The workplace environment is a dynamic one because it is basically a pool of people with different personalities.
There are people who are lazy, people who are motivated and work hard, and there are also people who do nothing but demotivate his/her coworkers.
Despite some negativity in your workplace, there are some things you can do to deal with them. In this article, I will go over some of the most common toxic employees and what you can do about them.
The Avoiders
“Roy has the knack of joining a team full of highly-motivated individuals and he is only there to piggyback on their success.”
In the example, Roy is a person who always joins forces with a highly-productive team. He does nothing but bask in the success without doing anything for the group.
So, how do you deal with people like Roy? Well, confrontation is key. Confront them that in the team, you need to be doing something; anything. Furthermore, you can also motivate the “avoider” to work for the betterment of the team by finding out the possible reasons for their behaviour..
The Office Clown
“Jim always makes fun of his workmates up to a point where the productivity of the group suffers because of it.”
I am pretty sure that there are office clowns in almost every workplace. The office clown is someone who always jokes about things and although you chuckle, he/she can sap the productivity of your coworkers.
In order to deal with the office clown, you can tell them that there is an appropriate time for jokes and that there is an ideal time for working. Never tell them to stop joking around as it is part of who they are. Just tell them to do it at the right time. Sometimes the joking might have a deeper cause you just need
The Slacker
“Joe tells Jane to punch his time card whenever he wants to go out of the office early. He has the tenacity to just slack off and browse his social media pages while working.”
Ah, the Slacker. These are the people who do nothing productive whilst the company pays for them. I am pretty sure we’ve slacked in the workplace for some time, but there are people who are habitual slackers.
In order for you to deal with this type of coworker, there are innovative employee time tracking systems you can use:
- Buddy Punching Prevention- Buddy Punching is where a slacker gets his/her officemate to punch the card for him/her even if they’re not around the workplace. The thing to do here is to implement a biometric device, so your employees won’t be able to clock-in without a physical presence.
- Employee Tracking Mobile Software- Attendance tracking mobile software is a new-age program wherein a tracking software is installed on the computer as well as in mobile devices. employees have to take selfies in order to clock-in and it has a GPS tracking system as well that automatically synchronizes the employee location with the manager’s server. This is to ensure that the supposed slacker is working on important things.
Gossipers
“Sasha is spreading rumors that one of her coworkers, Cindy, is having an affair despite not having concrete evidence.”
This type of coworker has the knack of spreading rumors and gossips to every person he/she meets in the workplace.
This is quite annoying due to a number of reasons: a. these rumors are often baseless and b. it destroys the dynamics in the office.
There are a couple of ways you can deal with gossipers. First of all, you can point out the negative consequences of their gossiping. Second, you can ask them nicely to keep the information under wraps as it can hurt other people.
The Complete Mess
“Jessa has been told many times that she has a messy desk and, well, she still doesn’t do anything about it.”
This type of employee is highly disorganized in that he/she just puts whatever it is that they’re working on just about anywhere. This can pose a lot of problems such as the inability to do things in an orderly and timely manner and that the mess they’ve created can be an eyesore for other people.
The way to have an organized employee is to tell them in a manner that they understand your intent that the mess they’ve created is putting others off.
Be firm but fair. Enumerate to such employees the reasons why having a neat and organized workspace is better not only for them, but also for their coworkers, especially nowadays in post-pandemic world people are more scrupulous towards their surrounding, and such items as disinfecting wipes have become unseparated part of our routine.
The Aggressive Type
“Samantha is a hard worker and is a person you can consider to have a “Type A” or go-getter personality. Despite her productivity, she gets angry whenever some things are not going her way.”
The aggressive employees are like bombs; they can either bring to you booming success or they can bring more harm to the company than good.
They are highly motivated individuals who will stop at nothing to attain a goal or a quota. However, this type of employee will also have temper problems whenever things do not go their way.
To handle this type of worker, you can ask them to talk with you in private. This is to help them express themselves without the judging eyes of their peers. Tell them to calm down while you guys are talking so that they can be comfortable airing their side of the story.
Loquacious Type
“Christine is a chatterbox; she always has something to tell. She is the life of the office, but sometimes, her behavior gets in the way of work.”
Employees who are talkative are not all too bad; provided that they only talk whenever there is free time. But, there are some people who just cannot stop talking to the point that the productivity of his/her coworkers is hampered because of their incessant chattering.
To deal with the Loquacious employee, you just have to be firm, but also fair to them. It is important that you talk to them away from other employees so that they will not become too defensive.
Conclusion
There are always some toxic employees in the workplace. They might be annoying, but some of them are not bad.
You just have to know how to deal with them in a manner that won’t demeanor demotivate them to be productive.
Hopefully, this article will help you in dealing with such employees in your workplace.