by Karen Brune Mathis
Managing Editor
Chances are, you know one.
You’ve either worked with a difficult employee or managed one. Perhaps it’s more accurate to say you tried because some employees, the especially “toxic” ones, can be a challenge at best and a disaster at worst.
In recent weeks, two Jacksonville CEOs alluded to the damage from such workers.
“One of the most critical things is what I call getting the right people on the bus,” CSX Corp. Chair Michael Ward told the Daily Record last month in a wide-ranging interview.
“There’s good ambition and bad ambition. If you have good ambition, you want the organization to do better, you want to do a good job, and eventually you’ll be rewarded by that with more responsibility, and eventually, more pay,” he said.
“But then you have people that want to climb the ladder, and will do it over people’s backs. That’s the bad ambition. If you see the bad ambition, you have to kill it immediately. It’s a cancer on your organization.”
RS&H Chair and CEO Leerie Jenkins Jr. told business owners at the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce’s recent CEO Nexus Forum that they need to hire great, not mediocre, people and to deal with difficult people rapidly.
“They’ll suck the life out of you,” he warned.
What is a toxic employee?
New York human resources consultant Robert Bitting has written that they share some characteristics:
• They are very negative, always blame others for their problems, and do not hold themselves accountable, even as they feel entitled to many “rights.”
• They are capable of doing good work, but often spend much of their energy pretending to work, doing only what is minimally necessary to stay out of trouble.
• They enjoy workplace games such as one-upmanship and drawing others into bickering. They also may draw weaker co-workers into “negative bonding” alliances.
• They treat as important only those seen to be of equal or superior organizational status, or those who can do them a favor. They ignore or treat poorly those who are perceived as lower or unimportant.
• They sabotage others’ work by backstabbing, badmouthing, spreading rumors and withholding information.
Know or manage anyone like that?
A Bloomberg Businessweek report suggested managers do a cost-benefit analysis about keeping the toxic employee on staff.
Does the toxic employee affect the productivity and performance of other members of the team? Chances are, yes.
Bloomberg Businessweek re-ported that if employees think that management’s need for the toxic co-worker’s technical or professional expertise outweighs the pain he or she causes, “expect morale to suffer” and expect top performers to look for new jobs.
Another result, said Bloomberg Businessweek, is that the presence of the toxic employee becomes too big of a focus and takes energy from everything else going on.
There’s also the possibility, or probability, that the toxic employee is affecting customer relationships as well.
Some experts contend that toxic employees, at least some of them, start as great employees but run into bad bosses, difficult situations or face other issues that affect their behavior and that they deserve an opportunity to rehabilitate their behavior.
But until they do, or until they leave, they can create expensive problems.
What’s the cost?
The book, “The Cost of Bad Behavior: How Incivility is Damaging Your Business and What To Do About It,” published in 2009, reported how employees can be affected.
Authors Christine Pearson and Christine Porath, college professors, found in a survey of employees who experienced workplace incivility that:
• 53 percent lost work time worrying about the incident and future interactions with the offender.
• 46 percent thought about changing their jobs to get away from the offender.
• 37 percent reported a weakened sense of commitment to their organizations.
• 28 percent lost work time trying to avoid the offender.
• 22 percent reduced their efforts at work.
• 12 percent actually changed jobs.
• 10 percent decreased the amount of time they spent at work.
What to do?
American Medical News suggests that companies take several steps to deal with a toxic employee.
• Identify the problem and note examples.
• Start a discussion with the employee about the problem, citing examples.
• Ask the employee what he or she could do to solve the problem.
• Present clear information about the company’s expectations and the potential consequences of failing to meet them.
• Follow up with a second discussion about whether the problem has been resolved.
• Have multiple discussions, if necessary, allowing time for resolution.
• Issue a written warning if the situation continues.
• Terminate, if necessary, with a short and direct conversation.
• Take notes throughout the process to protect yourself legally.
Jacksonville human resources consultant Bob McKenzie said he advises companies to aggressively use the 90-day introductory employment period for new hires because toxic employees usually reveal their nature sooner than that.
“As soon as the bad behavior starts, give the employee one chance and do not wait until the end of the 90 days. There is nothing that states companies have to wait 90 days before letting a bad employee go,” said McKenzie.
“The toxic employee creates a huge disruption in the workplace and their disruptive behavior should be pointed out to them as soon as it is recognized,” he said.
McKenzie said the new employee should be given one opportunity to improve and should be terminated if the toxicity returns.
Longer-term employees could be given two chances to improve their behavior, he said, which is fair, especially if the bad behavior is a recent occurrence.
“When meting out discipline, make sure to address the behavior of the individual as being unacceptable and ... always keep any discipline related to job performance and the productivity, quality and behavioral standards the company expects from its employee,” he said.
Some experts contend that toxic employees can be rehabilitated and restored to good behavior and full performance, but McKenzie isn’t so sure, which is why appropriate actions are necessary.
“Inform the employee that their behavior is not acceptable. Tell them the consequences of continuing their bad behavior could result in the employee losing his or her job. Then the onus is on the employee to rehabilitate or change his or her behavior,” he said.
If there is no change in behavior, then the employee is at fault, he said.
Then, “they need to go for the sake of the other employees.”
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