Geraldine loves her new job!  The role is perfect for her current skillset and there are ample opportunities to stretch and grow.  The conditions are awesome with flexible options for being on site and working from home.  Geraldine loves being in the office and connecting with her colleagues and they often head out for a bite to eat or a drink on Friday evenings. The are such an awesome crew.  Mostly awesome.  There’s that one guy in sales who is extremely difficult to work with and well, maybe it’s just Geraldine and she thinks she just needs to get on his good side…

And so it continues

She tolerates his behaviour for a while because being the new person, she doesn’t want to cause a fuss and quite frankly, he is really confrontational, and she just don’t want that negativity attached to her name.  Geraldine keeps reminding herself that this is such a great job and a brilliant company so surely it will be dealt with shortly.  Eventually she starts to get frustrated because she’s working like a trooper and no one is noticing but this jerk seems to be getting rewarded even though her two year old has less tantrums.  Surely, her manager will deal with it soon, right?

But it continues and the behaviour is escalating.  What is wrong with this person?  What is wrong with this job?  Maybe it isn’t the dream role she thought it was and maybe this company is not as incredible as Geraldine originally believed.  She wholeheartedly believed management would deal with this – after all, this behaviour is clearly in conflict with the company’s values, he’s clearly upsetting other staff, it’s clear it is impacting overall morale and he’s taken credit for work that he clearly didn’t do!  She knows her manager is aware of his behaviour but she keeps letting it slide – the tardiness, the laziness, the missing of deadlines, the poor attitude, the rudeness.  Just when Geraldine thinks that he will be dealt with, he comes in with a sales win and it seems a new client means his toxic behaviour is forgotten by management.  Oh well, if he behaves however he wants, what’s stopping Geraldine from doing the same she thinks as she distracts herself and starts browsing her favoured socials when she should be preparing a report.

Ignore at your own peril

We’ve all seen this happen – either we’ve lived through a similar scenario or we’ve listened to others as they download about the damage one or two people are inflicting upon them and the direct impact on their own motivation in the workplace.  It feels like, what was once a high functioning team, seems to fall apart overnight but the reality is that toxic behaviour has usually been evident for some time before the true extent of the damage is revealed.  How do you turn things around?

As a manager, the absolute best course of action is to deal with toxic behaviour immediately.  If you haven’t observed it yourself – and usually perpetrators of such behaviour are very good at hiding it from their managers – then hopefully your team feel comfortable enough to  address their concerns directly with you. Remember, if you see something, say something!

There may be an underlying cause

Perhaps you have seen the poor behaviour and it may be a huge departure from the way this person usually conducts themselves.  So you take some time to determine if there is a specific reason for this change.  A good start would be to allocate some time to sitting down with them and getting to the crux of the problem.  You may be surprised by what you hear.  There could be a major upheaval at home that is the cause, illness, financial or relationship worries – all of these have the ability to change someone’s capacity to remain focused and act reasonably in the workplace. 

Consider the times we have been experiencing with a global pandemic and lockdowns with people still recovering from the impact and then we slam straight into some hard core cost of living pressures.  There are plenty of reasons for people to feel overwhelmed and ill equipped with their current reality and this may present as poor behaviour in the workplace.  It’s not to say it is acceptable, but there may be a reason that can be readily addressed, but never ignored. 

Consider the support your business may be able to provide.  Depending on the employee’s role, you may be able to offer flexible working hours, access to counselling or a financial planner, maybe there is the opportunity for rostering for additional overtime.   The solution will be dependent on the problem they are facing and the burden your business is able and willing to carry.

Of course, a one off piece of bad behaviour is not going to take down a strong and healthy workplace culture but if you spy an ongoing pattern of behaviour, you have no choice but to get on the front foot and deal with it.

Calling it out

In some cases, simply calling out the bad behaviour is sufficient.  Human nature is a complex beast and even the best employees may ‘try it on’ every now and again.  Many moons ago, a fantastic team member started coming in to work late. No excuses, no apologies.  She would then head to the kitchen and make her breakfast and when she finally turned on her computer, she was losing 45 minutes of productivity per day – that’s a hefty 4.25 hours a week!  It was disruptive for the team and the downtime was clearly having an impact.

All it took was a one on one chat to remind her of her obligations as well as the impact it was having on me as her manager and her surrounding colleagues.  She informed me of a challenging personal matter and she was actually glad I had brought it up so she could confide in me.   She’s also been wondering how long it would be until I noticed something was going on.   Made me wish I had dealt with it faster as I was able to assist in supporting her and I got my productive employee back with a greater depth of loyalty to boot!

Unfortunately, on occasion, it’s simply the individual and open communication and support don’t always work so you may need to consider a more formal process such as a formal meeting to address the concerns (which may result in a formal warning), or the implementation of a performance improvement plan. Termination of employment in extreme cases may need to be considered if you have provided ample opportunity to improve but you cannot get the behaviour to stop.  Keep in mind, you need to adhere to procedural fairness and if you need support in this area, our HR team is only a phone call away!

The Impact

Allowing toxic behaviour to continue will have a significant impact on your business if you don’t deal with it head on.  It may seem like benign behaviour - tardiness, distraction of others or a little idle gossip in the tearoom - but left unchecked, you may find issues with other team members as they become frustrated with the behaviour and the inaction of management.  This in turn can lead to lost productivity across the board, as your team becomes disengaged from your business.  You may be waiting for the perpetrator of the poor behaviour to resign but why would they when they know they are getting away with whatever they want.  It’s your good employees that will move on if you don’t enact change!

Key points to remember

• Avoidance won’t work.  Deal with toxic behaviour as soon as you become aware of its existence.
• When relevant, be creative with a solution if your business can manage it.  Good employees can be hard to find and it is an expensive process to secure and embed new talent.
• Consider the team – Your team respect that you will manage the situation, it’s your job after all
• After due process is implemented, termination of employment may need to be considered.

Being a manager and leading teams, small or large, can be a tough gig but it can also be incredibly rewarding.  There are always going to be highs and lows and re-engaging a disengaged employee definitely sits in the big wins column!  Knowing where to start or what process to follow isn’t always obvious so if you need support, the HR Staff n’ Stuff team are here to help!