In 2019, 79% of employees reported being disengaged in their work. Disengaged employees often exhibit difficult behaviour as a result of their frustration.
Difficult employees are bad news for business owners. They can create a toxic work environment and lead to higher staff turnover, lower performance, and poor customer relations. Below are three examples of what a difficult employee can look like at work.
Missed expectations. The employee doesn’t fulfill their responsibilities
Poor performance at work could be due to a lack of ability or motivation, or both. It could also be the result of poor communication, misalignment, lack of resources, or something else entirely.
If an employee is performing poorly in their role, don’t write them off as lazy. There may well be a hidden reason behind their failure to deliver and lack of motivation.
It could be that their work no longer challenges them. They may care about making more of an impact and be frustrated by the lack of investment of others. They may feel constrained by policies and processes that don’t improve the outcome. Alternatively, they may lack the specific skills required to perform their tasks.
They may also feel there are no opportunities for career growth and development. On the other hand, their lack of motivation might have nothing to do with their work.
They may have a problem in their health or personal life that is causing them difficulty in focusing and being effective in performing their tasks.
The Employee has a Bad Attitude
Difficult employee behavior can affect your whole team. If a problematic employee has a negative attitude, it creates a toxic environment. Often, but not always, a bad attitude at work is passive rather than directly confrontational.
Maybe it is the not-too-subtle smirk or eye-roll, showing up late, and being inattentive at meetings. Or maybe it is less conscious: the hard-working employee who has become cynical and always sees the negative in every interaction or proposal. A bad attitude can be funny at first, but eventually, it wears on everyone. A bad attitude and negative behavior disrupt the whole team and affect employee performance.
But that’s not all. If they also have a bad attitude when dealing with clients or vendors, they put your business and reputation at risk.
The Employee Undermines Your Authority
When an employee undermines your authority, it disrupts employee morale and productivity. It can also make other employees doubt your leadership abilities.
But not all employees who undermine authority do so with bad intentions. Sometimes employees undermine leaders because they have a perspective the manager can’t see. They may be so passionate about their perspective that they miss seeing how their communication style is undermining others.
In other cases, the employee’s disruptive behavior may be a deliberate attempt to undermine you. As a leader, knowing how to distinguish between the two will help you address the problem effectively.
Problematic employee behavior drains your energy, saps your team’s morale, and destroys productivity. That’s why leaders must know how to deal with difficult employees swiftly and effectively.