Have you run out of ideas of how to deal with a bad apple on your team— that toxic employee who has nothing positive to say, riles up other team members, and makes the office inhospitable for the rest of the team?
The bad news is you’ve got a contagious problem on your hands. Not only is toxicity infectious, but it is also capable of damaging the morale of your team and affecting performance.
The good news is that this article will show you how to manage the situation to protect your team’s morale.
Toxic Employees Come in All Shades
- There’s the individual who sucks all the energy out of the room.
- Or the employee who can’t seem to get anything done. Someone who always messes up deadlines, or someone who spends more time complaining about work than doing it.
- It could be someone with uncontrolled anger problems. This includes engaging in rude, disrespectful speech or behaviours.
- It could be the case of chronic gossip, where the employee discusses the personal issues of other staff without restraints.
- It could be the bully that constantly displays insolent behaviour and physically intimidates others by making insulting and demeaning statements, using angry, hostile tones, berating staff and colleagues in front of others.
- Finally, it could be the employee that exhibits insubordination. Insubordination refers to an employee’s intentional refusal to obey an employer’s lawful and reasonable orders.
In whatever shape or form they may appear, toxic employees are destructive, distracting and draining. They are like cancer that saps the energy of those around them. Left uncontrolled, they will cripple their coworkers’ morale, performance, and productivity.
Because they can ultimately poison your entire business to death, negative and toxic employees are a time bomb that must be defused.
In this article, we discuss the impact that they could have on your organisation and how you can push back to take control and stop the ‘infection’ from spreading.
Recommended post: Why the Right Employees Are Your Greatest Assets
How Does Negativity Affect Other Employees and Your Bottom Line?
A. Employee morale takes a bad hit
When you have a loose cannon on your team that’s continuously de-energising, frustrating or putting down teammates, your team starts to focus on what’s wrong.
Soon enough, they’ll see nothing good about your organisation. Performance will drop, and productivity will suffer.
B. Low morale births resentment and possible liability
If, as a leader, you keep turning a blind eye to the toxic employee in your company, it will come across to your staff that you are being permissive of the behaviour. A likely fallout is that the rest of the team may grow to resent you.
When your other employees get to a point where they feel they’re working in a hostile environment, don’t be surprised if it leads to potential claims against your company. We’ve seen it happen all the time.
C. Absenteeism and turnover will set in
No one likes to be in an environment that demoralises them or diminishes their confidence.
If a negative employee is allowed to continue to run wild and free, other employees, some of whom may be your A players, won’t want to put up with the negativity, even if other aspects of their jobs are rewarding.
They may not show up for work if they’re scheduled to work with a problematic employee. At some point, they may begin to seek better pastures.
If they leave and the toxic employee remains, the process will begin all over again when you hire new hands, and you may find yourself in a vicious turnover cycle.
D. Customer dissatisfaction and attrition and reduced profitability
The worst place to have a negative employee is in your customer service unit. Nothing causes customer turnover faster than to have a toxic employee dishing out poor service.
And it’s no brainer that if your business keeps bleeding customers, your bottom line will dip. There’s simply no win-win situation in tolerating a negative/toxic employee.
Addressing Toxic Employees
So how do you tame a toxic employee and keep the situation from degenerating?
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Label the behaviour
Do not sweep toxicity or negativity under the carpet! Instead, address a negative attitude as a performance issue.
Be very clear about it and let your staff know that when they are disrupting the team, not contributing, and affecting productivity, it’s tantamount to not performing their job responsibilities to drive the organisation’s profitability.
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Discuss how the behaviour affects the team
Toxic employees must never be allowed to justify their behaviour. Spell it out clearly that the company’s policies forbid such behaviour, and make sure they understand what will happen if the behaviour continues.
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Emphasise the importance of workplace civility
Make it clear that civility and mutual respect are part of what is required from employees. Have frequent village meetings and emphasise the importance of showing respect for the rights and feelings of others.
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Deal with toxic or overly negative behaviour on a case-by-case basis
Even though this article addresses chronically toxic or negative individuals, there may arise occasions of toxicity from employees who have previously not shown such traits. When this happens, have a conversation with the employee.
It is not uncommon for bad behaviour to result from stress or personal issues. Let them know that you’ve observed a change in their attitude and that it’s hurting the team and company.
Of course, you want your employees to be successful, and so if it’s an issue that can be helped through your employee assistance program, remind them it’s available.
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Deal with all episodes of negativity/toxicity consistently
Even when addressing toxicity in a previously well-behaved employee, be sure to show impartiality and consistency in your dealings.
Good Read: How to Weave Your Employee Value Proposition into Your Organisation’s DNA
Keeping Tabs on Toxic Employees
It is helpful to approach the eradication of toxicity with severity.
When we work with clients to help sanitise their system of this trait, we encourage leaders and managers to keep a diary for employees that are particularly prone to this tendency.
The diary will include notes on what they do well and where they need development. This is also where you can note when you’ve talked to them about their behaviour – good or bad.
Good documentation must be accurate and must contain facts and not opinions. In addition, it must be concise, straight to the point and professional.
An example of a diary entry capturing a toxic behaviour
After I announced to the sales team that there was a need to revisit the sales target distribution and reallocate financial targets, Ade’s tone of voice and body language expressed anger and irritation.
At a point, he raised his voice and tried to shout me down as I tried to expatiate on the need for the changes. Ade was issued a verbal warning on September 2 2020, for similar conduct, referencing our policy on guidelines for appropriate conduct, which sets expectations on effective communication, and respect for all employees at all times.
If toxicity keeps popping up in the employee’s diary after more than two verbal warnings have been issued, it may be time to implement a more deliberate discipline process. Verbal coaching may be initiated.
If this doesn’t help, it may be time to consider suspension or termination, depending on the severity of the case. Be sure to carry the human resources specialist along throughout the process. And be sure to maintain an air of transparency, consistency and fairness.
Model the acceptable behaviour
As a business leader, you must model the kind of behaviour you want to see in your team. All eyes are on you, and your actions continuously serve as an endorsement for acceptable behaviour.
So, be sure to walk the talk. Bear in mind that if you’re not committed to the values, you can’t expect your employees to be.
Spell out the acceptable behaviour in your employee handbook
When a policy is both verbally stated and written down to guide the behaviour of your people, it will be easier for them to comply.
So, if you’re battling with a chronic case of toxic behaviour in your organisation, it may be time to upgrade your staff handbook to include things such as:
- Respect for the individual
- Commitment to high standards
- Value for teamwork and contribution to the community
Finally, to drill civility into the fabric of your organisation, make behavioural competencies part of your employees’ quarterly/annual/ performance evaluation. People tend to sit up when they know what’s at stake.
In Summary
Employee morale, productivity and customer service levels are at their highest when employees work effectively as a team and practice basic tenets of civility and respect for each other.
This, unfortunately, is not always the case when employees display inappropriate and disruptive behaviours.
Behaviour that is not consistent with basic professional expectations can result in significant negative consequences to the organisation and its people and increase potential legal liability.
To rid your system of toxicity, Workforce Africa can walk your managers through training programs on managing negative behaviour in their teams.
We can work with you to draw up policies and enforce them, and we can help you take care of performance and benefits management to focus on your business.
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