The Weakest Link: Fast Track to Nowhere

It seems my blog post about layoffs struck a nerve with those who have to deal with problem employees. I’ve received many requests to write more about those employees who are a manager’s and co-workers’ worst nightmare being a constant pain in the neck because they have a bad attitude and take longer than everyone else to complete their work leaving everyone underwhelmed. When a team member is not pulling his weight, other team members have to work harder to pick up the slack. And yes, a bad attitude is a performance problem. One negative Ned or Nancy can bring an entire team down. If not managed overtime, such situations have a devastating impact on productivity and team morale. Anyone comes to mind?

Five types of problem employees:

The Entitled

These employees have lots of pride but no sense or sensibility. It’s all about “me, me, me;” always wanting more believing they are more deserving than others. They have an inflated sense of self-worth and an exaggerated view of their talents and contributions. They feel they are doing the company a great favor by simply showing up at work and expect constant praise, rewards, and fawning at their feet for gracing the office with their presence. They are overly sensitive to criticism. When receiving constructive feedback they tend to be offended believing they’ve been mistreated or unfairly singled out. They have perfected the art of the blame game never taking responsibility for their actions.

The Victim

These employees thrive on being miserable. They believe they are always on the losing end of things suffering particularly unfortunate circumstances. They see the glass half empty always finding the down side. They constantly complain, an “oy to the world.” They focus on their self-inflicted misery not realizing the negative impact they have on others. It’s always “excuses, excuses, excuses!” blaming their circumstances taking no responsibility for missed deadlines or incomplete work. Taking ownership in their jobs and work is the equivalent of a student’s “the dog ate my homework” timeless excuse. They are habitually tardy or absent making things up to get out of trouble. They’ve perfected the art of making excuses.

The Slacker

These employees try to avoid work at all costs. It’s all about passing the buck. They are the ones spending hours surfing the net, taking long lunch breaks, making personal calls, or socializing extensively. It’s all about putting in the least amount of effort doing the least amount of work possible to get by. They are unproductive and under-performing and seem to intentionally and repeatedly use others to pick up the slack and do their work. It seems they are clueless about what having a good work ethic is all about. They lack motivation and focus. Similar to that sibling having a knack for walking into the kitchen when the last dish was dried and the trash was taken out, the slacker has perfected the art of work-avoidance.

The Drama Queen/King

These employees thrive on attention. They are always seeking to stir up drama throughout the office. They live life as an exclamation point, “OMG!!!” They are overly reactive in their emotions and actions living from one crisis to another. They make huge mountains out of molehills handling each freak-out with all the grace and finesse of a baby hippo. They crave excitement and are addicted to drama making a scene wherever they go and leaving chaos in their wake. But they can be extremely charming and are known to enliven dull parties. They do not mean to cause others stress and are typically blissfully unaware of the negative impact that they have on those around them. They’ve perfected the art of emotional manipulation.

The Saboteur

These employees thrive on competition. These are the people who don’t play fair in the corporate sandbox. They are the office bullies seeking to gain an edge at the expense of others. It’s all about “I come first no matter what.” They want to see others fail and thus increase their relative standing within the team. Saboteurs are malevolent deliberately wishing for evil. They wage war on anyone they perceive as a threat. They would intentionally make others look incompetent, damage someone’s work, and withhold crucial information. To them the end always justifies the means. They excuse any wrongs committed, such as breaking equipment or falsifying reports, to attain their goals. They perceive themselves as misunderstood geniuses in a world of average people. They are toxic and destructive.

The behaviors of the first four employee types; the entitled, the victim, the slacker, and the attention hog, can be corrected. However, great caution should be applied when dealing with malicious employees. Generally speaking, if an employee is underperforming, the first step is to have a candid conversation with them. While the labels above are useful in calling out ineffective and problematic behavior patterns, they should never be applied to any one individual. People are multifaceted and cannot be defined by one short label. Each individual presents varied personality traits, behaviors, strengths and weaknesses. When managers feel an employee is underperforming or behaves inappropriately, or in ways not aligned to the corporate culture, it is their responsibility to provide constructive feedback. The goal is to engage the employee in the conversation to gain perspective on what’s going on and then create an action plan to address the poor performance and correct the inappropriate behavior.

More on how to address poor performance or unproductive behaviors in my next post: 5 steps for success in addressing poor performance or unproductive behaviors.