My colleague called another worker ‘toxic’. What did they mean?

June 26, 2026 — 5:04am

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I’m hearing the word “toxic” used more frequently at work. When I first came across it, I thought I had a rough idea of what it meant, but now I hear it used in a range of different contexts, and the meaning seems elusive.

Not long ago, a colleague used it to describe another colleague. I would say the person they were describing is headstrong and sometimes prickly, and I was curious to know what they meant by “toxic” – whether it was a special kind of unpleasant or something even worse. Their answer was defensive and rude. Perhaps you can enlighten me.

“Toxic” has had quite the linguistic adventure over a long time. If you go all the way back to one of its roots from ancient Greek, you find a word referring to archery – and poisoned arrows.

Fast-forward a few millennia, and you find a word used in workplaces (and to refer to relationships and even people) to mean, well, almost anything with a negative hue.

Like many words we use at work today, “toxic” in the broader, non-scientific sense, began its move into the vernacular when it was employed by psychologists and then, crucially,........

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