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Almost every manager have at least one difficult employee. It as an almost inevitable part of a manager’s job: there’s usually at least one (and sometimes more) employees who don’t do their jobs well, are hard to deal with, don’t get along with others, mean well but don’t do what’s expected and many more.
And the sad thing is that most managers are held hostage by these people, spending more time, thoughts, and mental energy on them than they should. They often come close to letting them go for years, but they can’t quite pull the trigger for various reasons.
These things keep them from getting stuck in a never-ending cycle of inefficiency and frustration.
When an employee is hard to work with, we often stop paying attention to what’s going on. We’re annoyed, it doesn’t seem like there’s any way out, and we’ve already decided what we think about the employee, so we turn our attention to something else to avoid the problem and protect ourselves. But the best managers pay close attention when someone isn’t doing well.
The best chance of making things better is understanding the situation as well as possible, including the difficult employee’s point of view. As a bonus, there are times when just listening can save the day. You might find out about a real problem that isn’t the employee’s fault and that you can fix. The problematic employee might act very differently once they feel heard, and you might discover real problems that need to be fixed.
Most bosses will complain about their employees for months or even years and never tell them what they should do better. Yes, giving bad feedback is one of the most uncomfortable things a boss has to do. But good managers figure out how to do it well enough, and then they do it. It is important to make the other person less defensive and gives them the feedback they need to improve.
When an employee is giving you a lot of trouble, write down the details. So many times managers said that they couldn’t fire a lousy worker because they had no proof of their bad behavior. Too often, people don’t write things down because they are too optimistic and don’t want to be “too negative” about an employee. They thought it would all go away if they didn’t write it down. Good managers know that writing things down isn’t bad; it’s helpful. Remember that if you can fix the problem, you can sigh with relief and put the paperwork in the back of the drawer.
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If you say you don’t like something, don’t sometimes do it yourself. People pay more attention to what you do than to what you say. If, for example, you tell your employees that they have to turn in a particular report by a specific time, but you’re sometimes upset and sometimes not upset when they don’t. The difficult employee follow your instruction if that happens. Choose your targets and only set standards you’re ready to keep, and be consistent.
Good managers get specific if things are still not getting better at some point. You need to tell the difficult employee that you still think they can fix this. Let them know what will happen if they fail to turn things around. For example, “You’ll be fired if things do not change by next month.” If problematic employees don’t think their bad behavior will hurt them, why would they change?
Good managers hold out hope that the person will get better until they decide to let them go. And they make sure they’ve done everything they need to do to be able to fire the person if it comes to that. If you’re at this point in trying to solve the problem, you should be having apparent talks with HR, so you know precisely what you need to do to clear the way for the termination if necessary.
Too often, bad managers would rather spread rumors about the problem employee than take the correct procedures. Good managers don’t say bad things about workers, no matter how hard they are to work with. It creates an atmosphere of mistrust and backstabbing, messes up how other people see you, and makes you look weak and unprofessional. Just don’t do it.
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During this process, ensure that your self-talk is neither too optimistic nor too pessimistic. It’s not helpful to tell yourself things like, “This guy is an idiot and will never change,” or “Everything will be fine; he’s great, there’s no problem.” Instead, good managers take a fair witness position, ensuring that what they tell themselves about the situation is as authentic as possible. For example, “His actions make things hard for the team. I’m giving him all the help I can to change. If he does, that’s great. If not, I’ll do what I said I’d do.”
The hardest thing for a manager to do is to fire someone. If it comes to that, do it the right way. Don’t find reasons not to do it, and don’t put it off or ask someone else to do it. The best managers do complex jobs perfectly. And if things get better be brave enough to accept it. Being wrong about someone we thought couldn’t be saved is sometimes almost as hard as being correct.
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Anisa is a writer who focuses on career and lifestyle topics in an effort to motivate both job searchers and employers towards greater fulfillment in their professional lives.
Reach me at anisa@jobstore.com.
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