Do any of these 5 situations resonate with you?
1. One of your employees is consistently late for work. Since it's only a few minutes, you justify to yourself that it's not a big deal even when it's apparent that the work is affected.
2. You have an employee who refuses to take on an assignment because she says that it's “not in her job description”. You know that these are tasks that she should be doing, but she's a great employee otherwise and you don't want to make waves.
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3. Your staff spends a lot of down time above and beyond appropriate breaks or lunch periods to gossip. It bothers you that this happens every day and that work is not getting done, but you don't address it.
4. You've been approached by one of your employees who is uncomfortable with the comments that another co-worker made about the anatomy of a female employee. You tell the employee who brought this to your attention that until the female employee complains, she must be fine with the comments. You don't investigate the issue.
5. All of your employees work hard and go above and beyond with the exception of one employee who makes a point of only working half as hard as the rest of the team. Instead of addressing the issue with the offending employee, you give his assignments to others on the team because they know how to “get things done”.
Managing employees isn't easy, even when you're not faced with difficult employee issues. Taking action when there are inappropriate situations with your staff in the workplace is all part of the supervisory role.
Avoiding difficult work place issues creates–
- Resentment with the rest of the staff who may feel that you are favoring the difficult employee
- Loss of respect and credibility from your employees and your manager
- More time spent listening to employee complaints which takes away from everyone's ability to be productive during the work day
- Increased turnover. Many people chose to leave an organization rather than continuing to work for a company that appears to lack leadership
- Lost productivity
- Additional costs to your business when work is not done
- Affects your confidence in your ability to manage and lead staff
Take Action: Decide here and now that you want to create a work environment that is not only productive, but where all of your employees understand what is expected of them and are happy and engaged in their work.
For tips on how managing difficult employees, be sure to read “10 Management Tips for Dealing With Difficult Employees.“
Dianne Shaddock
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