There is nothing that takes up more time, energy and mental space than dealing with a toxic employee in the workplace. The impact goes way beyond the presenting “issue”, as the toxic employee pervades not only a manager’s time and energy but spreads, like a cold virus through the whole office.
Clients often ask me what is the best way of dealing with such a person, as the very human tendency is to avoid, avoid, avoid, to duck when they approach!
But a truly toxic person doesn’t usually just go away, nor do they get over it. The truly toxic employee is different to the angry employee and the apathetic employee, both of whom I have written about before. The toxic employee may be (in fact, probably will be) angry, but not in the way that I have described in my previous article.
The toxic employee is something different. It’s almost as though they are angry with life and feel that they have the “right” to take this out on the workplace and their colleagues. And if they are aware of the impact of their actions, then they believe that’s a good thing rather than something negative. Little things aggrieve them and their discontent and malcontent spread.
There’s no talking common sense or rationally to the toxic employee. They don’t want to hear it. They don’t actually want to have the issue resolved. And they definitely don’t want to have to consider that they contribute to the issue in some way. No, no, it is always about others in the workplace and how they need to toughen up/be more considerate/listen more/talk less/do more.
I’m exaggerating slightly, of course, but not much.
The truly toxic employee takes time and energy, reduces productivity, damages morale and workplace and team relationships. And really there’s only one place for the toxic employee — and that’s somewhere else, in some other workplace.
And the funny thing is that whilst some truly are career toxics; for some toxic employees, it really is a case of wrong place, wrong time, wrong people — and a new workplace resets some of that and allows them to start from scratch.
Don’t wait until the toxicity of the employee is all consuming; until their colleagues are avoiding coming to work or making complaints (formal or other).
Be clear on what you want workplace behaviour to look like, sound like, feel like.
Then start the conversation. Offer support, training and help if necessary.
But if no change is forthcoming and there is no desire to want to change; then seek advice on changing the conversation to be quite a different one.
The key is to act. Don’t just leave this and think it will go away or get better. It rarely does.
Even rarer is the manager who does not regret acting sooner, once it is all over.
Until next week, wishing you a peaceful workplace!
