Inadequate employees: how should an employer deal with them?

Three basic competencies of a leader

The authority of a leader, his ability to manage people, in principle, rests on three main qualities.

Professionalism and deep knowledge of your specialty

It is very important that the manager can speak the same language with his employees. To do this, you need to understand the specifics of the business, keep your finger on the pulse, and look for opportunities to use new technologies and approaches. It is almost impossible to effectively manage a direction without understanding it - subordinates will sense the boss’s weakness.

Ability to competently delegate authority

The ability to delegate in a positive manner is important for two reasons. Firstly, you will have more time to do other things. Secondly, employees will see that you trust them and truly consider them a team - this helps to gain the respect of the team.

Correctness and restraint

Feedback is important, but it must be constructive. Constant criticism and negativity from a manager can turn the most calm and productive employee into a problem one, so it is very important to control yourself and remain correct in all situations.

By harmoniously developing these three competencies, you will strengthen your position in the company, and there will immediately be fewer problem employees. By the way, about this...

Irresponsible, dishonest, lazy, ineffective employees

That is, we see that this is not the best solution in this workplace, it is a temporary solution. But very often such temporary solutions in a company resemble that same “suitcase without a handle” that has been difficult to carry for a long time, and a shame to throw away for a long time. And very often in dialogues with the manager I ask the question:

-Why hasn’t this employee been fired yet? - Well, if I had the best, we would have fired him a long time ago. -Where will the best one come from, jump from the pipe?

That is, the key to making a personnel decision is the personnel application. Naturally, we don’t change them right away, we select them, give them a trial period, and check them in action.

By the way, in a large company, as a rule, there are no problems; getting the right person somewhere is much easier than doing without the person. There is always a place to give a person a try during the probationary period, without touching this employee who does not suit us.

And only after checking that this replacement is the best, we call this character and say goodbye to him in accordance with our social norms.

For example: “ In principle, we would like to break up , how long will it take you to find a job?”

Or we say: “ You’re leaving tomorrow , and let’s discuss the compensation package, how much should you be given for lifting?”

That is, it is very important to be able to fire someone not out of anger. Because sometimes it happens that this suitcase is without a handle, we haven’t fired it for years, and finally we’ve had enough of it all, and you throw it out of the gate with shouts of “fucking fly” and think about what to do now.

This is wrong, that is, you need to be able to fire correctly, coldly and prudently . At the moment when you consider it optimal.

How to fire him? Give time to get settled, issue a compensation package, issue references? This is your personal choice, your ethics.

And I always ask, “How much does it cost?” Because sometimes a person says: “Well, how can we fire him? He basically didn’t do anything wrong.”

Well, yes, if you agree to pay for it. That is, the absence of sabotage actions against the company should be paid with a permanent salary, which certainly does you honor as a benevolent person.

But then it is possible to disconnect the person from communications, put him in a separate room, and say this is our “social cross”. And do it according to the budget.

Let's hire another employee who brings value, and let's pay for this one. This is our conscience, this is our duty, this is our cross.

Just let's not confuse it with a working unit. This is not necessary, because there is no strong sense from it, it is a constant “weak link” . Therefore, there is no problem if you are ready to pay for your social function, please. It's actually a financial decision.

That is, the 2nd category: “mentally with us”, this is a category that does not solve the assigned tasks, if not today, then in the future. Therefore, we must submit them to the personnel application and look for new employees. And don't transform it.

How to reduce the number of problem employees?

Before dealing with difficult employees, it is important to try to reduce their number. Two tools work well for this:

• Personal example. People's attitude towards work largely depends on how you feel about this work. Try to become a role model: work responsibly, demonstrate high motivation, follow all your own rules - and your employees will follow you;
• Rewards and punishments. Everyone is familiar with these methods, but there is an important point here: objectivity. When employees see that good work is always rewarded and bad work is always punished, they begin to perform their duties better. To demonstrate this objectivity, we recommend that in such decisions you rely not on personal impressions, but on unbiased statistics - for example, on the “Employee Rating” report from the Kickidler time tracking system.

Have you built a work plan based on these two tips? Great, let's move on to the next step.

WHO IS REQUIRED TO PROVIDE A CERTIFICATES FROM A PSYCHIATRIATIST AND NARCOLOGIST WHEN EMPLOYMENT

A certificate from a psychiatrist and narcologist are documents confirming your mental health and sanity, the absence of addictions.
Accordingly, a narcologist is free from drug and alcohol addiction and gives permission to work. In some cases, drug test results may be included.

And the psychiatrist checks whether you are registered with diseases that prohibit work in the position you have chosen. And the validity of a certificate from a psychiatrist for employment is one year.

In order to prevent harm to others, there are mandatory professions that are required to visit a psychiatrist and narcologist upon hiring and provide the employer with health certificates. I will give the most common directions of them:

• law enforcement agencies;
• private or public security companies;
• drivers of public or private transport;
• work in preschool institutions and schools;
• swimming coaches and instructors;
• carrying a weapon;
• registration of guardianship.

We remove “discouraging” employees

In almost any “problem group” there is a central element, a person thanks to whom this group appeared. The difficulty is that such a center is not always obvious:

• Sometimes the team is discouraged by a person who clearly has a negative attitude towards the work and does it carelessly. This is the simplest and most obvious example;
• Sometimes, on the contrary, one of the most effective employees becomes the “center of distraction”: he is always positive, has time to do everything, is always ready to support with a joke or conversation... and this interferes with the rest of the employees, distracts them;
• Sometimes the problem is gossip: a person spreads rumors and turns colleagues against each other.

In any case, if you have a whole department that is “problematic”, look for a central element. Then try to have an explanatory conversation or personal work with this person - try to reduce his negative impact on the team. If this does not help, then, unfortunately, you will have to part with such an employee.

Types of Toxic Employees

Saboteur

This guy always doesn't like something. Either the salary is low, then the working conditions are bad, then the boss is a mug, or something else. If changes are coming to the company, one hundred percent they will not like it. If, on the contrary, everything is stable, they will complain about stagnation and stagnation. In general, they are like Baba Yaga, who is always against. The most interesting thing is that saboteurs are not of particular value to the company : they are not the best employees, so to speak. But it’s easy to shirk work, miss deadlines, and distract others.

And it would be nice if they didn’t like it themselves: they infect other employees with their destructive thoughts and incite them to sabotage.

How to work with these? It's better not to work at all. It's like a time bomb that can go off at any moment. Even if now the rest of the employees do not take the saboteur seriously, this can happen at any moment, because water wears away stones.

If you don’t want to take things to extreme measures, ask the saboteur to express his ideas and suggestions . If he doesn’t like anything, ok, let him offer it, and you look. Who knows, maybe interesting thoughts are swarming in his head!

Schemer

Most often it is women who are guilty of this, but there are also schemers in men's groups. If there are several of them, turn off the lights, your team will turn into a ball of hissing snakes. The meaning of life for an intriguer is to collect gossip and discuss the lives of other people. They enjoy pitting people against each other to see how they react and then discuss it. Any of your employees and you yourself can become victims of intrigues - you first of all.

How to work with these? Using the same methods: collect a dossier on the schemer. Just not gossip and rumors, but cases of violation of labor discipline, absenteeism and tardiness, low monthly performance - any kind of incriminating evidence. If the file does not warrant dismissal, you can always deprive the bonus, increase the percentage of plan fulfillment and use other methods of influence.

Big boss

Usually this is the “oldest” employee of the company or a person with a huge ego. In all seriousness, he considers himself the most important and intelligent employee. Constantly compares himself with his boss - and each time the comparison turns out to be not in favor of the latter. He gets involved in all issues, even those not directly related to him. He sincerely believes that others cannot cope, he lectures his colleagues - he is smarter, he can do it.

If such a person is really smart, he can confuse some employees and undermine the authority of the real boss. If he is stupid, at best they will laugh at him, at worst he will be kicked out of the team.

How to work with these? It’s unpleasant, of course, when some upstart considers himself smarter and more experienced than the boss. Many managers try to get rid of such employees. Try giving him a really difficult task and see if he can handle it or not. If you can’t handle it, talk about it publicly. If yes, think about maybe you should unite? Maybe all the big boss's ambitions really have a basis? If you promote such a person, perhaps he will calm down and begin to zealously fulfill his new duties.

Lazy person

This one is at least harmless, just lazy and passive. He runs away from any work, tries to delay the deadline, remains silent at planning meetings, does not make any suggestions, plays with toys instead of performing direct duties... Although no: there is also harm from this. It's simple: other employees look at the lazy person and wonder: hmm, he doesn't do anything and continues to work, maybe I should try?

How to work with these? Give specific tasks and monitor deadlines for their completion. If the task is large, break it down into several parts and require a report on each item. An alternative is to install a working time tracking program on your computer in order to collect evidence and fire you if something happens. And at the same time, see what the lazy person spends his precious working time on.

Also try to motivate the employee - maybe he is just bored? Praise the whole team for a job well done and send them for training. In the end, ask directly whether he has become stagnant and whether it is time to change his field of activity a little. Maybe a person dreams of trying himself in a different role, but out of habit he is too lazy to change anything?

Sufferer

This one, on the contrary, works, according to him, more than anyone else. It is he who supposedly gets the most difficult tasks, it is he who the bosses do not like, it is he who is always the scapegoat in the team. Perhaps this is how it is now - well done, he achieved what he wanted. If you tell a person a hundred times that he is a pig, he will grunt. If you constantly consider yourself a poor martyr, that’s what you will become. Most likely, this is what happened to your employee.

What is the toxicity? Constant whining and negativity coming from one person irritates others. Some may have thoughts creeping in: indeed, everything is wrong in the Danish kingdom, they are offending poor N., and soon they will offend me too. And now the number of sufferers is growing by leaps and bounds...

How to work with these? Apparently, the martyr simply does not know how to properly manage his time, which is why he thinks that he works more than everyone else. Tell him about time management, include him in a team project - let him forget about his grievances and learn to work with people. Teamwork is good because it shows the real contribution of each participant. If the sufferer is adequate, he will understand that others are also trying and working no less.

Lighter Man

At first glance, this is a darling and a sweetheart: she will support any conversation, find a common language with a client and partner, and cheer up if sales are falling and in general everything is bad. But if you look closely at the lighter, it becomes clear that in general he does nothing: he just jokes and laughs . He can’t work closely and a lot - he’s constantly distracted by smoke breaks and conversations, he doesn’t take his work seriously - there’s just giggling and hawing. And he accustoms others to this, as a result, work turns into endless smoke breaks, gossip and tea parties. This demotivates employees and reduces the speed and quality of the company’s work as a whole.

How to work with these? The ability to communicate is great, turn it into a plus for the lighter and the entire team. Send him to important meetings - especially those where you need to please the interlocutor, sit him down to communicate with clients - direct his energy in a useful direction. Make sure that such an employee is constantly busy - and he simply will not have time for gatherings. True, there is a possibility that in this case the lighter will mutate into a lazy person . We have already written above what to do with it.

Just a nasty guy

I spent a long time looking for a word to classify, but never found a suitable one. Each of us has encountered bad people - they do dirty tricks, deliberately harm others, insult and bully. This doesn’t happen very often in adult groups—mostly boors are still put in their place. But it may happen that one nasty guy can destroy the entire lovingly built structure of the company .

How to work with these? If employees start complaining to you, don’t brush them off, but listen to the alarm bells. Confront the boor and his victim, interview other workers. If the lesson was not learned the first time, fire without hesitation at your own request or on the basis of the article. Be prepared to be slandered and slandered - such people will stop at nothing. The good news is that vile types do not get along in any company , and word of mouth spreads rumors quickly.

Scheme of individual work

And finally, about how to work with a specific “difficult” employee. The process of such work is always individual, but the general scheme is approximately the same:

1. Try to understand: what is the reason for the “difficulties”? Competence, psychological characteristics, family difficulties?
2. Conduct an explanatory conversation. Be constructive - show that you understand the employee and his problems, but are worried about the company. Offer him help, try to create comfortable working conditions for everyone;
3. If the “carrot” and the conversation does not help, carefully move on to sanctions - and again accompany them with an explanatory conversation;
4. If the person still does not make contact, start looking for a replacement.

It's a simple scheme, but it really works. The main thing is to rely in such situations not on personal opinion, but on objective data: statistics and reports on working hours. This approach is more transparent and understandable, and also does not allow the “difficult” employee to refer to the fact that the matter is your personal hostility towards him.

DOES AN EMPLOYER HAVE THE RIGHT TO REQUIRE A CERTIFICATES FROM A PSYCHIATRIST?

If you open Art. 65 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, then when hiring, the employer has the right to require the following documents:

1. Passport or other identification document.
2. A work book, except in cases where an employment contract is concluded for the first time or the employee starts working on a part-time basis.
3. A document confirming registration in the individual (personalized) accounting system, including in the form of an electronic document.
4. Military registration documents - for those liable for military service and persons subject to conscription for military service.
5. Document on education and (or) qualifications or availability of special knowledge - when applying for a job that requires special knowledge or special training.
6. A certificate confirming the presence (absence) of a criminal record and (or) the fact of criminal prosecution or the termination of criminal prosecution on rehabilitative grounds.
7. A certificate stating whether or not a person is subject to administrative punishment for the consumption of narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances without a doctor’s prescription or new potentially dangerous psychoactive substances.
8. In some cases, when concluding an employment contract, it may be necessary to present additional documents taking into account the specifics of the work, other federal laws, decrees of the President of the Russian Federation and decrees of the Government of the Russian Federation.

There are no certificates from a psychiatrist or narcologist on the list...