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Handling the marginally troublesome employee
By Ben | February 15, 2012
You probably wouldn’t have many second thoughts about dismissing an employee who’s extremely unproductive or behaves outrageously.
But what about an employee whose performance is mediocre, but not horrible? Or whose behavior is bad, but not outrageous? That can be a tougher call. But ignoring these problems can have a huge negative impact on productivity, morale and your career as a leader.
How do you know whether to let the situation continue or when it’s time to give him a last chance to straighten out before you remove him?
To read the rest of this article from the East Bay Business Journal, see:
Handling the marginally troublesome employee
http://www.bizjournals.com/eastbay/stories/2008/09/01/smallb6.html
For example, Carl manages a support group whose productivity is adequate. But the managers Carl is supposed to support complain that he’s too difficult to work with. He always has facile excuses when he misses deadlines. He conveniently forgets promises he made. Worse, he feels defensive and blows up at meetings and verbally attacks other managers. His negativity is catching and toxic to the rest of your team.
As his department head, you can see Carl’s problems and the unhappiness of your other managers. But you can also see the benefits Carl brings. He’s technically skilled and admired by people who don’t work with him. He’d be difficult to replace.
In essence, Carl is abusing and bullying you by doing just enough to get by. If you don’t act you’ll create multiple problems for yourself with the rest of your staff.
Real leaders bite the bullet when they have a bad situation on their hands. If Carl is unhappy with your oversight but won’t change his behavior, help him find a job somewhere else. Plan ahead; start looking for a replacement when you begin to hold him accountable.
When Carl is gone, your credibility will increase and you’ll get lots of positive feedback. Other managers will heave a great sigh of relief. There’ll be a decrease in insubordination, tension and complaining. Sick-leave and turnover will also decrease. People will thank you and tell you more stories about how bad it really was.
The simple fact is that failing to deal appropriately with a problem employee like Carl is a formula for disaster. If you have a Carl you don’t want to deal with, ask yourself: Are you willing to sacrifice your career to avoid confronting an employee who’s creating problems within your organization?
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Topics: Coaching, Consulting, Eliminate Low Attitudes CD, Hostile Workplace, Stop Bullies Book | 1 Comment »
February 16th, 2012 at 3:43 am
Great article and I think you’re absolutely right! I’ve been in HR for a long time now and I believe this situation is very common. Very few employees are actually “all bad” or even “all good”; they are somewhere along the scale and its important to manage those below the midpoint. I think the fastest way to enable the employee to find himself a more suitable position, though, is through documentation and counseling. HR often won’t allow the manager to release an employee until/unless a well-documented procedure has been followed, to ensure legal ramifications do not occur and to protect the manager/company. Plus, HR should have a succession plan in place already to help backfill this employee once he is released, making for a smooth transition. Often, managers are afraid that asking for help in these situations would mean that they would be regarded as poor managers, and that is not the case. The manager is an expert in his department; they are not expected to be experts at employee transitions. Carl has a team available to help him manage this problem and he just needs to reach out to get it started.
But you’re right, once it’s done, everyone is happier…even those folks that thought highly of him in the first place! His ineffectiveness with his peers and managers really does affect how well he can respond to his customers or those who admire him, even if they are not aware of it.