4.Foster Workplace Spirituality
Toxic workplaces can’t be fixed by compliance checklists alone—what they often need is a deeper sense of meaning, connection, and humanity. As Mitroff and Denton pointed out back in 1999, workplace spirituality isn’t about religion—it’s about purpose, values, and belonging.
That starts with simply listening: Milliman and colleagues emphasized the importance of surveys and focus groups to understand what really fuels employees beyond deadlines and KPIs.
From there, structured programs like mindfulness sessions (Dane & Brummel), values-based leadership workshops (Fry), and volunteering efforts (Giacalone & Jurkiewicz) can rebuild morale and trust.
Even small reflective practices—like journaling and gratitude exercises, as Emmons noted—can shift team energy and well-being. But it only works if leaders walk the talk, as Reave reminds us: spirituality at work begins not in HR manuals, but in the choices our managers make every day.
5.Enforce Clear Anti-Bullying Policies
Workplace bullying isn’t just “tough love” or clashing personalities—it’s a repeated pattern of harm that chips away at someone’s confidence, dignity, and mental health. It’s also one of the most insidious roots of toxic workplace culture—where silence becomes survival, and cruelty gets disguised as “standards.”
In government offices, the Civil Service Commission already takes it seriously, treating it as oppression or grave misconduct, even if it’s not always labeled “bullying” (CSC Res. No. 1701075; CSC v. Domingo, G.R. No. 199787, 2013).
Whether it comes from a superior’s abuse of rank or a colleague’s passive-aggressive sabotage, the impact is the same: people shut down, morale crumbles, and public service suffers.
Thankfully, mechanisms like grievance systems and CODI investigations exist to help survivors speak up and reclaim their safety at work (CSC MC 18-2022; Joint CSC-DOH MC 01-2020).
But this isn’t just a government issue. People in private workplaces also cry in restroom stalls, get panic attacks before Monday meetings, or quietly job-hunt while pretending everything’s fine.
A manager who humiliates in front of others, or a team that gossips someone into isolation—these are not “management styles”; they’re bullying. And if government rules already treat such behavior as serious misconduct, there’s no excuse for private companies to look away.
Anti-bullying policies should be hardwired into every HR manual—not as an afterthought, but as a line in the sand: here, we protect people. Because in any workplace, public or private, respect isn’t a perk—it’s a basic human need. (To be continued)/PN
