ToxicCorp
A 3-episode series about the toxic work environment at the company ToxicCorp. This series is a tool to continue the very important conversation about toxic work environments that is already taking place.
A toxic work environment includes bullying, harassment, ostracism, and incivility. It can cause reduced wellbeing and lower moral among employees. A toxic work environment will also lower profit, create a higher turnover among the employees and can lead to a bad image of the company. (Rasool, SF, Maqbool, R, Samma, M, Zhao, Y & Anjum, A 2019, ‘Positioning Depression as a Critical Factor in Creating a Toxic Workplace Environment for Diminishing Worker Productivity’, Sustainability, vol. 11, no. 9, p. 2589, accessed from http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su11092589.)
In online spaces can we already find conversation on how to survive, change or identify toxic work environments. To not dismiss the conversation already taking place is the goal in this project to continue the conversation, but thought a new perspective and with a focus on the system that keeps the toxic work environment at a workplace.
To continue a conversation do you need people to interact with your project. A very engaging medium that a lot of people enjoy interacting with is videos especially humorous videos, that is why ToxicCorp is a satire/humor series. This series is taking place at a company by the name ToxicCorps. Where we get to meet character that are taking part in upholding the toxic work environment, are victims of it or neither. We get to see how a toxic work system effects everyone at a company and spreads like drops from a cup of coffee falling over.
Episode 1. Fired
Episode 2. Smile and Values!
Episode 3. Here we go again
A lot of time went into researching toxic work environments in bigger companies, to make sure that the script could be based on real life events. I was hoping this could make the series relatable and therefore make people feel seen. Read the script.
To conclude, toxic work environments can have detrimental effects on the employees’ health and the company’s image and profit. It is not possible to make all these horrible experience people had disappear but if we can talk about them can we also become aware and hopefully make a change. Everyone loses in a place where a toxic work environment is present so let’s continue the conversation.
