Managing Bad Employees
The Devil in Prada is no match for the employee from Hell! While a great deal of attention is being directed to ‘Bad Bosses’ who, literally, make their employees lives a living hell, less is said about the employee who is a recurring nightmare during the day hours in the workplace. It is ultimate irony that a place of employment, in which a paycheck is exchanged for services provided, is often times held hostage by its own institutional policies and unwillingness to confront employees whose daily dysfunctions are a hindrance to improving the bottom line. The dysfunctions run the continuum from chronic tardiness, absenteeism due to a long list of undefined illnesses, to behavior in need of a pharmaceutical remedy.
It has often been stated, as a matter of business lore, that 80 percent of managerial time is taken up by 20 percent of the workforce. The idea that such a small number of individuals can garner so much time and attention is, truly, a testament to a large organization’s ability to endure and prevail despite this brand of annoyance. In fact, there is a greater tendency to minimize the impact by channeling the employee – from - hell to various departments that are off the beaten path. The real issue for most entrepreneurs is in knowing how to manage the behavior when the organization is not large enough to hide that individual.
It makes no logical sense that employee who agrees to perform daily tasks, (Psychological Contract), in exchange for an agreed upon compensation, would go out of their way to be anything but a good employee. Yet, for a certain percentage of the workforce, the idea of being an ideal employee goes against their….whatever!
At the point of workplace dysfunction, it becomes the responsibility of the immediate supervisor to begin to reel in the behavior. Supervisors are rarely trained in the fine art of psychological assessment, but they are expected to ‘coach’ an employee with an attendance problem into conforming to organizational standards. When besieged by a variety of issues that pull at trying to grow a business, any entrepreneur would be hard pressed trying to address the question, “Why am I spending valuable time trying to coach an adult employee into coming to work on time?”
The simple fact of the matter is that most employees-from-hell are more than aware of the fact that they are an employee-from-hell. There are those who wear this label as a badge of honor as opposed to an indictment against their character. Having pride in the dysfunction seems to be one of those motivators that lay dormant beneath the radar of most selection instruments. The ninety first day of employment appears to be the point when the dysfunction begins to rear its ugly head. From that point forward it becomes a drain on the organization’s resources to keep the behavior aligned with organizational goals.
The other immeasurable impact is felt by the employees who are, departmentally, forced to work with this brand of employee. Their primary concern is always centered on why any organization would tolerate such conduct when the other employees within in the department are, essentially, doing their job. How many times have employees breathed a sigh of relief having watched the employee – from – hell be marched out of the organization, only to have them reinstated due to some technical flaw in the removal process? It would seem that if a reasonably thinking adult knows that they really don’t want to work at a particular place, then any behavioral demonstration that reinforces that sentiment is just a waste of time!
When small, entrepreneurial organizations have no place to hide this brand of employee, it has no recourse but to confront the problem head on, with legal and Human Resource consultation, and resolve the issue before the workplace becomes a haven for the organizationally dysfunctional.
Managing Bad Employees - To learn more about this author, visit Lee Meadows's Website.
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Cheryl MatthynssensCheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur. Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well. A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles. She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide- to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being. Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com - Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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