Ways to Identify Toxic Employees
You want the best work environment for your employees. If they don’t feel comfortable with the workplace, they won’t last long. Start by improving your hiring process. Filter the choices thoroughly and ensure you only hire the best people for the job. However, despite a thorough process, you could still end up with toxic employees. Here’s how you can identify them so actions can be made.
There are issues of bullying and intimidation
Even if you’ve only received one complain of bullying or intimidation, you must do something about it. You can’t let the other employees think that you allow a toxic work environment. There must also be consequences if the allegations were found to be true. Don’t hesitate to remove these employees if they make everyone else uncomfortable.
Constant absences without valid reasons
You should understand if your employees can’t make it to work. There are valid reasons such as medical emergencies and family issues. However, some employees are constantly out for no reason. Worse, they don’t inform anyone about it until it’s too late. You can’t allow them to continue this habit since the problem falls on everyone else’s shoulders. The job still needs to be done and it is someone else who will take the responsibility.
Intentional sabotage of other people’s work
Your employees must work as a team. It doesn’t matter if they have differences. They should know how to bridge these differences, especially if they work for a goal. If someone intentionally sabotages other people’s work, it’s a toxic trait. You can’t let them score a point since it brings the company down. Sure, their team might look good, but it doesn’t move the business forward. It also makes other employees feel less motivated to work hard.
Competes with others in an unhealthy way
The workplace will always be a competition ground. You can’t stop people from being competitive. They might be aiming for a higher position or a salary raise. However, you don’t want their competitiveness to reach unhealthy levels. They might even use tactics to look good while painting others as the bad guys. Again, the goal is to bring the company up and putting other employees down isn’t the way to go.
Pointing fingers constantly
Excellent employees know when it’s their fault. They won’t point fingers at other people. They understand that they should be accountable for their mistakes. They will also find a way to do better in the future. When you have an employee who always points at others for the failure of a project, it’s a toxic trait. It should be left up to you as the leader to decide who should be accountable. You don’t want someone washing hands to make everyone else look bad.
Again, consequences are necessary to stop these toxic employees from moving forward. They can either change or decide to not be a part of the group anymore. Uphold the right values and the employees will follow.
Photo Attribution:
1st and featured image from https://www.appreciationatwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/arguing-coworkers.jpg
2nd image from https://www.entrepreneur.com/leadership/6-win-win-ways-to-deal-with-toxic-employees-without/335424
