Tweet

Do you have a toxic employee in your workplace?

Guest post by: Michael Smyth

Article Overview: Does your business (or a department within your business) suffer from any of the following symptoms: (a) High absenteeism; (b) High staff turnover rates; (c) Complaints about management? If so, then these symptoms are a sign of low levels of engagement. However, contrary to common belief, the problem may not lie with your disengaged employee. I’ll explain why.

Do you have a toxic employee in your workplace?

Why your disengaged employees may not be the problem

For two years at school I hated history. If I could avoid class I would. My homework was at best average and my grades reflected that. In short, I was disengaged. However when you looked at all my other subjects, my grades reflected a conscientious student always willing to go the extra mile.

In other words, I wasn’t disengaged by nature. When we come across a disengaged employee it is easy to think that he or she is disengaged by nature i.e. that’s just the way they are. However they may not be the case. Instead, it may be environmental factors causing the disengagement.

So perhaps it is the job. Well, in my case it wasn’t history that was the problem. I later went on to take History O and A levels and got some pretty good grades. The problem was my teacher.

My teacher was toxic

Unfortunately, for two years I had a toxic history teacher. By that I mean that he ruled his classes with an iron fist. His method of teaching was to put his students in fear of transgressing his rules of engagement. This stifled creativity and learning was by rote (i.e. memorisation and repetition). For some, rote learning works, which means this teacher would get reasonable results at exam time, but learning under him was torture and he didn’t get the best out of his students.

A toxic employee works on a similar manner. If you put a toxic employee on a scale of engagement, they may well come out at the high end of the scale. They may work long hours and get good results. Research tells us that an engaged employee is worth two ambivalent employees, so why would we do anything about them?

The damage caused by a toxic employee

Whilst an engaged employee may be worth two ambivalent employees, the damage a toxic employee causes to other employees around them far outweighs the advantage given by their high levels of engagement. That’s because, just like my history teacher, a toxic employee leaves a trail of destruction behind them and causes all your other employees to become disengaged. This has a direct impact on your bottom line through reduced sales (estimated at 60% lower for a disengaged workforce compared to an engaged workforce), higher absenteeism and higher staff turnover rates.

Don’t ignore the damage they are doing

Unfortunately, many businesses ignore toxic employees to their cost. Research produced by Massey University in NZ revealed that within the hospitality, health, education and tourism industries 18% of people had been bullied in the workplace. A bully is just another toxic employee, and they are everywhere in NZ business. If you want to improve your bottom line, you need to tackle them sooner rather than later and not allow them to carry on their destructive ways.

Related Articles
  Want to Know the Biggest Source of Stress at Work? Check the Office Next Door
  Transitioning New Employees Into the Workplace with Employee Mentoring Programs
  Mentoring in the Workplace Plays a Vital Role in Corporate Training
  Relationships: The Key to Organizational Success
  A Manager Is Only As Successful As Their Most Challenged Employee
  Eight Ways to Engage Employees and Power-Up Performance During a Recession
  Duty of care includes protecting employees from violence outside of work
  How Corporate Mentoring in the Workplace Strengthens Employee Relations
  Detox Your Corporate Culture
  Mentoring in the Workplace
  The Toxic Manager
  Protect your Workplace from the Violence and Murder of Annie Le at Yale University
  Human Resources Policies you must follow
  Employee Health And Wellness In The Workplace
  The Power of the Wolf
  A Tough Economy Can be Good for Your Career
  Managing Employees: Five Employee Issues That Lead to Chaos In The Workplace
  The Importance of Organisational Behaviour
  So you want to intergrate a successful employee incentive programs
  Toxic Business: Africa’s Scavenger Entrepreneurs

Article Tags: absenteeism, bullying, disengaged workforce, staff turnover, toxic employee



Related Forum Posts
Re: Tips for Small Business HR Services - Maybe atleast inform the employee what the employer expects from him and vice versa. Any relationship filled with expectations most especially high and unreasonable expectations eventually ends sour. If the employee does not fit the expectations of the employer you can either initially try to assess the employee during the interview stage if he does not fit the bill then look for another. But if ever you see the potential for improvement in that employee GT is right, training should be provided. With that every end is aware of the expectations surrounding the job.
Document Your Processes - Make sure that when you do plan on hiring an employee that you document your processes for that employee to follow, even the common sense ones. I recently interviewed a Starbucks employee and was advised that everything including menial tasks were all documented by thier Manager in thier training manual. They very seldom have to ask for clarification. This is important if you plan on having an employee inhouse or even outsourcing. When outsourcing it is more advising about your minimal acceptable standards.
A regular employee or a contracted employee? - Is it more valuable to hire a regular employee or a contracted employee? When taking into account wages, unemployment insurance and training in a company, which is better to hire?
Re: How do you maximize your time at business/networking events? - I once read that it can actually be JUST as beneficial to speak with the keynote speaker's (or whoever your target person is) assistant or employee since he/she will likely be more available to chat and if you can make an impression... that same assistant/employee can later endorse you to his/her boss.
Re: Franchise of a popular call center - If you have knowledge in running a call center and know how to manage it effectively then it sounds like it’s a good business for you. Workforce management relates to employee matters like payroll, HR, and employee training. Knowledge management relates to research, strategies, innovations and the effective use of technology. In both cases your prime clients are corporate sectors especially those who want to reduce their cost and increase performance at all levels.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Ten Steps to Go from Idea to E-book for Sale

Is the iPad useful? One CEO tells all ....

Good News Travels Fast

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.