Toxic Workers Are More Productive, But the Price Is High
&gt; Toxic employees don’t care about a company’s goals, nor do they care about building relationships with co-workers. More than just self-centered office bullies, toxic employees are actually strategic and covert.<p>This sort of describes the sociopaths of the Gervais Principle.<p>I don&#x27;t necessarily see how this is a Bad Thing to be. If relationships help you through the day, sure, go for it, but it doesn&#x27;t help you in your goals. Furthermore, your goals are, unless you are working for your own company, quite often directly opposed to what the company wants.<p>EDIT: let me expand on this:<p>Companies want (basically) the following:<p>- You to do as much work as possible<p>- You to require as little payment as possible<p>- Be completely loyal to the company, ie: work whenever they need you to, don&#x27;t even think about changing jobs, etc etc.<p>What you (should) want:<p>- Have job where you&#x27;d be most content, which could be at your current job, but probably isn&#x27;t. Let&#x27;s be fair: your own ideas for projects would be much more fun to work on then whatever you do for the company.<p>- Get paid as much for the work you do<p>- Do as little work as possible, so you have more time for yourself, your family and friends.<p>I don&#x27;t really see how their definition of &#x27;toxic&#x27; checks all the boxes above. I don&#x27;t care all that much for the company goals, since they are (to me) much less important than my own goals. I don&#x27;t care too much for relationships with co-workers; they&#x27;re my co-workers, they&#x27;re not the life-long friends I already had before I started this job. Furthermore, given that on average they&#x27;ll be gone in 2.5 years, spending too much time and energy into creating a relationship with someone who&#x27;ll be gone by then seems like wasted effort. Furthermore, I am covert about this (since saying these things outright would be bad for my career prospects). 
However, my input in this company is still a net win (for both parties).<p>Their definition of &#x27;toxic&#x27; is therefore inadequate.