Quick Tips to Handing Destructive Employees and Managers

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July 08, 2015

  1. Fact Gather:  You hate to be the person to confront an employee or a manager who has been disruptive or destructive to only find out that, the he or she is not the destructive one and the employees are truly just ganging up on this person. It’s happened…get your facts put together.

  2. Ask for advice from those that are Affected Individually: After you gathered your facts and indeed found that the employee or manager is being destructive, its time to address those that are truly affected. Yes, you have to address those that are affected first and get their opinions on what should be done.  Believe it or not, asking employees what their manager or co-worker should be punished with is often less severe than you really feel you need to be.

  3. Stop Hesitating:  The longer you wait to address a situation, employee or manager, the harder it will be.  Hesitation in any negative situation can often lead to questioning of your ability to make decisions. Time, in this instance, is not your side.

  4. Ask Questions:  Give a person a chance to defend themselves.  Interpretation of information is never the same between one or more individuals.  Ask for clarity on points of miscommunication. 

  5. Be direct:  Addressing the issue doesn’t always have to be a teaching moment with several sub-moments of understanding.  Having a direct communication style with destructive employees is the right method because teaching comes from the direct understanding that it’s wrong.  Learning can also come from hearing “what you’re doing is wrong!”

  6. Give a timeline:  How many times can one person be destructive.  You will lose an entire team if the behavior is continued.  Check in with the employees in a given time frame.  Typically one month is a good time to make sure behavior has time to change and feelings and emotions can be restored.  Set the expectation that after 30 days, if the behavior continues, the next set of consequences is imminent. 

  7. Fire them:  You are doing the right thing for your staff and company, by removing disruption and destructive employees. 

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