Managing Toxic and Other Employees Who Have Attitude Issues

Most organizations have employees who, on occasion:

• Complain & gossip excessively
• Use inappropriate language
• Are mildly insubordinate

But Toxic Employees have interpersonal styles that demonstrate a pattern of counterproductive work behaviors. While Emotionally Intelligent employees are aware of their feelings & those of others exhibit a pattern of appropriate self-management.

The toxic employee problem is surprisingly prevalent, with research showing:

• 95% of employees have & 64% are currently working with a toxic employee
• 50% of employees have thought of quitting, & 12% did because of a toxic employee
• 25% of employees have reduced their work effort due to a toxic employee
• 20% of employees feel they are a target weekly, & 10% of employees see toxic behavior daily

Toxic employees cause significant overt, covert, people-related & financial damage with their visible behavior just being the tip of the iceberg. For example, in one organization, the day a former employee left the organization is considered one of their annual holidays.

Areas Covered:

Human & Financial Costs Resulting from Toxic Employees

Toxic Employees Create:

• Chaos & unnecessary complexity
• Overt damage
• Covert damage
• Strife, stress & emotional damage
• Productivity, quality & financial losses

The A, B, C’s Related to Toxic Employees

• Employee attitudes
• Employee behaviors
• Consequences that managers can exert

The Psyche of a Toxic Employee

• Frequently seen toxic behaviors
• Utilize ‘star status’ & technical expertise to intimidate & manipulate
• Chameleon who knows who to flatter & who he/she can abuse. They turn their toxicity on & off depending on the impression they want to make
• Three common forms of toxic behavior

Common Reactions to Toxic Employees That Frequently Don’t Work

• Restructuring his/her job to accommodate the toxic employee
• Tolerating toxic employees who bring rare expertise or experience
• Not assertively seeking feedback from employees as to whether there is toxic behavior in the workplace
• Not communicating to all employees the specific behaviors that will not be tolerated, with associated consequences

Effective Approaches for Addressing & Preventing Toxicity

Organization-wide strategies:

• Making positive interpersonal behavior an organizational value
• Evaluating interpersonal behavior as a part of the performance appraisal system
• Training leaders in how to address toxic behavior.
• Using behavior-based interview questions to screen toxic applicants. Exit interviewing to identify any toxic behavior in the workplace.

Departmental & team strategies:

• Defining appropriate interpersonal interactions with behavior-specific descriptions & standards
• Using team discussions & role plays to clarify the application of the behavioral descriptions & standards
• Utilizing a 360-degree feedback process to assess the work environment

One-on-one strategies:

• Stating explicitly that the behavior is not acceptable & why
• Describing both the unacceptable & acceptable behavior
• Asking the employee to commit to & describe how he/she will change his/her behavior
• Frequent, targeted counseling feedback
• Executive coaches
• Progressive discipline
• Termination

But even terminations are not a cure-all because the:

• Toxic-enabling people & organizational culture tendencies may remain
• Employees may still be resentful of the way they were treated by the employee & the time it took the organization to react
• Expertise & experience of the toxic employee are lost.

Who Should Attend?

• Managers
• Directors
• Presidents
• Human Resource Professionals
• Owners
• Anyone with managerial or leadership responsibility.