Tips For Dealing With Difficult Employees

By: Kevin Muir


One of the most trying parts about being a business owner or Human Resources manager is dealing with difficult employees. This is hard because often there is no perfect solution. Many times, dealing with difficult employees becomes a chore that managers or business owners just don't know how to handle. The longer a difficult employee continues to make problems, the worse the workplace environment will become. Before becoming overwhelmed with the thought of dealing with difficult employees, consider the following tips to help you on your way.

Get To The Bottom Of The Problem

One of the biggest mistakes an HR manager or small business owner can make is to listen to rumors or telltale. Unfortunately rumors are one of those problems the difficult employees often start. This makes it hard to discover exactly who is causing the problem, which is exactly what a difficult employee wants. Instead of listening to gossip, try to find concrete evidence of the problem. If this is not possible, be sure to speak directly with all parties involved before deciding how to begin dealing with the problem.

Act Quickly

Acting quickly is especially important when dealing with difficult employees. If you wait even a day or two to act on a problem, the employees think that you accept the situation. They now think they can get away with this bad behavior all the time. If a consistently tardy employee shows up late to work again, do not wait until the end of the shift or the next day to confront them. Instead bring them into your office as soon as they arrive. This tells them you are serious about the situation. Remember that this also means sticking with your plans to submit an employee warning form and doing so in a timely fashion.

Deal With The Problem Itself

As difficult as it may seem, it is important to attack the problem, not the individual when dealing with difficult employees. Remember when discussing the situation with an employee to continue to reiterate why it is important that they do not behave in this way. You may have to reinforce that being late makes the work environment tense. Someone else has to cover for them. If they are a constant gossip, you must remind them that spreading rumors about other co-workers causes a poor work ethic that will is obvious to customers or patrons.

Know When To Ask For Help Dealing With Difficult Employees

For example, you may confront the same problem employee on several occasions and they refuse to change their behavior. Likewise, you may come up against an employee who becomes verbally abuse, or begins berating you to other employees. In such cases, you may need to step away from the employee and get help confronting them. If you are an HR manager, this may be as easy as contacting a higher authority, such as a Vice President or President of the company. But if you are a small business owner, this may be a bit more difficult to do. You are the final say in the company, so finding help may require being more creative.

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