Toxic Coworkers + The Infinite Workday Crisis

Inside This Issue:

Two critical workplace challenges demand your attention this week: the toxic behaviors undermining your teams and the boundary-less workdays burning out your best people. While technology promises solutions, the human element remains paramount in creating sustainable, healthy work environments.

Featured Insights:

How To Spot Toxic Co-workers: The Bystander, The Parasite, The Triangulator

Psychotherapist Margaret Ward-Martin provides a comprehensive guide to identifying and managing toxic workplace personalities that can devastate team morale and productivity. From "The Gossip" who manipulates through conspiratorial whispers to "The Parasite" who steals credit for your ideas, Ward-Martin outlines seven distinct toxic archetypes and offers specific scripts for addressing each. She emphasizes the importance of understanding DARVO (Deny, Accuse, Reverse Victim and Offender) tactics used by workplace bullies and provides actionable advice for HR professionals to foster transparency and accountability in their organizations.

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Battling the Infinite Workday: Employers Must Redefine Boundaries

Microsoft's latest research exposes the growing crisis of the "infinite workday," where employees find themselves perpetually connected and overwhelmed by digital communication. The report reveals that one-third of employees feel current demands are unsustainable, with work increasingly bleeding into evenings and weekends through constant emails, Teams messages, and impromptu meetings during peak productivity hours. The solution lies in strategic organizational changes: applying the 80/20 principle to prioritize high-impact work, establishing clear boundaries for deep work, redesigning siloed structures, and leveraging AI to automate routine tasks and manage information overload.

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Fresh off the Press

Stay current with key headlines and announcements from across the industry.

• Employment Rights Bill – Stick to the Basics and Don’t be Overwhelmed

• Beyond Compliance: The EU Accessibility Act and a Strategic Rethink of Workplace Tech

From Our Vault

From our archives, this prescient 2022 analysis explores whether employee experience initiatives are strategic imperatives or dispensable luxuries during economic uncertainty. Drawing from research across 28,000 employees, it reveals that while financial compensation has become increasingly important due to cost-of-living pressures, autonomy over work boundaries and values alignment remain critical drivers of engagement. The piece warns that purely transactional employment relationships lead to "quiet quitting" and emphasizes that trust, once broken, is difficult to rebuild—making human-centric EX strategies essential for long-term organizational resilience.

Read the full article.

The Extra Point

Summer Productivity: Mid-Year Check-In: Is Your Team Running on Empty?

As we hit the halfway point of 2025, many organizations are grappling with summer slowdowns, vacation coverage gaps, and the challenge of maintaining momentum while employees recharge. Consider this your reminder that sustainable productivity isn't about grinding through, it's about strategic pacing for the long haul.