s rumour-mongering about another MP’s staff this week reinforced an insidious culture of shaming women and their personal lives. This is a culture … leaders should be working to stamp out, not reinforce.

According to ABC News, women were bullied in a toxic culture of a Country Fire Authority boys club, October 17 last year:

The chief executive of the CFA Frances Diver acknowledged the toxic culture within the organisation.

Toxicity has reached Canada, Vice News, March 15:

Women describe Parliament Hill as a “toxic” and “male-dominated” workplace. The term “old boys’ club” came up in numerous interviews. “It’s like Mad Men,” said one female staffer … Brielle Beardy-Linklater, an indigenous trans woman who worked as a staffer here, felt she was an “outsider” — there were few people who looked like her.

Twitter’s toxic culture is failing to protect women, Amnesty says in The Irish Times, March 22:

The human rights group says the site has become toxic place for women.

Catherine Armitage in The Sydney Morning Herald, April 8 last year:

“Every step of the way, their gender is seen before the ideas they are presenting,” says Nicola Hazell, head of SheStarts, an accelerator program for female entrepreneurs … Start-ups have a woman problem: there aren’t nearly enough of them. One of the consequences is “bro culture” … The typical “bro” CEO in start-up land is a cocky young man with buckets of money … “creates a culture built on reckless spending and excessive partying, where bad behaviour is not just tolerated but even encouraged”.

Advice from Women’s Agenda website, February 2014:

Cultures of innovation, creativity and valuing individual differences are on the rise. However that doesn’t stop the toxic behaviours that individuals can still perpetuate on each other.

Forbes magazine, August last year:

How women are revolutionising Silicon Valley’s toxic culture.

The Herald Sun, July 15 last year:

A toxic AFL culture has been exposed.