What To Do When Employees Drive You Crazy
Despite our best efforts, some people just get under our skin. Whether it is in the work place or in the real world, some personalities just don’t mesh with others. As the owner of a company, it is important that your employees not only get along with each other, but also get along with you. Though someone might appear to be a dream employee during the interview process, and even the first couple months on the job, it is inevitable that when someone gets more comfortable, their true personalities and quirks come out. How do you manage to deal with someone who drives you insane? Instead of firing, hiring and re-training, try to follow these steps to help work with them.
Slackers, space-cadets, loners and drama queens…every office has at least one of these types. And chances are, if they are driving you crazy, they are driving your other employees crazy too. You want to nip these personality quirks fast, and guarantee that they won’t return. What’s the best thing to do? Be direct. Hold a meeting with the problem employee, and state specific examples of what they’re doing wrong, and what they should be doing. Demonstrate that what they’re doing affects everyone else, and that it needs to end so everyone can work affectively. Be polite, follow legal guidelines, but make sure your point is made. Come to an agreement that there is a problem, and most importantly, let them decide on a solution. People aren’t as likely to go against their own proposals, and you should get better results as they are living up to their word, and not something that was laid out for them. At the end of the meeting, clarify what you expect to happen, and by when.
The best way to make sure they understand is to simply be around more. Walk through the office at random times, hold small office meetings, and reunite with the problem employee to either praise their progress or take a more drastic action. Meet with other employees to see if the problem has gone away, but make sure not to make the problem employee feel like people are joining forces against them, or meeting behind their back. Remember to view this as a learning experience for you. It will help you in the future to work with, and be able to manage, different types of personalities. If multiple meetings fail, remember that you have to power to make this person permanently go away. Just make sure that their ticks outweigh their work performance. Remember, you chose them in the first place because of their experience and knowledge, so do everything possible not to let that go to waste. Some of the best work was done by someone who was just a little bit crazy.