How to Handle Difficult Employees

Failure to handle difficult employees is possibly the biggest weakness of new and old managers alike. At heart, all managers want their team to get on, work productively together, do the job effectively and, ideally, be a pleasure to work with. What we don’t want is one or two ‘bad apples’ in the bunch who upset co-workers, interrupt productivity and efficiency, and, worse, ‘taint’ other easily-led workers with their grievance.

Nigel took over a small team at his new company who had been together for two years. He had been warned that their previous boss was ‘failing’, hence his replacement, and that his inability to lead properly had influenced the team negatively.

Most people were glad to welcome a new manager, especially one with Nigel’s experience. However, there was one employee who would never be happy no matter what he did. This ‘toxic’ employee quite clearly hated her job and wanted others to be as unhappy as she was. Misery loves company, as they say. Employees with bad attitudes are infectious; they will always try to get others to see and share their point of view.

Her negativity, complaints and bitterness spread to all those around her, especially the office junior who listened to every word her desk neighbor uttered. She was also down at the mouth, complaining frequently, her productivity falling as a result. Surrounded by these two noxious employees, the team struggled to maintain morale and motivation.

Nigel knew what he had to do. He instigated disciplinary procedures, giving both employees the opportunity to improve. Unfortunately, the first employee refused, or was incapable of lifting her game. Nigel believed the office junior could do so if she wasn’t exposed to the constant negativity, and separated the pair.

Eventually the toxic senior employee – we can’t call her a member of the team because to all intents and purposes, she certainly didn’t act like one – left the company. One month later, the office junior personally thanked Nigel for his interference, revealing that a ‘weight’ had been lifted from her working life.

This saga had a happy ending – even the fired employee found work elsewhere that she was much more suitable for – because Nigel was experienced enough to recognize the problem and take action.

If you were faced with an identical situation, would you do the same?

A lot of new and novice managers shy away from handling difficult employees; they put their head down and hope it will go away. They avoid confronting the tough stuff but this only allows it to fester unchallenged and interfere with the team dynamic.

Your tough situation could be similar to Nigel’s, or it could be one of a myriad of different circumstances. Perhaps a team member is very good at their work but is a poor communicator, upsetting both co-workers and clients; alternatively, another may try very hard and have the right attitude but lack the technical skills.

How to Handle Difficult Employees

Whatever the difficult employee issue is, I’ll give you the same piece of advice: tackle it, and tackle it now. Deal with it head on. The longer you allow it to continue, the harder it will be to contest it. You might also be failing the individual employee concerned, leaving them to struggle with bad habits that once ingrained may never improve.

Tackling it in a timely fashion, however, doesn’t mean going off half-cocked. Evaluate and plan your challenge; do your homework and act only on facts, not gossip or rumour. Evaluate the specific case in front of you; some situations are caused or exacerbated by stress. Could that be true in this case?

Problems aren’t always caused by negative intent; keep your mind open. You may find that the employee is struggling with serious personal issues or family problems that you didn’t know existed.

Once you have your plan – including knowing where and how you’ll speak to the employee in private – carry it out. Find the courage to speak to the employee; remember always to separate the behaviour from the person. Don’t make it personal; you are not there to win but to try to correct the behaviour. Avoid ‘you’ statements, such as ‘you did this, you did that…’

Always maintain respect for the difficult employee; treating them badly will just put them on the defensive and torpedo your chances of a successful outcome. Ask questions to try and draw out the problems or causes of the inappropriate behavior; don’t interrupt. Knowing the cause of the behavior will make it much easier to tackle.

Finally, always stay calm and impartial, no matter what gets thrown at you when handling difficult employees.

Some practical steps:

• Seek help if you need it: recognize when an employee problem is over your head. Ask for expert help, either from your HR department or outside experts if appropriate.
• Don’t dwell on difficult employees and the situation you find yourself in. It’s inefficient and such employees will only become worse if you do not tackle the problems. So handle it as quickly as possible and move on, use your time more productively elsewhere. Time is the most precious commodity we have and you can’t get it back once it’s gone.  In fact, poor time management is the key to falling short of accomplishing your goals. I’ve figured out a lot of tips over the years on how to get more done in less time, by implementing a few easy strategies. (If you would like to know more,  take a look at my “time management tips“ page. Work Smarter, not Harder!)
• Remember always that nothing threatens morale and productivity faster than a team member acting inappropriately or under-performing, and is there anything more important than morale and productivity? Difficult employees exist because you allow them to, so don’t.
• Recognize when you are at an impasse. Good intentions won’t stand for much if the employee refuses to change. Don’t let it drag on forever; begin the termination procedure according to your company rules.
• Write down the key points of your interaction with this particular employee. Keep records of the problem behavior in case it does move towards termination.
• Be consistent. If you make a point of saying you are not ok with certain behavior, maintain that consistency. Don’t accept it from someone else or put up with it to avoid a confrontation.
• Never bad mouth an employee to your other members of staff. Keep your frustration to yourself and be professional. Creating an attitude of back-stabbing and distrust will unsettle the team.
• If you do decide to fire someone, have the courage to see it through. Don’t delay or make excuses or allow someone else to do it in your absence; even if company policy is to let HR do it, as their boss you owe it to them to be there as well.
• Remember that potentially all of this can be avoided if you hire the right people in the first place. Choose the best candidates that you can trust in roles that they are suited for. Being a manager can be tough, don’t make it harder than it needs to be.

I hope you have found this article on how to handle difficult employees in the workplace useful!