Workplace culture or how to build a healthy team environment.
Once again, LinkedIn gave me an idea for a post.
Over the years, I’ve worked at a little more than a dozen companies, not just in tech, but also in civil engineering. And I’ve noticed something interesting.
About half the time, I ended up in amazing teams with friendly, supportive people and a warm atmosphere. The other half? Cold, toxic environments with serious communication and trust issues.
That contrast got me thinking: what actually makes or breaks team culture? And more importantly, when our company GraphTracks.com start hiring, how do I make sure we build a healthy, motivated team?
I’m not an HR expert. I don't have any special training or certifications, just my personal experience, observations, and intuition.
But here’s what I’ve learned:
- As the CEO goes, so goes the team.
If a CEO surround themselves only with people who are loyal and agreeable, avoiding those who challenge ideas, offer critical feedback, or ask tough (but necessary) questions no matter how skilled those people may be, it sets a tone. The team becomes quiet, passive, and disengaged. This mindset trickles down the hiring chain, managers often adopt the same approach when building their own teams. Eventually, employees face a dilemma: speak up and risk their jobs, or stay silent and endure it. But silence turns into dissatisfaction. Over time, suppressed frustration can lead to interpersonal conflicts or even forms of workplace bullying.
- Not enough meaningful work leads to trouble.
I’ve seen this many times. When people don’t have enough to do or the work just isn’t interesting, boredom kicks in. And with boredom often comes drama, gossip, or unhealthy dynamics.
- Uncompetitive salaries.
When people know they’re underpaid, it affects everything: motivation, loyalty, even how they treat each other.
- Discrimination kills culture.
Any environment where racism, sexism, ageism (or any “-ism”) is present is bound to become toxic. It’s impossible to build trust or collaboration on that kind of foundation.
- Poor or illogical performance metrics.
When performance is measured by unclear or unreasonable standards, it encourages internal competition, gaming the system, and performative busyness instead of genuine productivity. Metrics should be transparent, logical, and aligned with real business goals, not just numbers that leadership wants to see.
- Companies that genuinely care about people win.
The best teams I’ve been a part of were in companies that truly valued their employees. Where leadership listened, supported, and treated people like… well, people. When people feel seen and appreciated, they give their best. They care about the company, the product, the team, everything.
So yeah, these are my top 6 takeaways from personal experience.
If you’ve seen something similar or totally different, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. Always open to discussion.
Thanks for reading!
