- Every work situation has employees who are stars as well as employees who are less than stellar.
- Among the less than stellar employees can be those who are continuously negative.
- Needless to say, these negative employees can put a strain on your overall workforce, which means you will need to intercede in this issue ASAP.
So how do you manage an employee’s bad attitude? Furthermore, how is a bad attitude defined?
For one thing, it isn’t as easy as issuing a timeout as a parent would with a child. That’s because in your business, you’re not dealing with children. They are (or should be) adults and adults require more mature responses than finger pointing and the demand to sit alone in a room or stand in a corner.
If at all, handling a workplace grouch can be a delicate and subtle operation. Tact is required as is at times negotiation.
Yes, your patience may be tried and your conscious might be wrung completely out, but to yell, scream, bark and curse is to throw yourself down to the level of the offending employee which more than likely can result in these conclusions:
- Yes, you have put yourself on the level of the bad apple employee, giving them the power to claim “See? I told you so.”
- Your lashing out at the bad apple employee will only worsen what could be a bad work environment due to this bad apple employee.
So you might ask yourself, “Am I left with no recourse?” No, of course you’re not.
You can handle this employee setback; you just have to do so in a managerial-type way as the following three actions suggest.
- Reassign and follow up with your negative employee.
There can be many reasons why an employee’s attitude toward their job or their workmates might go south, and you might honestly believe that whatever their issue is, it’s none of your business.
However, as a business owner, it unfortunately is your business. And your business could at one point be at stake due to this employee’s personality conflicts, etc.
Given that, your due diligence in this situation is certainly needed, and needed quickly to diffuse what could potentially be a powder keg of disruption and ill will.
Simply put, your job now as a manager is to confront this employee and find out what is wrong.
- Is there a problem with their job?
- Is there something they may not understand about their job or where it is leading to that causes their negativity?
- Is there a coworker who is troubling them?
If these and any other work-related questions are answered with a “yes,” you will need to try out some adjustments to get the employee back in the fold of happy and productive workers.
Switch up your negative employee’s work tasks. Or assign a completely different task to them to hopefully rekindle their interest in their job.
Once this is done, follow up with your employee in the next couple of weeks to find out if your suggested change has made a change in their attitude.
The two parts to this first step are designed to calm down the negative aspects to the negative employee while also preserving a positive work environment that might otherwise become fractured and in need of a rebuild.
- Empathize and compromise with your negative employee.
It’s very understandable how you would be hesitant to involve yourself in your employee’s life outside of work. In fact, it’s advisable that you do not involve yourself in your employee’s life outside of work.
But then again, maybe something is there that you need to know about as it applies to your work staff and overall business.
Simply put, something might be happening with your employee’s personal life that you at first may not want to get involved with, yet as the negativity ramps up inside your business, you find you’ll have to get involved with.
So you might explore the potential that there are…
- Problems outside of work, such as at home, with the kids or with the employee’s significant other.
- Alcohol or drug-related issues.
- Other issues, of which there could be an infinite number.
Regardless of what the issue is, and regardless of your thought of Oh, gee! Do I really need this crap now? You might not want to dismiss your negative employee because of their situation(s) outside of work.
In fact, aside from simply not showing up for work, it might not even be legal for you to dismiss your negative employee due to whatever is going on in their personal life.
You should instead empathize with your negative employee. Show your care and concern and ask the employee if there’s anything you can do from a manager’s standpoint.
Again:
- Do hours need to change?
- Do tasks need to change?
- Apart from what the employee now does, is there something completely different that he or she would like to do within the business?
Present and explore these opportunities. Even with the attitude issue, there is the presumption that you like this employee, and in the end would hate to lose them and their expertise.
- Offer a leave of absence.
Maybe your employee is burned out. Maybe that can be the reason for their negativity. They need a break and for the sake of your business and the darkening atmosphere it’s taken on, you offer this to them.
This, however, is risky, and in itself a likely place to end your relationship with your negative employee if it doesn’t work out. Why it’s risky is because your negative employee may take their leave and…
- Come back with a fresh, new and positive outlook on their job, which is ideal.
- Might not come back at all.
- Come back with the same dark and negative attitude, rendering their employment not tenable.
And with that, you’re done.
You’ve gone beyond your own patience level, and your business can no longer exist with an employee who for all intents and purposes can harm your establishment as well as you yourself.
In other words, at this point, the writing is on the wall for you and grumpy employee.
Conclusion
Let’s face it; some problems simply can’t be fixed, particularly if they are human problems that entail personalities and emotions. To that end, you can and only should do so much.
Because when all’s said and done, you have a business to look out for, as well as your other employees, not to mention yourself.
Sure, you may not have solved the puzzle of your disgruntled employee, but once again, that’s not your responsibility beyond the work environment.
Yes, you made offers, compromises and tried to understand, and good on you for doing so instead of simply dismissing the whole issue and firing your negative employee right off the cuff.
You’ve done what you could with this employee and now know what actions you’ll take if another employee suddenly goes negative on you.
As for now, you have a business to run. Don’t let anything or anyone keep you from successfully doing that.
