Working in high-pressure environments means wanting growth. But such conditions may be too extreme, forcing an employee to resign.

Research of 1.4 million reviews on the job and recruitment website Glassdoor points to poisonous work environment as the number 1 cause of resignations last year. Hyper-competitive work is one of the factors of this cut-throat culture. Johnny C. Taylor Jr., president and CEO of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) in Washington, DC, says that such workplace cultures have created internal, unhealthy competition since day one, beginning from the top management down to the middle management and lower-leveled employees. A recent poll of more than 16,000 business leaders from 650 multinational businesses by corporate culture research firm CultureX also shows that management connections affected promotions more than teamwork. This means a cut-throat culture still exists.

Taylor recommends having business “guardrails” to keep the competition healthy. “There should be an agreement that no individual can win at the cost to their colleagues or organization.”