How to Deal With Problem Employees

what a crock of **** this is, the author keeps contradicting himself through thwe whole article, he keeps stating fire him from the beginning of the article then he floats over to progressive disipline then back to fire him quick its a bad apple, very poor 11 steps.

problematic employee is the one who is courageous enough to stand for his rights. Chances are more that the other employees are alson feeling the same way but they are afraid. Known Devil is better than hidden ghost. 99% of the employees keep quiet not because they don't have problems because they are afraid. So, are you going to fire the entire company and recruit again?. Common...Firing will not work. Chances are more that you lost a valuable resource.You need to talk to the problematic employ

This advice reads just like something you would expect from young people without much experience managing, or people that lack normal social skills. Real life is not like the Internet or your electronic devices folks! My guess is that most of them have either never actually worked as part of a team under someone else, or they were victims of the "fire fast" theory at some point, or are just repeating theories that they've heard about but that they themselves have never tried. Honestly,

funny what you spew. you should have done a better job of hiring on the front-end. young business folks, most of this sounds like chancy information for other inexperienced young business professionals to try. transparency is nothing more than a smoke-screen for the much less menacing term: micro-managment. if you're a small business owner, green-field planning and want to grow a company culture of fear, confusion, selective memory, bait and switch - follow this remedy and you-too will proba

DukeBoy, you dunderhead! these are 11 suggestions from 11 diff people... Most of this is advise is right on spot, depending on how small the business/workforce is & what type of business it is.

Wow, Steve did we hit a sore spot? Your response says it all and I bet you are an extremely poor manager or limited management skills. Yes, there is a time and place to fire people. However, it should not be a first option.

This is probably one of the worst articles I've ever read. Apparently none of these pretentious little entrepreneurs know anything about organizational management or leadership. After reading this I say, "Thank God my company has Human Resources". I love to watch Generation Y run around with mommy-and-daddy-paid degrees. It's amazing all the things they think they can do without practical life or business experience. It must be nice to have all the answers.

After working in an environment that is toxic to the extent a complaint with the EOC has been filed, I agree, unfortunately, people should be fired, and probably fired often. But what if the jobs are union? Not so easy to pull the trigger. And in our case, poor managing has resulted in this possibly pending lawsuit. The fish does rot from the head down.

I read in a Human Resource magazine a few years back that non Americans are preferred in middle management positions for employee supervision in companies of mixed nationalities. I guess intolerance is politically incorrect in the global market place.

Good advise, all of it. Boils down to "Praise in public, criticize in private" I've always followed this golden rule.

This is very basic common sense stuff. I would say in this day and age, hire. Good attorney if you have been wrongfully terminated.

I would agree to a degree. If this had happened in my life, I would have found myself fired after 60 days from the company where I've been employed for the last 22 years. I had started with this company at the bottom, making less than half what I had made before. I was resentful about it but no one at the company knew that. I kept it to myself but still made life miserable for others. If not for my supervisor sitting down with me and giving me the opportunity to correct the problem, who kno

This advice is very helpful as any office and especially a small office cannot afford to have one bad employee affect morale or productivity. I will follow this advice for any problems that may occur in my office. Thank you!

And what do you do when this person is allow to continue no matter what! We have one, she is horrible, she screws up, manipulates, does not follow the rules and is constantly reprimanding the rest of us for the things she is doing wrong. Management talks to her and she takes it out on us. She is shop manager in a large chain store and I have no idea why they have not yet fired her. WE have gone to the bosses over her, brought evidence daily showing them her mess ups, written down the demeaning a

Many times the problem employee is the manager. The problem becomes more difficult then as you have manage your boss.

Great advice - for "at will" employees. How do you get rid of a rude, vindictive, insubordinate individual who is protected by a union???????????????? She filed a grievance once because her desk was being moved into the next room. Now she has filed a grievance because she feels she is being forced to work too much!!!!!!! You are correct if you surmised that she is a government employee. :(

Most of these actions will get you fast short term results but will leave you with an overall weaker team. Team building for long term success starts with repairing problems, not replacing them. In my field I have to constantly remind my managers that we repair a 20k machine but want to through out an employee we have 50k invested in.

you can help an employee be a good employee, or you can help them to be a bad employee communication, setting guidelines, let your employees know what you expect

I agree with some of the tips in this article, providing the manager knows what he or she is doing and leads by example. In essence, a manager who leads from the front, not the rear. What happens when the manager or leadership is the bad apple and causes the work environment to be very unpleasant for everyone. The reality is there are very bad managers too! Why are bad managers given a 2nd, a 3rd, a 4th chance... etc? The reality is we still live and work in a "good ole boy buddy system&quo

Actually, the first clean kill awakens the herd, means that you're making an example of a bad employee, and it "awakens" the rest of the "herd" to the consequneces.

What do you do if the employee picking fights with other employees and customers is a key family member? Especially since you have an inherent duty to the ownership group?

When I read these so-called suggestions, the YEC comes across as a bunch of spoiled little cut throat yuppie punks who know nothing about proper interaction and how to deal with "problem" employees. They should comment when they actually have more experience and grow up a little. I have seem many problem managers who are completely incompetent and clueless. We should ask how to deal with problem managers.

The only thing I would like to add is that typical office politics do not fit any of these ideas. Fot example, it is common to blame the guy who just left. Maybe the employee in question is fine, and the people doing all the gossip are the ones that need to be micromanaged, if not fired. Typical power games are also something not taken into consideration in this story. This story assumes the employer has at least a little common sense and is a fair person. This is not the case in over 98% of con

The only intellectually stimulating comment among them all (the rest were all "old school" and see how far "old school" has gotten us?): A: The Apple Doesn't Fall Far From the Tree Deal with the whole tree, not just the bad apple. The best piece of advice I ever heard on this was that you should identify problem employees and observe them for a week. See who they associate with and who they have their "water cooler" talks with. Generally, a bad apple is not isolat

I think this disgusting article should recieve some of our kind thoughts, as we are, after all human beings and not robot resources with no ethics. the 'young' entreprenuers council can be contacted at this space: ********************************** We must take a stand against this appalling method of conducting a business.

this is an awful article. all it says is get rid of them, fire them. what about working with people especially if they have been here a long time

what do you do if it is your boss that always expects to much from those under him and then when they decide to stand up for thereself he or she will go as fat as to tell them they are spoiled or hang up on them on the telephone or just blatantly expect them to drop whatever whenever for the company and when you dont he reprimands you in his own way for it. its not always the employee that is the bad apple and with the current economic situation that we have its not like you can just jump up and

Very good article and answers to the question of how to deal with a problem employee. Applicable to employees in all levels of a company. I am currently dealing with a problem employee who was thrust upon me when his position in another department was eliminated. Due to the fact that he was a long-term employee ("with a wife and two kids") it was decided by upper management that he be placed in my department, where I just happened to have a vacancy. His previous responsibilities ha

This does not work for public employee. You can't fire them. only transfer them with a promotion and they know it.

Employees are a valuable commodity these days when training is so difficult to pay for compounded with achieving payroll in addition to knowing it is difficult to pay reasonably. But can you let employees take advantage of your businesses and your own shortcomings. The answer is no and you must never vocalize that you are weak. You must let that employee know to show up to work and not come and go at their own leisure because it is to difficult to organize the business and deal with such compl

I do not agree with firing quickly-often on a team a superstat-lead person- takes all the grief due to overload and jealousy of the other team members- group meetings are effective where the group can vent and realize the superstar has management behind them and things stay upfront and addressed-firing often gives the workplace a bad reputation-people need to work together with a strong manager and not BE DISGARDED SO QUICKLY....................I WAS A SUPERSTAR-TOP ACHIEVER IN A COMPANY AND PAI

The only logical and successful solutions provided here are A: focus on actions and A: provide clear consequences The rest of the answers are childish, self centered, and will only foster an environment of distrust and failure. Seriously, are you children? Grow up

This must be the private sector's version of how to deal with problem employees. This doesn't talk about the politics or procedures around dealing with problem employees. In government, getting rid of dead weight either takes years or the employee is moved and becomes someone else's problem. There are also limited resources for providing incentives in the public sector. It is also extremely rare for a manager to fire a group of people in government. This would probably never ever happen. What I

Oh, this all sounds great in theory, however, when the scenarios stated, apply to the managers,and you are the employee, what then? Not all managers are the cream of the crop. Some in fact are the owners. Now what? Sounds like great advice to fire a dead weight, or a problem employee, however, if said dead weight and problem employee is being created by management through indecision, lack of focus, lack of trustworthiness, lack of knowledge, and no leadership skills, then what? It is not al

Seems like some of the manager's quoted fit well into the Romney/Bain mold. Stop to think : Who hired all those "dead-weights"? Maybe some of you could use some re-training yourselves? A good organization will be very careful before hiring and work to develop the people they do hire into effective employees and successful team members.