How to Deal with Difficult Employees

difficult employees Apr 03, 2019

I will pay more for the ability to deal with people than any other ability under the sun” – John D. Rockefeller

There are a wide variety of difficult employees that you may face as you progress through your management career. Whether it’s dealing with a lazy employee, a toxic worker, an employee who is disrespectful or rude to you, absenteeism, people who request a pay rise or a member of staff with a potential substance abuse problem, and many more.

Dealing with personnel issues can be some of the toughest work you’ll ever have to do, so you want to be informed and up-to-date on the latest laws and management thinking. The step by step solutions we provide in the manage difficult employee course have been gained from years of my own personal management experience, plus ongoing discussions with those in very senior managerial roles, whom I have been fortunate enough to know.

In this section, I want to quickly discuss why some employees seem destined to make your working life a hassle.

Understanding Difficult Employees

The first thing you need to understand about difficult workers is that they are often that way because their behaviour has worked for them – or has never been addressed – in the past. The chances are that by being aggressive, shirking responsibility or being out and out lazy, the employee has secured results in the past, whether it be less work to do, a feeling of power or the knowledge that they can do whatever they want and get away with it. That’s something you need to tackle. You could say it’s like a child; if a child knows it can get attention by crying, it will do so over and over again until someone breaks the cycle.

In some cases, of course, the employee’s conduct may not actually be intentional. It could be caused by lack of knowledge, fear, confusion or a lack of motivation. And it could even be that they are having some personal issues at home. Your job as a manager is to identify the cause of the problem behaviour as best you can and treat it appropriately.

Whether you are taking over someone else’s team where the behaviour was never addressed or it is conduct that you previously sanctioned by lack of action, it doesn’t matter. The time to step up is NOW. When it comes to your problematic employees, you are the one who is going to have to break their pattern of behaviour.

You may very well find that 90% of your time spent managing people is actually taken by just 10% of your employees. You need to be as efficient as you can with that tenth of the workforce to allow you time to spend on the other 90%. As a manager, it’s your job to make sure that each employee knows what the company – and you – expect from them, and that it is their responsibility to meet these expectations.

Of course, it’s important to recognise that all employees can be challenging at times; we are all privy to moods, emotions and stress. We are human beings after all. The employees who are always difficult, however, and show no willingness to change are the ones that you are going to have to work on. These are your truly difficult employees.

It doesn’t always follow that they are your least productive or useful members of staff, either; on the contrary, just because someone may be good at their job in many other ways, doesn’t let them off the hook if they are always taking credit for other people’s work, putting other people down or are aggressive with everyone around them.

In order to turn their offending behaviour around, you must act decisively and swiftly. Don’t ignore it because it is easier to do so; that helps nobody, the offending member of staff included.

There’s one fact that is worth keeping in mind at all times and you’ll find it actually frees you to take a logical view of situations – and that is that no one is indispensable. It’s true; everyone can be replaced, even you! 🙂 All managers have had members of staff that they didn’t want to lose; people they assumed the company would miss and struggle without if they left. It could be because they were exceptional at their work or because they had knowledge that no one else had. Well guess what? The company survived just fine! There may have been a period of adjustment but employees and teams are flexible and no one is indispensable. So don’t fool yourself that someone is too valuable to lose… they’re not. Keeping that thought in mind at all times frees you up to be proactive.

All the information I am giving you here is designed with one thing in mind; improving the problem behaviour and making that employee a happy and productive member of your team. You have a responsibility to everyone who works for you to give them the chance to correct their behaviour before you take more draconian measures.

It may take more than one meeting, discussion or confrontation to do so, of course, but the results could be worth it in the end. Years ago, I had one problem employee whose attitude made working with her very difficult. I came very close to terminating her employment several times but in the end I persevered. That employee is now a manager herself and is spectacularly good at her job. She credits our time together as the turning point in her life when she stepped away from negativity and inbuilt anger caused by a poor childhood and looked to the future instead.

Success stories like this make the energy involved in dealing with problem employees worthwhile. However, there will inevitably be times when the results aren’t quite so positive. It is important to recognise when you are out of your league or cannot solve the problem alone. Some employees may have psychological issues or addictions that you cannot hope to resolve; your best bet if you want to hang onto those staff members is to get them expert help.
It is also important to recognise when things have just gone too far to allow the employee to carry on in your company, in which case you may want to look at termination. In all cases, no matter what the cause, the basic rules on termination should be followed as laid out in your HR policy.

For now, let’s assume that things are not that grave as yet and focus on giving you the tools you need to try and turn around problem behaviour…

If you would like to learn how to deal with the different types of difficult employees you are likely to encounter in the work place, then consider joining the training where I go into more detail about all the different types and how to handle each one.

==> Click Here to Learn How to Deal With Difficult Employees at Work <==

Managing employee misconduct is one of the most difficult tasks facing any manager. Successful management requires a plan for handling workplace problems quickly, effectively and consistently, with the goal of maintaining a positive working environment, keeping equality among staff and avoid any legal repercussions for the manager or company.

We discusses how managers might deal most effectively with such common problems as: rude behaviour, not listening, tardiness, disrespectful attitude, inappropriate clothing, bullying, poor grooming, sexual harassment, racist behaviour, and many other uncomfortable issues that occur in the workplace! We also include real life conversation examples so you know exactly what to say!

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