Negative attitudes can quickly develop a toxic culture in any workplace. It is challenging to transform toxic habits into positive behaviors, but it must be done to avoid a negative impact on the whole team.
Use these five tips to connect with your unhappy employees and help them grow into productive, happy members of your team.
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Video Summary
The Dangers of Toxic Employees
It's not difficult to see the dangers of toxic employees in the workplace. Part of effective leadership is identifying, addressing, and mitigating the risks of toxic behaviors among your team.
Negativity Spreads
Negative attitudes breed negative attitudes. Meaning if you have people on your team who are constantly complaining, shirking their responsibilities, and engaging in other adverse behaviors, it usually causes other team members to do the same.
If you've ever worked in an unpleasant environment, you know the impact that it can have on your mood and performance. Even if you wake up in a great mood, arriving at work to hear nothing but complaints or dismal conversation from others usually brings you down to their level.
Toxic Employees Reduce Performance
Negative attitudes at work do more than just create an unpleasant space – They can actually lower overall productivity levels and result in the wasted time of other employees.
The Harvard Business Review surveyed thousands of managers and employees in the US to learn more about how a staff member's bad attitude can impact others around them.
Here is a summary of employee behavior after being exposed to a negative person they work with:
48% decreased work effort
47% decreased time at work
38% decreased work quality
66% self-reported a decline in performance
80% lost work time worrying about toxic incidents
63% lost work time trying to avoid the toxic employee
78% reported a decrease in their overall commitment to the company
These findings align with others that clearly emphasize the harmful effects of negative employees on those around them. While it is tempting to write off a single negative employee as not worth your time, doing so will likely lead to much larger problems across your staff.
Toxic Employees Will Negatively Impact Your Bottom Line
Toxic employees cost you money. Really.
Another Harvard study completed an in-depth analysis of financial and other impacts of negative employees (Harvard Business School). It found that getting rid of your negative employees can actually save you over double the amount of money than hiring a "superstar performer."
The study found that a toxic employee will reduce productivity so much over time that they will end up costing you more than twice the amount you would have saved by hiring a model employee with consistent performance. If you want to learn more about this, check out the link above.
Tip #1: Identify Your "Problem People"
Before we can talk about how to manage negative employees and help them evolve into something else, it's essential to know which people on your staff to focus on.
Toxic employees usually meet the following criteria:
Inconsistent performance and adherence to company policies
Often spend time complaining about the job, company, or other problems
Love to discuss problems but rarely offer solutions
Engage in unprofessional conduct, behavior, or actions with colleagues or clients (sometimes resulting in formal complaints against them)
Are disinterested in improving themselves or the company
Make other employees feel self-conscious or stupid for working hard in their positions
Some of your "problem people" will jump right out at you. If you were thinking of one employee while reading this, you probably already know they are a problem person.
Still, consider all your staff while you are identifying problem people. Upon closer reflection, it might become clear which of your team members bring others down and which are being brought down by those around them.
Once you know which of your staff members contributes most to a toxic environment, you can focus your efforts on them.
Next, we will cover how to improve the outlook of your most difficult employees and what to do if they prove resistant to change.
Tip #2: Provide Channels for Employee Feedback – And Actually Use It
One way to improve employee outlook is to allow them to provide management with constructive feedback or propose ideas. Once you have it, use their feedback to make changes throughout your business. This can help your employees feel heard and valued by the company and management team.
There are many ways to request employee feedback or other people's ideas, so you should choose one that best fits your industry and company culture.
A few popular examples of employee feedback channels are:
Employee suggestion drop-boxes (in person or digitally through a form or email address)
Open discussions asking for feedback during performance reviews
Open floor at employee staff meetings to share ideas and voice concerns
GroupThink problem/solution exercises during team building or staff development days
If you ask for feedback, it is vital to use it when you get it. Even if you do not like an idea submitted by an employee, use it as a conversation starter. Let them know that you read it and thank them for sharing it with you. This will show your employees that you care what they think and respect them as professionals.
Review your employee ideas with an open mind. As managers, it can be easy to forget the way things look on the ground. Happy employees believe that you value their perspectives and experience.
How to Get Your Employees to Share Feedback
A common pitfall among managers is that employees complain but do not share their concerns or seek solutions with management.
If you want your employees to share feedback with you, build a company culture that welcomes input and team growth. This can take time to create, especially if you are correcting years of unwelcome environment, so don't expect it to happen overnight.
These strategies can help:
Never retaliate against employees for their feedback
Genuinely consider each suggestion and discuss it with the employee who submitted it
Call attention to new policies that resulted from staff feedback
Be willing to admit that you make mistakes and discuss them with staff.
Apologize if you do something that made an employee feel mistreated, even if it was unintentional
Avoid being rude or making negative comments to your employees – Civility goes a long way
Another simple reason employees don't share feedback is that they do not know about the channel you are providing.
Develop communication channels with staff that allow you to easily share messages. Announce the channel's creation and remind employees that you are awaiting their feedback at the end of each quarter.
Tip #3: Address the Root Causes of Employee Unhappiness
Most of the time, employees are unhappy because of something at work.
Sometimes an employee feels down because of their personal life or dealing with other issues outside of your control. Let's focus on work-related topics that we can control.
The easiest way to figure out what makes your employees unhappy is to ask them. If they are not comfortable sharing, keep your ear to the ground to pick up on employee pain points.
Common sources of unhappiness at work include:
Feeling disrespected by colleagues or management
Feeling that high-performance is not recognized nor rewarded
Feeling "stuck" or as though their growth has stagnated
Feeling underpaid or undervalued for the work they do
Feeling disregarded or ignored by colleagues or management
Feeling overworked or burnt out
Sometimes, employees feel bad about situations that you cannot control or change. When that happens, there might not be much you can do.
However, most of the time, shifts in management style or policy can be enough to address the root cause of employee unhappiness, nipping toxic behavior in the bud and preventing it from developing in the future.
Here is a quick table to suggest potential shifts in management to resolve typical pain points. This is not an all-encompassing list, so treat it like a jumping-off point to spark your own ideas.
Pain Point | Management Shifts |
Feeling disrespected by colleagues or management |
|
Feeling that high-performance is not recognized nor rewarded |
|
Feeling "stuck" or as though their growth has stagnated |
|
Feeling underpaid or undervalued for the work they do |
|
Feeling disregarded or ignored by colleagues or management |
|
Feeling overworked or burnt out |
|
Tip #4: Model Positive Behaviors & Attitudes
The age-old lesson in leadership and instruction – model what you expect from others.
It can be tough for leadership to know when to acknowledge that things are going poorly and when to slap that fake smile on their face to keep people's spirits up. I recommend balancing the two to be authentic while contributing to an overall positive mindset.
Pretending that all is well when your staff knows it isn't will only create mistrust and frustration. At the same time, you don't want to become the toxic employee you are trying to change. Try to find a strategy that allows you to recognize difficulties without creating a negative environment for your staff.
I'll share my personal strategy with you to help you find one that can work for you. I acknowledge pain points when I feel them but keep a solution-centric mentality when I can. Instead of sharing problems into the void, I try to either include a potential solution or ask others for one. This helps me be genuine while also promoting a growth-focused way of thinking. Basically, an "it might be bad now, but it can get better!" attitude.
One final note: Remember that language and tone matter. If you're having a rough day, you don't need to pretend that you aren't, but saying "Today has been a rough one!" is not the same as "F*** this place."
Tip #5: Coach-Out Negative Employees Who Won't Change
While we can share strategies and try our best to help our toxic employees change, sometimes, we just aren't successful, and the behavior continues.
If you have already had an initial meeting with an employee, identified performance issues, provided constructive feedback, and given them concrete examples of how to improve their attitude, it might be time to throw in the towel.
An employee's bad attitude can be impacted by countless situations outside of our control, so there will always be people who remain toxic despite our best efforts.
In this situation, it might be best to coach an employee out of your company and into something else. Instead of simply firing a person, help them realize that they should leave in pursuit of a position to which they are better suited.
When possible, I prefer a coaching-out method because it results in a positive result for you and the employee. It also reduces unpleasant feelings or mistrust among your remaining team and others after letting someone go.
A coaching-out method does not mean that you find a position or even make a referral for the employee leaving. It just means that you take the time to help them recognize that their current position is not working well for them.
Here are a few phrasings that can help you with this conversation:
"I noticed that you seem really unhappy at work every day. Are you sure that this is the place you want to be?"
"I noticed that your performance reviews have been on a downward trend. Do you think that there is a job better suited for you out there?"
"I have watched you grow for some time now and care about you professionally and personally. I am worried that you seem unmotivated and unhappy here. Can I help you find a position that can make you happy long-term?"
"This a tough job that isn't for everyone. Do you think that you are doing well here, or can I help you find a position elsewhere that might be better suited for you?"
"I'm sorry that you've been so unhappy here. I know it can feel like being unhappy at work only impacts you. However, we are all negatively impacted by it. Is there something we can do to help? Or, can we help you decide on another career path that can make you happy?"
At the end of the day, keeping toxic employees is bad for you, them, and your business. Coaching them out is a great way to end the professional relationship without burning the bridge.
However, if coaching-out is not appropriate for the situation, and the employee is resistant to improvement, it might just be time to let the employee go. Your role as a leader in the company is to create an atmosphere for success, which you cannot do with a toxic staff.
The Gist
Toxic employees are bad for your business and bad for you. They bring your other employees down, lower overall productivity, and even cost you money.
As a manager, it is challenging to know what to do with employees who have negative attitudes. Follow the tips we outlined here to help your employees grow into positive team members or end the professional relationship without bad blood.
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