Memorandum
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- Connor Quincy via Fast Company
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- Business·5 min to read
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Toxic 'Masculine Energy' Cultures Cost Companies Billions in Turnover and Safety Failures
ReToxic 'Masculine Energy' Cultures Cost Companies Billions in Turnover and Safety Failures
Corporate cultures that reward aggression and self-promotion over cooperation are driving up costs through fatal accidents, fraud, harassment settlements, and employee turnover, new analysis shows.
Corporate cultures that prize aggression, risk-taking, and self-promotion over cooperation and caution are imposing heavy financial costs on American companies, according to a growing body of research and analysis. The problem persists even as political movements that champion such values show signs of weakening.
Women lead 56 Fortune 500 companies this year, a record that still amounts to only 11.2% of the list. They hold 29% of C-suite roles, the same share as in 2024, according to McKinsey and 's Women in the Workplace report. Meanwhile, bragging, shows of strength, and risk-taking continue to be rewarded far beyond the military, while cooperation and caution are often seen as weakness.
The labor market is moving in a different direction. In 2025, private education and healthcare, where women hold 77% of jobs, added around 800,000 positions while all other sectors combined lost about 500,000, according to an analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Many of the jobs created are badly paid, and the work that helps teams function — mentoring, organizing, defusing conflicts — falls disproportionately to women and goes unrewarded.
The costs of this cultural imbalance are measurable. Men accounted for 4,657 of the 5,070 fatal work injuries recorded in the United States in 2024, about 92%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While job type explains part of that gap, many deaths stem from a norm that tells men to ignore fear, skip precautions, and avoid asking for help.
That norm can change. Researchers studying two offshore oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico found that when the owner focused on safety and continuous learning, workers stopped performing fearlessness and began reporting mistakes. The company's accident rate fell by 84%, and productivity increased dramatically.
A second cost comes from employees who believe they are above the rules and from peer groups that protect them. In the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners' 2024 global study of occupational fraud, men committed 75% of cases and caused higher losses: a median of $158,000 per case, versus $100,000 for women. When rule-breakers are rewarded, rule-abiding employees lose motivation and trust in their employer.
A third cost stems from what Harvard Kennedy School researchers in 2018 described as a «masculinity contest» governed by four implicit norms: show no weakness, display strength and stamina, put work first, and treat colleagues as rivals. Workplaces scoring high on these norms showed more toxic leadership, less psychological safety, more bullying and harassment, and more burnout and intention to quit.
The «put work first» norm turns busyness into a status symbol. A 70-hour workweek becomes a source of pride, and an inbox with thousands of unread emails signals importance. People who sacrifice their lives to their jobs often believe they owe nothing to anyone, making them blind to suffering around them.
The damage appears in harassment settlements, legal fees, and workers' compensation claims. Higher costs emerge months or years later as absenteeism, ill health, and turnover. Every lost employee must be replaced, and those who stay are less productive.
Standard metrics fail to capture these costs because they focus on individuals and ignore how behavior affects others. A factory dumping waste in a river looks highly productive because the community pays for cleanup. Similarly, a toxic star performer's numbers look great because colleagues, managers, and HR absorb the damage.
Stanford University's Robert Sutton urged companies to calculate this «total cost of assholes» in The No Asshole Rule nearly 20 years ago. One company calculated that a star salesman cost $160,000 in a single year after adding up assistants who quit, anger management training, legal costs, and imposed overtime. Later research by Harvard Business School analyzing data on some 50,000 workers confirmed that avoiding such individuals yields significant savings.
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