Conversation starter: Is toxic management spreading?
Chris Martin
Senior Economist | May 1, 2026
Key findings:
- Mentions of toxic bosses are on the rise. More and more Glassdoor users are mentioning toxic bosses or management. Reviews were 6.7 times as likely to contain these keywords in 2025 than they were in 2018.
- Some jobs seem to breed toxicity. Animal care workers - including veterinary workers and pet groomers - have the most complaints about toxic bosses (174% above the base rate), followed by fashion workers/models (82% above), and lawyers (80% above). Transportation, education, and engineering professions were least likely to mention toxic bosses.
- Reviewers are more likely to see toxicity in hindsight. Workers are 5.7 times as likely to complain about toxic management after they’ve left a job than while they’re still in it.
A bad manager can make a job miserable in so many ways. They can assign unpleasant work or be overly critical. They can bully or lord their power over their subordinates. They can take credit for successes, throw people under the bus after a failure, or stand in the way of raises and promotions. This sort of toxic behavior can ruin the experience of a job, and according to Glassdoor reviews, there’s more of it in 2026 than ever before.
Toxic management mentions contaminate Glassdoor reviews
Toxic bosses have become a regular fixture of Glassdoor reviews in the past two years. Prior to 2022, one in every 2,000-3,000 reviews mentioned toxic management, but the rate increased to one in every few hundred in 2026. The chart below shows how rates have developed compared to a 2018 baseline.
Mentions of toxic bosses remained mostly stable through the end of 2021. In 2022, mentions of toxic bosses started to rise. This increase accelerated in 2024 and 2025, leaving mentions of toxic management 7x above 2018 levels in the beginning of 2026.
This increasing rate could be because bosses’ behavior has worsened or they are making more unreasonable demands. It could also be that workers are less able to leave a bad situation: the rise in toxic boss mentions coincides with a weakening labor market as hiring and quit rates started falling at the same time. This means workers may be stuck in bad relationships with their bosses, and those relationships fester as workers struggle to find alternatives.
Keyword trends in Glassdoor reviews can mirror a word’s popularity in the general lexicon. That does not appear to be the case with these toxic boss keywords, which saw only modest increases in popularity in Google searches between 2022 and 2026.
Some jobs breed toxicity
Some of the jobs most likely to mention toxic bosses align with expectations: models and fashion workers are 82% more likely to mention toxic bosses, and lawyers are 80% more likely to mention toxic bosses. The jobs most likely to complain about toxic management are in animal care, where mentions are 174% above the base rate. This includes jobs like veterinarians, veterinary assistants/technicians, pet groomers, and dog walkers. Evidently, being good with animals makes you less likely to be good with people.
The job groups where workers are least to complain about toxic management were transportation (59% below the base rate), education (36% below) and engineering (25% below the base rate).
Bad behavior is easier to identify in hindsight
Between January 2024 to March 15, 2026, workers who review jobs they no longer hold are 5.7x as likely to mention toxic managers in their reviews than those reviewing their current jobs. It is not the case that former employees dominate the discussion of toxic management: 87% of reviews mentioning toxic managers came from current job holders. The pool of current employee reviews is much larger than that of former employees, but toxic mentions are more prevalent from former job holders.
This could be because workers fear reprisals if their toxic manager suspects they were behind a Glassdoor review that called them out (even though reviews are anonymous, and reviews that name specific managers violate Glassdoor’s terms & conditions and are removed).
Conclusion
The best way to avoid a toxic boss is to avoid them altogether by identifying signs of bad behavior in the interview stage. Even if you do your best, you could end up with a new boss, or a good manager can turn toxic in response to the stress they’re under themselves. In the current market, workers are less able to find a new job and put a bad situation behind them - which may explain why more Glassdoor reviewers are mentioning toxic bosses in 2026 than ever before.
Methodology
Glassdoor reviews are counted if they include the phrases “toxic boss”, “toxic manager” or “toxic management”. For the time series, we pulled this from a total pool of 9.6 million Glassdoor reviews, and used the average rate in 2018 as the baseline. Fashion jobs are those where the job title includes “fashion” in the title, plus jewelry designers. Toxic rates were calculated based on reviews left between 2021-2025. Reviews from previous jobs were included if they were left within two calendar years of the employee departing their role.
Chris Martin
Chris Martin is a senior economist on Glassdoor's Economic Research team. His research has focused on employee engagement, workplace equity and compensation, and has been featured in The Financial Times, Politico, Harvard Business Review, and more. Prior to joining Glassdoor, Chris was a researcher at Syndio and PayScale, and a senior manager of analytics on the inclusion and diversity team at Starbucks. He holds a Master's in Economics from the University of Washington and a Bachelor's in Political Science from Utah State University.
