One of my clients, who has the most open, collaborative and engaged employees, thought I might find this of interest: https://hbr.org/2018/04/4-ways-to-deal-with-a-toxic-coworker And I do! So many work places have that one person (and hopefully not more than one), that we could deem ‘toxic.’
While many of us think that the toxic employee is easy to detect (perhaps a backstabber or constantly criticizing or thinking only of themselves), the toxic employee can take a number of forms. Think about the employee who appears to openly support another employee or idea or initiative and then doesn’t follow through or quietly sabotages the employee or initiative. Think about how draining on your work productivity that one constant complainer is (the “Debbie Downer”).
The study found that the single most important factor in team success or failure is the quality of relationships on a team. Seventy percent of the variance between the lowest-performing teams (saboteur teams) and the highest-performing teams (loyalist teams) correlates to the quality of the team relationships — all of the relationships not just some of them.
As a team leader, they suggest you hold the toxic team member to a higher standard of behaviour so as not to drag everyone else down. So many leaders choose not to do anything — perhaps because they feel that employee contributes enough that is important to the company (perhaps a hard to find skill set or legacy knowledge). Believe me, nothing is worth the cost of a toxic employee.
But what do you do when that toxic employee is your co-worker, your leader is not addressing the situation and you feel powerless? They suggest having a conversation with that employee, raising your own game, having a frank discussion with your leader and ensuring you are taking care of yourself.
In so many instances, management is unwilling to deal with toxic employees — particularly if it is felt they are strong contributors to the bottom line. Perhaps they don’t realize the cost of the drain of morale and the toll it is taking on the rest of the team. The loss of engagement of team members is immeasurable. No ONE employee is worth the loss of morale, engagement and the ensuing turnover.
I recall the day a toxic employee was exited from my place of employment. It was as if a dark cloud had been lifted and the team could function without all of the noise and distraction cause by this one person. It became apparent just how much time and effort this toxic employee took from us.
In another instance, a leader refused to deal with a toxic employee other than to keep moving her into different roles and responsibilities and ultimately to a role (and office) separate from the rest of the team where she did not have to interact with anyone. Problem solved? Not really. Morale remained low and the leader was seen as someone who couldn’t deal with a problem that every employee had identified. It continued to lead to low morale and a lack of a ‘one team’ mentality. Hard to gauge the cost of not exiting her but suspect it was high.
How have you (or your organization) dealt with a toxic employee?
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