Identifying Red Flags from Employees - What a Bad Date Can Teach You
By: Chelsey Moore | HR Business Partner
One of our jobs in HR is to identify possible risks. One of these risks is employees that have demonstrated toxic or disruptive behavior. However, unlike a date where you can wriggle yourself out of the window if you begin seeing those red flags, letting go of a toxic employee isn’t always this black and white. Let’s take a look below at some of the differences between ditching a bad date and addressing a toxic employee.
(Reminder, these are just an example and there are always multiple answers for each situation)
SCENARIO 1:
"Why can't you be more like my Ex?!"
A First Date
Bad Date Red Flag | Acceptable Responses |
Shows you pictures of all of his ex-girlfriends and asks if you would mind dying your hair to match Tanya’s. | Leaving, “I will if you will”, “I’m sorry, I think I’m at the wrong table”. |
vs.
A New Employee
Employee Red Flag | Acceptable Responses |
“This isn’t how we did it at my last job and I refuse to change my process”. | “While I understand your hesitance, our processes are created from our specific company needs, if you are not able to follow our specific processes then we will need to write you up/terminate you”. Or “I appreciate that you are used to your old processes, let’s set up a time to talk about how we can integrate some of your processes into our SOPs”. |
SCENARIO 2:
Bringing their mother to your first date...
A First Date
Bad Date Red Flag | Acceptable Responses |
Brings their mother to the date. | Enjoy dinner and then ask their mother to go out for a girl’s night. |
vs.
A New Employee
Employee Red Flag | Acceptable Responses |
Has their mother send angry emails to HR when their child gets in trouble. | To the mother- “While I understand your concern for your child, we are not permitted to share personnel details with non-employees” To the employee “I value your close relationship with your mother, however moving forward please reach out to me yourself if you have any questions or concerns regarding your employment”. |
SCENARIO 3:
Proposing on the first date
A First Date
Bad Date Red Flag | Acceptable Responses |
Date refuses to believe that you are allergic to peanuts and orders you Pad Thai with extra peanut sauce because “If you try it, you’ll like it”. | Order your favorite meal to go and charge it to your date’s table. |
vs.
A New Employee
Employee Red Flag | Acceptable Responses |
On their first day employee proudly claims that they will have the CEOs job within five years. | “I would love to see what you have to offer the company, let's wait until your year 1 review to create some long-term growth projections for you.” |
Ignoring Red Flags
While it's fun to joke about red flags in both dates and employees, toxic employees can spell trouble for companies of any size. Toxic employees can erode the trust of managers and culture within an organization. They can negatively impact employee engagement. And they can increase costs associated with turnover and recruitment.
A toxic employee can reduce the entire team’s performance by 40%, makes good talent want to quit, influences others to become toxic, and can leave long lasting effects. Employees who have to deal with a toxic co-worker are 46% more likely to be fired for misconduct themselves, resulting in the spread of toxic behaviors in your workspace.
What is a toxic employee?
A toxic employee is a person that dilutes the work of themselves and others with the following behavior. A toxic employee may bully or harass employees, often this is done in a way that seems like friendly mocking. Be aware of employees that seem uncomfortable with jokes at their expense. Absenteeism is another sign to watch out for, if an employee is consistently absent or late, this signals to other employees that punctuality is not important. An employee that is constantly boastful or takes credit for other employees’ work can lead to resentment and the disengagement from other employees. Toxic employees can often be blameful and not take responsibility for their own actions, this creates a cycle of toxicity that can be hard to end.
How to spot a toxic employee (and what to do)
Have regular check-ins with all of your team members and be sure to monitor engagement and employee satisfaction. The best way to spot a toxic employee is to be present. If you notice engagement waning in a specific department do a root cause analysis to determine what is causing this trend. It may be a management issue, or it may be a toxic employee. If you notice that a particular employee is having a hard time adjusting to the team, take some time to work with that employee to curb any detrimental behavior before it starts.
Determine the root cause of the toxicity.
Does it stem from poor management? It could be caused by an employee’s past trauma at another job. May it be because the toxic employee picked up the behaviors from someone else? Lack of necessary tools and resources can also be a cause. If you feel that you have a toxic employee gather evidence of the employee’s behavior.
Once you have determined the root cause of the behavior issues you can then move forward with an action to mitigate this behavior. Sometimes coaching or constructive criticism will work. However, be prepared to correct behavior with write-ups, performance improvement plans, and in extreme situations termination.
There is no one size fits all solution to dealing with toxic employees, so be sure to be alert and aware of red flags, and have coaching and mitigation tools in place to deal with them when necessary.
Identifying Red Flags from Employees
Comments