Nearly 7 in 10 American workers have clocked time in a toxic workplace. That’s the topline finding from iHire’s newly released 2026 Toxic Workplace Trends Report, and if you’re in the business of designing spaces where people spend eight-plus hours a day, it should be required reading.

The numbers, gathered from a May 2026 survey of 1,220 U.S. workers, tell a story that’s equal parts encouraging and alarming. Encouraging, because 68.9% of respondents said they’ve worked in a toxic environment — down from 75.9% in last year’s report. Alarming, because “less bad” is still pretty bad.

Two years running, the same culprit tops the list: leadership. Of the workers who said they’d experienced toxicity, 79.1% pointed to unethical, unaccountable or unsupportive leadership as the driver, and 72.1% blamed poor communication from managers. Nearly one in five workers — 17.2% — said their managers “rarely” or “never” modeled respectful, professional behavior.

If you’ve ever wondered why your best people disappear, the iHire report might shed some light. Almost half of respondents — 47.6% — have quit a job specifically because the environment was toxic. Nearly a third (32.4%) admitted to crying at work over it, and 43.2% said they “always” or “often” feel burned out. Then there’s the reputational bleed: 61.9% told others about their bad experiences, and 26.2% actively steered job candidates away from a toxic employer.

Here’s where it gets interesting for those of us watching AI reshape how work and workplaces function. The survey found workers are largely undecided about what AI means for company culture, with 48.8% landing in “neutral” or “unsure” territory. Of those who do see a clear impact, 18.9% called it positive, crediting AI’s ability to boost productivity (64.9%) and improve work quality (55.4%). But 9.5% see it as a negative force, and the top complaint is one I’d bet resonates with a lot of you: It strips the human element out of colleague interactions, making collaboration harder. It seems you can’t out-design a trust problem, and you can’t code your way out of one either.

This might be the most damning stat in the whole report. More than a third of employees — 38.8% — who witnessed toxic behavior never reported it, and 45.1% of that group said they simply didn’t believe HR or leadership would take action. Worse, among the employees who did report something, 51.4% said nothing was ever resolved. Add in that 41% of workers say conflict “always” or “often” goes unaddressed at their job, and you’ve got a workforce that’s learned, through repeated experience, that speaking up doesn’t change anything.

Launi Vawter, iHire’s Chief of Staff, said leadership sets the tone, and when trust in management and HR erodes, toxic behavior sticks around. Her prescription is accountability, communication and using AI to strengthen human connection rather than replace it. Whether organizations actually follow it is another matter entirely.

It’s tempting for those of us in contract furniture and interiors to treat reports like this as HR’s problem, not ours. That’s a mistake. Every dollar spent on a wellness room, a biophilic plantscape, or a reconfigurable collaboration hub is, in some sense, a bet that physical environment can move the needle on how people feel at work. iHire’s data suggests that bet only pays off if the culture underneath the furniture isn’t actively working against it. Facilities teams and dealers are increasingly being pulled into culture conversations whether they signed up for them or not. They are being asked to help “solve” retention and engagement through space planning, when the real problems originate in leadership meetings, not open-plan layouts. That’s not a reason to stop investing in better-designed workplaces. It’s a reason to be honest about what design can and can’t fix, and to push clients toward pairing any real estate or furniture investment with an honest look at management behavior.

The full report is available at Toxic Workplace Trends Report 2026 .