Negative Employees are Like a Virus in The Office

How many negative employees do you have? Are you the bad employee just sucking the life out of everyone around you? Lost productivity, missed deadlines, and the frequent call outs. Think back to jobs you have worked over the years, wasn't there always one idiot that just didn't get it. Maybe you are the rotten apple that just needed too much attention.

Bad co-workers can waste your time, or they can withhold vital information that also hurts your team's productivity, which reflects on the whole team. Negative co-workers can abandon their workloads to the team and have the team working harder than they should. Hostility can wreck the momentum of a workplace and negatively impact performance.

Don't let co-workers or employees hold back the team effort and the determination to be successful. Here are practical tips to mitigate or resolve problem situations.

1. Honesty first. If you are the guilty party, wake the f!!ck up! You must realize that someone could be tracking your progress. It is a matter of time before the guillotine drops. Time is money in the workplace. Honestly are you the slacker?

2. Don't ignore the situation. If a co-worker is behaving badly, immediate address the situation before she becomes a long-term instigator of stress. Politely ask a co-worker to stop the behavior, and include a polite explanation. From an employee perspective explain how you feel. If you are the boss conduct a verbal counseling ASAP. After a verbal counseling quickly do a written warning to justify termination if the problem continues. Your other option would be to read "Lunch Can Be A Rewarding Experience".

3. Don't lose your temper. Just like a positive attitude is contagious, so is a negative attitude. Practice anger management such as deep breathing to calm you when you see the "Knuckle head" employee coming your way. Take a quick break outside, the change in temperature and atmosphere should help you re-group. Why not take the stairs to another floor or visit someone who you know is always upbeat. If you lose your temper the bad employee or co-worker wins and you have lost control. Don't encourage bad behavior.

4. Agree to disagree. Respectfully agree to disagree with colleagues who insist they are right. If you want to get married you might want to practice agreeing to disagree right now. If you are married or in a long term situation don't give in on your beliefs, agree to disagree. Life is full of challenges but many times putting a problem on hold until you have more insight is the best way to navigate.

5. Turn a negative into a positive. Are you in a workplace that celebrates bad co-workers? Using SMART Goals design a plan to turn your office co-workers around. Provide positive encouragement, employee bonuses, free lunch, and apply incentives for success. How about letting the good employees leave the office early on Friday. Provide restaurant gift certificates or movies tickets for on the spot awards.

6. Use emotionally intelligence (EI) . This is the understanding of your emotions and intelligently troubleshooting an emotional situation. EI is a really good study for preventing and diffusing situations by identifying, assessing and controlling the direction of a negative situation. More to come on this topic, it's so hot.

While the temptation to fire an employee is there, the amount of time, money and training spent on an employee can make you decide against this move. If time is money then what will happen when you haven't filled the position right away. You could experience profit loss. The time invested in training a new hire could be expensive, not to mention the mistakes that will be made. The next time you are faced with a difficult person try to view it as a learning experience. And in the long run, being able to deal with all types of personalities will help you step up the ladder of success.

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Mr. MakingUsmile