How to Deal with Toxic Employees?

How to Deal with Toxic Employees?

Should You Take Action Against Toxic Employees?

It is really important for you to know how to spot toxic employees. This is because they can play a big part in bringing your company down. Such individuals can very easily ruin the work experience for others as they might create issues with killing initiatives, absenteeism, and by promoting a hostile workplace environment. Such employees are not necessarily malicious. But they can do more harm to your business than you can imagine. For instance, they might hurt coworkers around them and lower their morale and confidence. 

6 Ways to Take Action Against Toxic Employees

If you have got a toxic employee on board then it is best to take action immediately before things can take turn for the worse. I remember when my friend bundled the internet with Spectrum TV package for his office. One of his employees started to misuse the TV facility. My friend took the necessary action to stop this sort of behavior from creating more problems.

Let’s now discuss some ways that can help you deal with such workers. 

#1. Obtain the Information

Once you get to know that the employee is toxic, the first thing you should do is to look out for specifics. You should talk with the individual and let him/her know how his/her behavior is causing a problem. Though you may think of toxic employees as an aggressive sales guy who doesn’t really blends with anyone and prefers to work alone or a woman from the marketing department who rejects the idea, she doesn’t suggest herself, that’s not always the case. Sometimes, a toxic individual can be a person who has different issues and treats the workplace like his/her personal therapy meeting. Or it can be a friendly individual who always has an excuse for his/her lack of productivity. 

#2. Define Boundaries

After you have obtained the information needed, you can proceed to have a personal conversation with the person. During the meeting, you can let him know about how his/her undesirable behavior is affecting the team members. You can also present him with the specifics that you have collected. Make sure that you let the individual know what the consequences would be if he/she continues with the bad behavior and explain why displaying good behavior is important. 

#3. Make A Plan

One way to deal with a toxic employee is through feedforward. It is the opposite of what feedback is. This is where you will not focus on the past and will provide the individual with a set of actionable steps that an employee can implement to get rid of his/her toxic behavior. This method would be really important especially when that toxic person is a high performer of your company. 

#4. Monitor the Individual

When you have given the toxic employee some boundaries along with ways following which he/she can alter their bad behavior then it will be important for you to keep an eye out. This will let you know if the person is making efforts to amend the behavior. You can also have constant meetings with the employee. It will help you figure out if they are improving or not. To make their behavior better, you can opt for various solutions such as conducting training. 

#5. Protect Your Team

If you want to ensure that the workflow of your business is not disrupted, you would need to protect your team members. This is because a toxic person will have the tendency to drag everyone down. One way to save your team would be to minimize the time the individual spends working with them. However, it doesn’t mean to completely isolate the toxic person. Instead, just try to limit the interaction of that particular employee with the rest of the staff. 

#6. Let Them Go

After you have given it your best to change the behavior of a toxic employee but to no avail then consider letting them go. You can’t afford the rest of the team to be affected by the individual’s behavior or actions. According to a study by Christine Porath, 4% of the employees with interpersonal problems acted in an undesirable way just because it was fun and they thought that they would get away with it. Therefore, if you have someone similar in your company then no coddling or counseling can help the individual. 

Conclusion

Having a toxic employee in your workplace can be a bad thing if the individual refuses to change his/her behavior. However, you can consider the above mentioned six ways that can help you uncover the reason why the person is acting in a certain way. Also, you can always talk to the employee and try to explain to him/her how their actions are causing a disturbance in the w