In any workplace, you’re bound to come across one of the following types of employees: the obnoxious problem child who has no respect for authority, or the toxic employee who poisons your working environment and morale with his constant negativity and need to control every aspect of everyone’s workday. While you cannot necessarily get rid of either, there are some precautions you can take to get rid of them quickly and easily so you can get back to doing what you do best – manage your business.
It’s pretty simple to identify a toxic employee. Look for these signs 1. Poor work performance, including frequent absences, poor quality of work, or failure to meet deadlines (or even show up). Sometimes you’ll have an employee who is incompetent at his job, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s toxic. If he can do good work when he feels like it, but isn’t interested in doing good work all of the time, that’s another sign of toxicity. 2. A lack of enthusiasm about their work. Some employees are just plain miserable at their jobs, while others simply don’t care enough about what they’re doing to put in extra effort on a regular basis. Neither type is going to help your business succeed, so be sure to weed them out as soon as possible if they start showing up on your team. 3. Unreasonable demands. This one goes hand-in-hand with #2 above, but it deserves its own bullet point because many managers fail to recognize how toxic employees use unreasonable demands as a way to manipulate situations in their favor. Don’t let yourself get caught up in games where someone tries to get more out of you than they’re willing to give back. 4. Disrespectful behavior toward coworkers or customers. All employees should treat each other with respect, but there are some who feel entitled to special treatment or think they’re better than everyone else. Watch out for any behaviors that make people feel uncomfortable around your employee; if you see something like that happening regularly, you need to step in before things escalate into something worse. 5. Lack of personal accountability. When people aren’t held accountable for their actions, they learn very quickly not to take responsibility for anything negative that happens around them.
If you have an employee who is struggling, it’s crucial to work with your HR department. The HR team has a lot of knowledge about how to navigate these situations professionally, which will help you not only manage your relationship with that person, but also maintain any legal compliance that may be necessary. If a toxic employee becomes violent, for example, you might need to contact human resources for advice. They can guide you through what steps to take next and provide additional support if needed. They can also offer guidance on how to best handle employees in other tricky situations—like when one employee needs more training than another or if there are complaints from customers or other employees about one particular worker.
While you can’t entirely prevent hiring an unruly child, there are some steps you can take to increase your chances of hiring competent employees. The most important is creating a detailed process for evaluating candidates. This process should include multiple rounds of interviews to determine how well they perform under pressure, their ability to work with others, as well as overall fit with your company culture. Many companies fail at one or more of these components, which is why bad hires so often happen despite everyone’s best intentions.
Check out what Insperity has to say about Toxic Employees here.
Or see what I have to say about the “bad apple” in your office.