We can’t be excited to go to work every day, and sometimes we may even drag our feet getting there. That's just normal. But when you feel stuck in a bad or toxic workplace culture, you start to dread the beginning of each workday, and that can take a serious toll on your outlook and work ethic.

It’s not often a single thing that makes or breaks an organization’s culture. A combination of leadership, traditions, values, attitudes, beliefs, interactions, and behaviors together set the overall tone of the work environment. From an employee's perspective, rarely does a bad workplace culture start out that way. Little by little, things that seem insignificant in the moment can start to add up until one reaches the proverbial last straw. By the time employees feel overworked, under-appreciated, and burnt out, it’s probably too late to go back and reset the culture of the office. Instead, it’s important to proactively build the culture and make appropriate changes and tweaks as needs arise.