Bosses are human too, if you haven’t heard. Having a problem employee can be as irritating and upsetting as having a toothache. Whether the employee in question is too lazy, too angry, or borderline incompetent, a good boss will take a lot of the brunt of the problem on their own back: Did I do a good job hiring this person? Did I do a good job integrating them in the workforce? Did I miss something important they were trying to communicate to me? Whatever the reasons, if an employee isn’t shaping up like he or she needs to, the time will come for a confrontation between boss and worker. Hopefully a friendly one, but often the ball is in the employee’s court. Here are 8 way for an employer to handle a situation like this.
1) Hear Them Out– The first order of business is to hear the problem employee out, and see if in fact their disappointing behavior isn’t related to an element of their job or their workday that could be adjusted. Maybe its as simple as the employee not liking where they sit in the office. Even an employee who seems desperately unhappy may be able to clearly communicate a fixable issue in a one-on-one with their boss.
2) Don’t Ignore the Misbehavior– Though most people would like to avoid confrontation, even for a employer/employee issue, a problem like this won’t just end without an effort to communicate and fix whatever the issue is. And especially when its an employee who the boss may not have a chance to interact with often, a nasty head of bad vibes can get worked up before any real communication happens.
3) Give Concrete Examples of Negative Behavior– When you do get a chance to discuss the friction with your employee, make sure you use specific examples rather than generalities. Don’t tell them simply that their attitude is negative, because a generalization is sure to make them defensive. Instead, tell them a specific example of a time when you thought their attitude was apparent, such as if they were not paying attention during a recent meeting or if a job of work they did was sub-par.
Survey: 48% of People Say Communication is Their Boss’s Biggest Weakness
4) Keep It Professional– While the employee may have a harder time keeping the friction from becoming a personal issue, it’s the boss’s job to keep an even keel and make sure that the employee knows that – whatever happens – the issue isn’t personal. Work is for grownups, and grownups can have a disagreement without getting emotional or angry.
5) Keep Track of Employee Transgressions– Not every situation can be remedied, and there’s always the chance that things won’t improve with a few conversations and the best intentions. If further action is going to be necessary, the only way to keep things above board is to keep a record of times that the employee in question has behaved in an unprofessional manner.
6) Make Sure You Stay Consistent in Your Feedback– It’s tough to be the boss, as in many ways management is expected to act with almost inhuman levels of professionalism and reserve – but then again, that’s hopefully why the boss got to be in charge in the first place. The point is the boss can’t waver in terms of reprimanding the employee’s behavior. Only with the boss’ constant insistence that the behavior change can the situation improve. If an employee can get in hot water for doing it Monday but it gets laughed off on Friday afternoon, they’ll have the boss’s inconsistency as a defense.
7) Give Them a Timeline of Consequences– Don’t give the employee a hazy timeline, as it will imply that their behavior is tolerable for as long as it takes for them to switch up their attitude organically. Let them know that they are currently on thin ice and set another meeting at some point in the future to reassess and determine if a continued position at the company for them is the right choice for either of you. Make sure they know they can turn things around if they make an effort, but that if they make no effort they will likely lose the job.
8) Don’t Trashtalk Them to Others– Another big test for a boss’ professionalism and their ability to rise above conflict involves their ability to keep their lip buttoned about the situation around other employees. Remember, this isn’t personal, so the boss has to be careful not to turn the tide against the employee by commenting negatively about the issue to others. Employees will tend to agree with the boss when talking face-to-face, and if that gets back to the employee in question the boss could get in some trouble of their own with HR.
