How to Deal with Difficult Employees

If you’re in a position where you manage an entire department or even just a small team you’ve certainly had to deal with a bad egg or two. Whether the individual wasn’t a good fit with the company culture, chronically showed up late or had problems with authority, you had to deal with them somehow. Though it’s never a fun experience, it’s a reality that every manager is going to have to deal with at some point.

Sadly, many managers let these people hold them captive because they are afraid to take action of any kind to either correct a behavior or dismiss the employee if that is what is necessary. This hesitation can have negative consequences for both you and the people you manage. In order to keep that from happening we’ve laid out the best ways to deal with difficult employees below.

Effective Feedback

Quality feedback, even if it is critical, is essential for handling employees that aren’t performing up to standard. Where most managers spend weeks, months and even years complaining about employees and nothing else, good managers are willing to have difficult conversations and provide honest feedback if there are issues that need to be addressed.

How you go about providing this feedback is what makes all the difference though. Screaming, yelling and personal attacks only serve to add fuel to the fire and usually put the subject employee on the defensive. If you find yourself in a position where you’re left with no choice but to have a difficult conversation with an employee, make sure you do so in a way that doesn’t put them on the defensive and gives specific information on how they can improve.

Document Everything

If you’re faced with having to reprimand an employee or even let them go, you’re going to need documentation of behavior that provides grounds for disciplinary action. In addition to writing down detailed accounts of incidents that happened, you’ll need specific dates, times and names of people that were witness to the behavior as well. While you might feel like you’re being too negative about an employee by writing everything down, you have to realize it’s the prudent thing to do.

Listen

If you’re frustrated with someone you manage it’s easy to lose sight of what’s really going on. You might find yourself blinded by irritation, the seemingly hopeless state of the situation and the thoughts you already have in your head about the person.

When the time comes to sit down with this employee it’s vitally important to be in a space where you’re able to see things through their eyes. The reality is that your only chance of finding a solution is having a clear understanding of situation in its totality; that includes the perspective of the employee.

When you actively listen to someone, you’ll often be surprised about what you can learn. Maybe the employee is having problems outside the office and you can recommend a place to go get help. Maybe you were unaware of some legitimate concerns they have that need to be addressed. Perhaps all this employee needed was just a chance to be heard and voice their opinion.

Be Clear and Consistent

You should create a plan of action for the employee to correct their issues and also ask for their input on what they are willing to do to fix it. This will get better cooperation from the employee if they have a say in the plan. When you set expectations make sure they are ones you can stick to as well. If you expect someone to perform a certain task by a certain time you have to hold them to it. If you hold employees to expectations sometimes and other times you let things slide, you send mixed signals and the results can be devastating for your team or organization.

Don’t Be Afraid to Set Consequences

If you’ve worked through the proper channels of trying to be proactive and nothing seems to have changed, it might be time to make some consequences known. The conversation might be something like the following.

Manager: “We identified (issue) a while back and but we haven’t seen much improvement. I still believe you can turn this around, but we are at a point that if things aren’t better by (specific date) than we won’t have a choice but to (write you up, cut your hours, let you go, etc.).”

When people are faced with tangible consequences that could affect them negatively it’s often the motivation they need to change. If not, as a manager you can rest assured you gave this person a fair chance.

Stay Professional

When you’re frustrated with an employee it’s human nature to think negatively of them. You’re going to be tempted to gossip or vent to your colleagues but that’s the worst thing you can do. When you disrespect people behind their back you foster an environment of distrust and pollute other peoples’ perception of the troubling employee. Simply put, avoid this type of behavior at all costs.

Be Courageous

As a manager, you’ve assumed the responsibility of making tough decisions. There’s nothing fun about having to fire someone but sometimes you’re left with no other option. When you get to this point, don’t put it off, don’t make someone else do it and make sure you do it as professionally you can. Even though you’re sure to feel bad, you have to remember you’re doing the right thing and your team or organization will be better off.

No one is going to deny that dealing with difficult employees isn’t any fun. As a manager though, this is part of your job. How you handle these tough situations is what makes all the difference. If you do nothing and continue let problems persist, you’ll be causing yourself undue stress and you risk sabotaging your teams’ morale and productivity too. You may even lose your best employees if the problem is allowed to persist. Instead, if you employ some of the strategies listed above, you’ll set yourself up to handle these situations proactively and professionally in a way that is best for everyone involved.