All About Toxic Employees in the Workplace

Posted on January 24, 2013 by Suzi

What motivates Toxic employees? How do Toxic employees control other employees?

Introduction

If you run a business, you’ve likely encountered a “toxic employee.” You hear complaints about or you experience a worker who is mean or abusive. But you hesitate to deal with the employee because he/she might be technically gifted/hard to replace. This article discusses the complicated social dynamics that arise when one or two employees engage in abusive and intimidating behavior. Also covered here is how toxic employees and their tactics harm the business and coworkers. Toxic employee tactics consolidate and maintain informal power in the workplace and control coworkers for personal gain. This behavior goes against healthy workplace values and conflicts with company goals. Unproductive drama distracts surrounding work units, victimizes workers and prevents the achievement of company goals.

This material addresses a workplace where well-meaning leadership is disengaged or fearful. It does not address a workplace where the prime abuser is the chief executive. When the chief executive is abusive and fails to respond appropriately to employee feedback, employee behavior will become understandably negative in response. In this situation employee acting-out is a natural consequence of poor leadership and requires a special, tailored intervention not precisely covered by this material.

Who are toxic employees?

I have defined “toxic employees” by observing the techniques they use. Looking at what sets them apart from typical employees, toxic employees are motivated by getting and protecting personal gain (power, money, or special status) NOT by achieving company goals. What the company wants of his/her individual performance is of less interest to a toxic employee. He/she typically does not recognize a duty to an overriding principle of ethics or respectful treatment of others. Finally, relationships with coworkers are not defined by the formal organization structure but are defined by the toxic employee’s own power; coworkers they favor in the moment and coworkers they do not trust.

Toxic employees are not just difficult coworkers. They plan ahead and use strategies to neutralize supervisors and detractors. Sometimes they are just protecting their personal power. Sometimes they are protecting secret misdeeds or malfeasance. Finally, they may be inoculating themselves from performance feedback.

In addition, toxic employees are not just bullies. A bully punishes, teases and abuses others at work. This alone is grounds for performance counseling. Venting emotions inappropriately, yelling and other forms of abuse should not be tolerated in the workplace. When bullies repeatedly target a particular employee, the effects can be devastating. This can and should be stopped by a carefully crafted performance intervention. I have covered this topic in several other blogs.

Toxic employees use bullying tactics but there’s more. A toxic employee is more deliberate and strategic and more difficult to stop than a straight forward bully. This is because of their clever means of discrediting those who speak up AND dis-empowering supervisors and others who possess the power on paper, to make changes in the workplace.

The problem

I am often engaged to address one employee’s negative workplace performance. Once on site I find the situation is more complex than simply establishing a performance improvement plan for the offending employee. The greater the informal power residing with this one individual, the more likely the employee group around him/her has chosen up sides. Because negative social dynamics become well entrenched, any real solution requires an intervention addressing both the main offender and the surrounding social system.

How this dynamic harms employees

Victimized employees can and do suffer emotional and physical harm such as stress-related illnesses. Employee victims of ongoing workplace abuse and intimidation (bullying) will eventually require support to re-establish healthy boundaries with others even after the offender’s termination. Employees with a good perspective and a desire to support business goals often draw fire from powerful negative employees. Employees who express disapproval of the negative dynamics or who try to resist those dynamics have likely learned who has the power in both subtle and in more overt, public ways. Negative messages from toxic employees to NOT speak up can be so powerful as to render even strong, competent peers unwilling to alert leadership. It is very much worth the effort to retain those who disagree with negative approaches by re-establishing positive supports and rewarding their instincts to speak up. Intervention timing is key.

How this dynamic harms your business

Toxic employees who operate from a negative, abusive perspective and who mistreat fellow workers rarely treat customers with respect. Employees distracted by a work atmosphere of squabbles, choosing up sides and consolidating informal power structures do not perform at their best. This atmosphere serves to preserve the negative dynamics and consistently drains productivity. In addition over time, highly motivated and positive employees who have tried and failed to improve things will move on to other companies and those more comfortable in a negative environment will stay. The longer these dynamics continue the worse the environment generally becomes. All of this combines to distract even high-performing staff from promoting business goals and quality client service delivery. The failure to exercise supervisory power creates a vacuum through which ill-motivated staff can emerge and divert attention from the organization’s goals. It can take years to reverse the behaviors and the effect of the abuse on others.

Informal power structures and dynamics

Today’s workplace is full of unwritten “agreements.” Status quo power structures and informal processes are established over time and become well-entrenched. For example, those with informal power steer their peers away from employees who they see as a threat to their power and can punish those who ignore these warnings with silent treatment and rumors. Eventually, everyone “gets the message” and learns to go along. Disturbing the status quo is met with resistance and dynamics that worsen just before they begin to shift. Those who stand to lose their informal power will up the ante to preserve it. Knowing what to expect along with a well-thought out plan is essential to moving away from abuse and intimidation toward comprehensive positive change.

Ringleader motives

It’s helpful to think about what motivates abusive employees in the workplace. Mistreatment of others comes from a self-centered perspective. It is sometimes constructed to cover personal insecurities or fears. It is generally maladaptive social behavior. This behavior might be learned or may the result of formative trauma. More specific answers are beyond the scope of this material.

Acquisition of informal power and control
Advancing ones value and position in the organization
Decreasing (or neutralizing) another’s value and position in the organization, particularly those seen as a threat – supervisors and other change agents
Retaliating against perceived slights by fellow employees

Control techniques

Ringleaders as toxic employees generally collect information to either withhold or use against targets for maximum advantage. In addition, they use strategies to prevent complaints about them from getting traction and to weaken the power of others. The foundation of most toxic techniques is a near universal need humans have to be liked by others in the workplace.

Negative contracting is an agreement to keep secrets, look the other way, do something harmful, or spread a rumor about someone else. Contracts are typically a secret agreement between the toxic employee and others with a goal of avoiding consequences or reducing someone’s power.

Emotional manipulation is when a coworker is manipulated into questioning his/her judgment or instincts and controlled to believe the story spun by the toxic employee. Often the appeal is to the target’s sense of responsibility for the feelings of others. Clever manipulators can make anyone feel responsible for what’s gone wrong.

Blaming the victim is using clever manipulation to exploit victim mistakes and attack their credibility. This is done in a manner that shifts focus away from whatever the victim was trying to raise for management attention onto the victim’s “misdeeds.” In some workplaces employees give up trying to get management’s attention because the futility has been demonstrated repeatedly.

Marginalization is the process of ostracizing targets, giving them the silent treatment or withholding information as a way to demonstrate power over others or as punishment for a perceived offense. Depending upon how much the targeted employees want to be liked at work, this can be a very powerful deterrent.

Negative dynamics thrive when . . .

There are certain environments in which negative dynamics are promoted and enhanced and very difficult to shift. This would include those situations where:

Ringleaders are often technically strong . . .

Ringleaders often have access to historical information, company lore and information needed by other employees to carry out their assignments
Ringleaders are in positions of specialized skill and perceived to be difficult to replace
Organization performance evaluations are based upon technical performance results without accountability or demonstrated command of:

Negative dynamics are more difficult to maintain when . . .

Some workplaces actively promote positive values and respect for one another. In these environments positives are rewarded and negatives are addressed. Tactics that make it difficult for abusive employee strategies to take hold include those where:

The organization articulates its vision of a healthy, productive workplace through a code of ethics or set of employee relations values
The organization informs staff how it plans to shift and maintain the desired culture with examples of what is positive and what will be discouraged
Performance evaluations measure end results AND the demonstration of corporate values in the areas of teamwork, collaboration, corporate ethics and pro-social behavior
Supervisors are connected to what’s going on in their areas
Supervisors operate as a well-coordinated team with good communication and consistent management techniques
Supervisors are well-trained in identifying and responding to negative dynamics
Offending employees are cautioned and counseled with escalating consequences
Offending employees are eventually moved out of the organization

Strategic plan to shift negative workplace dynamics

Shifting the workplace toward a more healthy and productive environment requires a comprehensive plan and approach that lets employees know where you are going and why. It also requires simultaneous extinguishment of negative behaviors and encouragement/skill building for victims and others.

Establish company or departmental values and a clear code of conduct
Identify the various players and research current dynamics
Plan the intervention carefully
Intervene with the group and then primary offenders
Follow up with the group and offenders, as needed
Carry out legal, sound terminations where needed
Develop recruitment strategies to foster desired work climate
Implement ongoing team-building and employee engagement strategies

How to Make 360 Performance Feedback Less Snarky, More Helpful

Posted on August 6, 2012 by Suzi

Performance Evaluation Input

For supervisory staff especially, it is helpful to get constructive feedback from other supervisors (peers), the person’s supervisees, and maybe even external contacts with which this supervisor has regular contact. Many companies try this only to abandon the activity when the feedback is less than helpful. I’ve tried various techniques to maximize the positives of peer and supervisee feedback and minimize the mean and unproductive things folks say when providing feedback. Here’s a brief discussion.

Why use feedback to inform performance evaluations?

Looking at a front line supervisor position, feedback might be helpful in the following scenarios:

If a company has strong peer-to-peer relationship values, this feedback is essential to know how employees are using this value.
Supervisors with an authoritative style may be stifling supervisee ideas – how else would you know?
Some supervisors cater to supervisees and are isolated from or less kind to their peers.
Perhaps most of the supervisor’s contacts are outside the company and external relations are highly valued.
Feedback from more than one dimension can provide the best, well-rounded context for the supervisor’s performance development.

Pitfalls

You create these questionnaires, you explain why you’re gathering feedback and you let participants know that recurring themes will be discussed with the employee for their evaluation. Sounds straightforward. Two ways for this to go wrong – one is participants are afraid to provide feedback if they question or distrust your assurances. This is a difficult problem to overcome. It takes a trusting, professional atmosphere. You can begin with a pilot program and expand as employees see that the original documents are not seen by the employee. Creating a healthy workplace culture is the topic of several individual posts on this blog.

The other is that participants go overboard detailing everything the employee ever did wrong. Employees may not be experienced in providing feedback. Sometimes they mistake this as an invitation to vent. Understanding professional boundaries is something employees often need support to achieve. Starting with the assumption that most employees have some useful feedback, the key is to ask only questions for which answers are helpful.

Try this

The key is to tie the question to the employee’s effect on those around them and avoid open-ended questions. You want to focus on what the employee does and not workers’ personal opinions about them.

“Please note areas in which you feel this individual performs well or where his or her actions contribute to your success or the success of the organization.”
“Please note areas in which you think this individual could make some changes in order to better contribute to your success or the organization’s success:

Retention, Long Tenure and Employee Weaknesses

Posted on January 5, 2012 by Suzi

Years of the same strengths and weaknesses

A hidden challenge results from long service employees’ strengths and weaknesses. I have, more than once, been appointed nonprofit interim Executive Director where the former director had very long service. Say that an individual in a leadership position has weak performance areas and he/she works for 15 years. This means there have been 15 years with this particular weakness. Here’s an example. Maybe the director is strong in finance and fundraising but not so strong managing and dealing with people. Funding and finances are probably in good shape. But after 15 years of less than positive attention to the matters of managing people, human resource strategies and policies are probably lacking. Perhaps the organization never hired anyone with professional HR skills. Perhaps they did, but the professional HR person was frustrated by a leader that didn’t want to grow and improve HR practices through the years. I’ve learned to gather information about strengths and weaknesses of the person I am replacing as a means to assess how to approach the assignment.

Productivity

Long employee tenure is generally considered to be of great value. The logic is that employers invest time and money to train new employees. There are technical matters, getting to know fellow employees to form a good team and then corporate values and philosophies to master. The greater a position’s complexity, the longer it takes for an employee to learn the position and ramp up to competency. Reaching competency is the level where the employee’s real contribution can be realized. In the beginning the new employee is actually a drain on productivity. At some point, they begin to add value by producing results at an acceptable level. From a financial standpoint, the key is to keep employees after they reach the productive-results level long enough to return the original investment. All things considered, a company would be better off to keep these productive employees until their retirement.

Change is the new normal

The faster the world changes the more obsolete a given employee’s experience can become. In addition, nobody’s perfect. Even your best long service employee comes to the job with weaknesses that may continue through their tenure. Read below for a discussion of the some of the hidden problems with long service employees.

Companies change their products, programs and services to remain competitive and to maintain profit margins. Some lines are sold off and new ones are developed or acquired. Even with one product line, the changes and advancements over a 25 year period would require significant re-tooling and process improvements.

In addition, the external world changes around the company. Technologies change. Equipment and processes advance and improve. Consumer needs change and evolve. Accordingly, companies must adapt, retrain and develop employees skills to keep current.

Employees who grow along with the company, develop new/emerging skills and perform well should be rewarded with opportunities, money or continued employment regardless of age, gender, race, etc. This is the main concept of an end-result oriented performance-based evaluation system. In addition, companies need to maintain good dialogue with all employees, particularly those who are falling behind. Maybe they need more time to learn, maybe they don’t want to learn and change, or maybe they want to move into a more comfortable area of the company.

Status quo vs. let’s change everything

During this process of change and evolution, dynamics develop inside the company. As new employees join the company over time they come in and begin to make their own observations and changes. This can cause conflicts between experienced, longer service staff who have built their ways of doing things and less experienced employees who have little loyalty to the way things have been done in the past. Though it is not always so, long service employees can take offense and develop distrust. Newer workers are seen to have new fangled ways to do things; they don’t know “how it is.” It is not necessarily an age thing. Plenty of young workers resist change and plenty of older workers adopt technology faster than young people. This dynamic is easily addressed with communication and attention. The problem is that many companies are oblivious to the “camps,” choosing up sides and negative social issues that distract employees.

The key is to develop the kind of positive work culture that encourages communication among various employee groups, encourage everyone’s focus on company goals and make sure training and staff development keeps up with the times.

Word of the Day: “Overshare” in class and at work

Posted on December 19, 2011 by Suzi

What is it called when a person discloses something too intimate for the setting or social company? Teaching clinical psychology to college students is to truly experience the term: overshare. ”Overshare” describes the phenomenon that prompts the listener to think “TMI.” I’ve started covering social norms about the proper level of personal disclosure for the classroom, in the first class of the semester.

Overshares in class

Here’s a true example: Andrew with raised hand at the beginning of class.

Me: “Yes Andrew.”

With Tom sitting next to him in class - Andrew: “Suzi, I wanted to let you know about Tom and me. We had a fight but we have decided that rather than being friends-with-benefits, we made up and we are going to be in a committed relationship.”

Tom is now looking a little green and the rest of the class is either uncomfortable or rolling their eyes.

Me: “Andrew, do you remember we talked about students’ relationship intimacy matters as being inappropriate for class disclosure?”

Andrew: “Yes . . . overshare?”

Me: “I think so. Let’s move on.” Inside my head I am thinking, for the love of God!

Overshares at work

I find that some employees so needy for attention that they provide to coworkers excruciating detail about their physical illnesses, mental illness or intimate relationship issues. While some coworkers enjoy this kind of information most would rather not have these pictures in their heads.

Workplace oversharing creates a dilemma for HR professionals. Employers are prevented from disclosing any information about an employee’s illness or medical condition no matter what the employee has disclosed. HR professionals shouldn’t discuss or comment. The idea is that with information about protected-class status as general knowledge at work, it is difficult for an employer to prove that it’s actions did not consider this status. Once the information is readily available in the workplace milieu, it is really impossible to rein it back in.

Lack of general privacy

Facebook and other instant social media channels have encouraged oversharing and a disregard for privacy, generally. I would like to see the pendulum swing back so that people in non-intimate settings might keep this kind of information a little more private.

Using “Interim” Professionals to Bridge Key Vacancies: CEO, HR, IT and Finance

Posted on December 1, 2011 by Suzi

As companies operate with ever-leaner staff the prospect of losing a key employee can be overwhelming. No matter the size of the company, IT, Finance or HR professionals are key positions. They interact with everyone: they play a key role in business planning; and they have a strong role in controlling finances/efficiency. When one of these staff members gives their notice several things must be done at once:

Figure out how to operate with a vacancy – no matter how speedy your recruitment it will take a while to get the right person in the seat
Make sure activities and processes don’t stall or slide backwards
Find a way to complete projects in development
Develop the recruitment strategy to find the right person.

We’ve all been tempted to rush the recruitment process in desperation. A seemingly perfect candidate shows up at the right time and you hire them thinking it’s better to have an unknown person today than take precious time to find the right one tomorrow. Does this ever really work out?

Dilemma of Human Resource vacancy

A special dilemma emerges when your Human Resource manager or director gives his/her notice. When the IT person quits the HR person leads the search. When the HR person is preparing to depart you have to make plans to cover the recruiting process with a non-HR person (bad idea), retain a recruiting firm (very expensive) or ignore the problem and hope it goes away (never a good thing). An interim HR director can keep HR operations running and oversee the search for a hyper-critical role in company affairs. My interim HR assignments generally come about because the departing HR person frets about how the company will continue to move forward smoothly. On two occasions, the owners ignored the problem a little too long. As the departure day draws near the exiting HR person begins searching for someone to help bridge the gap. Instinctively, he/she knows that rushing into a permanent hire can have disastrous consequences – picture a poor HR performer and you trying to counsel him/her on job performance problems. Yikes!

Hiring an interim professional gives you time to breathe, plan and get onto better footing than can support a thoughtful, thorough hiring process.

What an interim professional can do for your company

Five potential functions can be served by an interim professional:

Audit: assess the current state of affairs, uncover weaknesses or poor functioning and recommend improvements. No matter how great the departing professional was weak performance areas are expected. Over time, owners begin to overlook these weaknesses. An interim professional will take a balanced, fresh look and not be afraid to say what areas need shoring up. Suggesting written policy amendments is something most interims do as a matter of course.
Running operations: interim professionals have the skills to keep things moving, supervise staff and continue getting results while you search for the best replacement.
Completing projects in transition: many business projects take months to complete. Getting a key staff’s notice in the middle of a major project can be stressful. Interims are typically well-trained in project management and may actually bring a broader, more seasoned expertise to the table.
Help with the permanent hire: interim professionals can provide much-needed support to keep search activities moving forward. They can review the job design and description as well as qualifications for the permanent replacement. The longer the exiting professional has been in his/her position the more the world around you has changed. This is the perfect time to get an objective review of how the position is designed and how it relates to the overall business team and goals. When the search is underway an interim professional can provide a keen eye to candidate experience and fit since they come at this from a place of deeper experience than the general recruitment team.
Post placement support: an interim professional can help smooth the transition into an organization’s culture and process. The best way to take advantage of this service is to use professional interims. Making this work to the company’s best advantage requires strong and consistent attention to what is best for the company. If you have retained an interim who wants the position and things don’t work out, you may have difficulty with transitioning him/her out while bringing in the new person. Not impossible, but tricky!

What to do if the interim is a candidate for the permanent position?

There are two interim professional situations: Those who want the job and see this as a way to ease into it and professional interims. Professional interims will generally be better at the audit, projects and recruitment part of the interim assignment. They don’t want permanent or full-time jobs. Often they are semi-retired and don’t need or want full-time employment. Others just appreciate taking on new challenges. In my case, I love the newness of interim assignments and I genuinely like helping a company, installing the perfect candidate and moving on. Most of my referrals come from owners who don’t know how to begin the search and they want a placeholder. Sometimes the owner’s objective comes from concerns about how things were handled by the exiting executive. In the initial meeting, I describe the five interim functions noted above and let the hiring group decide what they want most from the interim assignment.

How interim professionals work

The beauty of working with an interim position is that a salary budget line item can fund the assignment. Interims who work as contractors don’t take benefits or time off so even if the company used the entire salary/cash budget there is still likely to be savings. In addition, many interims are so well-qualified and efficient that they may not require the full forty hours/five days per week to accomplish what you need. In this case again, there can be expense line item savings. Interims can be hired either as contractors or paid as temporary employees. Some interims prefer to work as a temporary employee and have payroll taxes withheld. Some prefer to keep a contractual arrangement. I have done this both ways. Contractors save the company a bit of payroll tax but the difference isn’t significant. One factor that may apply here is whom the interim professional will answer to and how much oversight there will be. As a contractor I find it to be a little easier to assess policies and procedures frankly while maintaining a more arm’s-length status as a contractor. I also prefer to work a part-time schedule so I can maintain other client relationships. Some clients insist I be on site five days per week but with electronic files, telecommuting makes this unnecessary plus, working three to four days per week means I can commute further from home to take interim assignments. Demanding five days narrows the field of who you might tap to take an interim assignment. Much of this depends on the nature of the position, how much auditing is needed and the current projects underway.

Making the arrangement

Interims working as contractors should provide a confidentiality agreement and contract describing the interim’s scope of responsibility. Interims working as temporary employees are covered by the company’s confidentiality policies as well as all other policies maintained by the company. The most important factor before the assignment begins is ensuring the interim has essential qualifications (don’t be afraid to ask for references).

How do you find interims?

Word of mouth is how most of my interim assignments emerge. I have had all of the following assignments in the last ten years: Nonprofit executive director, program director, operations director and human resources manager/director. Once I’ve assessed the function and created an improvement plan the company is happy to spread the word. Where to look for a good interim would include: LinkedIn groups and searches, professional membership groups in your area, other business leaders through local Chambers of Commerce, etc. I have also helped organizations place an ad for a temporary or interim but this takes a little more time. Baby boomers and semi-retired executives have a wealth of training and experience and are perfect markets for this type of work. They may desire a less pressing schedule and the short duration offers down time in between assignments for travel or personal pursuits. They don’t rattle easily and will take less business owner time to get things operating productively.

Advantages

When current staff are loyal to the former executive: The greatest advantage to working with interims is the transitional aspect. In most work environments staff are split about whether the former executive’s departing is a good thing. When the departing person had questionable performance, using an interim to audit work practices or to help find and correct substandard procedures makes more sense that asking the new, permanent person to do so. Interims are used to looking at the situation without ownership or the territoriality that may enter into the permanent replacement’s mind when building new relationships and prove themselves. When one begins a new permanent assignment there is a tendency to see the former person as less competent to justify the new, “better” approach. It is human nature to validate one’s own approach. For staff who really liked the departing person this can be off-putting. Employees who are angry about the loss of the former professional can be resentful and resistant. Moving directly to a permanent replacement saddles the new person with auditing work, correcting mistakes and trying to lead. I have seen times where the new permanent person lasted a year and left due to these social/psychological complications.

Disadvantages

The biggest disadvantage is that remaining staff have to get used to more than one individual. This can’t be avoided. There are ways to mitigate this through transition support. Much depends upon the posture an interim takes as the process unfolds. Good interims take note of issues that will span the transition time and reserve some decision-making room for the permanent executive’s preferences. In addition, there are some projects that should simply wait for the new person. When the permanent person is hired, the interim should provide enough introductory information for them to feel welcome but not so much control that the new person feels hemmed in. The interim can also cultivate a positive start by reassuring staff that the new person will listen and support them. Finally, involving supervisees in the final stages of the interview process can make a significant difference in staff buy-in.

My own interim assignments are limited by proximity to my home in New England but I consult with organizations throughout the country considering an interim about how to set up and monitor the assignment. Contact me at: sbenoit@benoitconsulting.com.

Living Right and Doing Well at Work

Posted on October 26, 2011 by Suzi

There is an expression, “right living” that means roughly being ethical in your behavior and truthful with yourself. Being happier at work is within your control and can result from “living right” at work. As an employee for over twenty years I have made all the mistakes noted in this material. Some, more than once. These mistakes combined with my human resource training, clinical background and an Al-anon program of recovery have led me to some suggestions that might help you.

It is assumed you generally perform well enough and pick the right jobs over time. This post won’t apply to someone in an abusive workplace or who are working for an abusive boss. It’s meant to help the majority of folks who work for someone else and perform reasonably well. It is certainly easier to try these principles if the workplace is healthy but ironically, they are actually more useful to reduce stress in a less-than-ideal work situation. It is in those times that one needs to monitor his/her own behavior at work. These strategies will work. You will be happier and will feel less stressed in the place where you spend the majority of your waking hours – at work.

Ten Principles to Living Right and Doing Well at Work

1. Turn in your best performance
2. Put out the energy that you want back
3. Accept what you can and can’t control
4. Take responsibility for what you do and think and say
5. Compliment others when they do well
6. Don’t take responsibility for what others do wrong
7. Accept that the owner runs the business
8. Read the political landscape – eyes wide open
9. Make suggestions to improve workplace effectiveness
10. Stay long enough to make a contribution

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

1. Turn in your best performance

Your paycheck is compensation/exchange for helping the company. It’s an implied agreement. Working within your framework come to work everyday doing your best to understand your job, know what you are accountable for and work toward the company’s goals. Stay knowledgeable about your industry. Read the news, research techniques and ask questions. Learn about what your coworkers are responsible for so you can see how your work fits into the bigger picture. This may also include helping others do well at their jobs too, when you can.

2. Put out the energy you want back

The golden rule is cheesy but it does apply. Put out the positive perspective you would want if you owned the company. When everything around you is going to hell in a hand basket, focus on the little things that went well for you. Don’t get involved in gossip. Don’t talk negatively about co-workers or the boss. You don’t have to avoid co-workers who do gossip and you don’t have to get them to stop (I know it’s tempting). Try acknowledging the struggles they talk about, be sympathetic but stop short of agreeing, and say you have things to get back to. I have experienced toxic coworkers who read my silence as agreement so I simply indicate that my experience has been different but I understand they are struggling. “Great boots (scarf, suit, hat, sweater, etc.), gotta go” and move on, smiling.

3. Accept what you can and can’t control

You can control literally: what you do and think and say, period. People burn out when they try to control the uncontrollable. If you are working harder to get someone to change their behavior than they are working themselves, that’s the signal. Wait, “Am I in charge of what this person says, does, or thinks?” The answer is no, no, no. You are not the boss of the world. Your judgments about what others should do (unless you get paid to do this-coaches, etc.) are YOUR vision, YOUR ideas, YOUR life plan, not theirs. Leave others to the natural consequences of their choices. When they ask or if the opportunity presents itself provide observations, suggest available choices and give them encouragement to find their own way. This does not apply to supervisors who must judge and evaluate the performance of others. That’s a whole different article.

4. Take responsibility for what you do and think and say

When you do or say things that hurt others or that put up barriers to achieving business goals (i.e., offending a customer), admit it, apologize if necessary and move on. You can choose to acknowledge the event, learn from it and improve or you can choose a less effective course, say: A., Pretend it didn’t happen, B., Blame others, or C., Go on and on about your shame, humiliation and worthlessness. Your co-workers will quickly see which style represents your ongoing approach. If taking a reasonable perspective on your own mistakes is difficult for you (it is for many) you might need either an AA or Al-anon meeting. Those who are familiar with these models will understand my point.

5. Compliment others when they do well

People naturally gravitate to those who support them to feel good about themselves. In addition, when a person (meaning you) feel good about yourself, it’s not threatening to give credit to others when it is deserved. This is both fair and right. Never take credit for what others do right. If you are living right and doing well, others will notice and even if they don’t, you’ll be a better, happier person.

6. Don’t take responsibility for what others do wrong

While you don’t have to shame others you can allow others to sit with or in situations they create for themselves. This is how we learn to change. If you touch the hot stove and get burned, you learn. If someone puts their hand between yours and the burner, they get burned and you get off scot-free. If you rescue others too often, they will not learn and you will quickly fatigue. We all know people who blame themselves for everything that goes wrong. It’s tedious and it’s not helpful to a well-run workplace. What I do when a co-worker is feeling badly about a mistake is acknowledge they made a mistake and tell share when I’ve made mistakes too. Help them focus on the future and encourage them to move on.

7. Accept that the owner runs the business

Everyone thinks they know better than the real boss. The owner is the owner, not you. An employer has a right to run his/her business as they please. It may not be “fair,” or “right,” but it’s life. I’m not saying you should work for a jerk but over time, owners who respect employees and run a healthy workplace will do better. This is the natural consequence. Conversely, those who are abusive to employees or allow employees to intimidate one another will suffer unproductive turnover. It is not your responsibility to speed things up or to change the outcome. Your job is to decide if you want to work there. You might be able to achieve small improvements by giving professional feedback but be realistic. If things are very negative look for work elsewhere and let the owner suffer his/her own natural consequences.

8. Read the political landscape – eyes wide open

If there is one mean person in the office that no one seems to “take on,” watch and listen to see why that is. Maybe this employee is someone’s romantic partner. Maybe this person is a toxic ringleader with mad retaliation skills. Don’t get hung up on how this is so wrong or unfair. Yes, it’s unfair but this is the reality. Work within your frame-work to turn in your best performance. If this dynamic prevents you from do well in this job, start looking for work elsewhere. You can certainly confront these individuals and it is possible that something might change for the better but it is more likely that you will make yourself a target. AND you are not responsible for rescuing coworkers from this behavior or saving the business from it’s own poor lack of attention to negative employee behavior. That is a lot of heavy lifting. Chances are many other people have tried and failed. Identify the informal power leaders.

9. Make suggestions to improve workplace effectiveness.

If the business does better, everyone benefits. Providing feedback at work is a part of every person’s job. The trick is to know when to speak up, with the right motives. If you constantly complain about the things you can’t control or the things that make it hard for you, people will stop listening. If you provide professional, well-timed (and not too often) suggestions that will improve things for everyone or a whole department, people start viewing you as a valuable asset with good ideas.

10. Stay long enough to make a contribution

Human resource professionals do not like job hoppers. Yes, you can explain that you had a personality conflict with your boss if this happens at one out of five of your last jobs. If there is a personality conflict with every boss in the last three jobs perhaps you are in the wrong field OR you need to do some personal improvement work.

Three Things HR can Do to Relieve Employee Suffering

Posted on August 28, 2011 by Suzi

HR professionals working in American Corporations and small businesses wear many hats. The overall role is to align talent strategies with business goals & ensure compliance with regulations. In the course of their work with individuals in transition, however, they are witness to various human reactions to change. With change comes distress. Along the way, HR professionals have the opportunity to prevent distress, support employees through it, or ignore it through indifference and poor planning.

Two basic sources of Employee distress at work

Employee distress at work can be through Employer initiated changes as a necessary part of doing business today: changes in organizational structure, supervisor, work processes and procedures, negative performance evaluations and layoffs. On the other hand, while a company could remain stable, employees have various personal issues which are increasingly affecting their thoughts while at work: divorce, spouse or partner out of work; illness; child behavior problems at school, drug abuse; alcoholism, financial difficulties or death a loved one. The list goes on.

HR role in managing human behavior

HR helps employees through change in three distinct ways

Implementation of sound company initiatives
Respectful interventions when employee personal crises effect work performance
Never helping to implement or prolong unethical or abusive practices

1. Sensible implementation of company-initiated change

The it’s the company initiating change, HR professionals play a strong role in planning and anticipating human reactions. Changes that affect how employees do their work, who they report to or other factors that change their day-to-day work activities typically draw strong reactions. Remember “Who Moved My Cheese?” First, any change of this kind better be based on a good business reason because it will be a significant disruption. I believe in the “don’t mess with employee routines unless it will improve profits or company sustainability” theory of change at work. Employees should be given an explanation that first, acknowledges it as a change employees will have reactions to, that it is natural to feel frustrated, and second, indicates how the change is needed for a long-term positive impact on profits/expenses/ revenue.

Another way to help smooth unpopular transitions is to manage change implementation. This means warning employees in advance, where possible or breaking big changes into phases that give employees time to adjust. While it isn’t always possible to provide advance notice, warning employees and helping them through a transition can save massive headaches from turmoil, gossip, disgruntlement and so forth as employees vent their frustrations to peers or supervisors who may be powerless to offer explanations or support.

Finally, provide charts, maps and tools that are easy for employees to reference and get useful information. If you are changing medical plans and there is an employee cost increase, make a chart of the old and new with dollar differences. Yes it is highlighting negative information but it is also giving them information to make financial plans and budgets.

There are hundreds of free resources on managing change in the workplace.

2. Respectful interventions when employee personal crises affects work performance

Okay. For this one, you will have to notice subtle changes or at least recognize the early signs when a supervisor approaches you with complaints about a relatively good employee whose performance has decreased. You will also have to be comfortable noticing and talking about feelings! When the supervisor first approaches you, he/she may be describing signs of suffering and/or temporary impairment caused by an event or the employee’s reaction to something upsetting. Early intervention is key to preventing further performance problems as well as employee relations among work unit staff. Employees can get nasty when someone isn’t pulling their weight thereby burdening the remaining members. They can be judgmental and lack a bigger picture view.

You will have to be comfortable walking the fine line between compassionate noticing and snooping. You may be asked to allow something you know you can’t approve but you can say no in a compassionate way. Say the employee wants extra paid time off but doesn’t have any left. Even though you may have to say no to this, you can offer creative alternatives – two-weeks of part-time work, leaving early one day per week, etc. In addition, an EAP is a wonderful support and structure to help HR professionals promote employee well-being. Employee suffering in reaction to upsetting events or personal changes are not permanent. They have a beginning, middle and end. Getting good support can shorten healing time and prevent the onset of more serious symptoms. Simply speaking to an expert early on can make a huge positive difference in the outcome.

An increasing issue for employees at work is mental illness. Every HR manager should know the signs of depression and have some means of providing education to supervisors. Postpartum depression and other situational depressions become more difficult to treat the longer they are ignored. You would see clear signs at work: worsening performance levels; difficulty concentrating or remembering things; withdrawal from co-workers; weight loss and increasing requests for time off. Mental health experts urge employers to provide psycho-educational materials to supervisors and employees and a basic EAP is really essential here. Finally, watch for signs of trauma after a workplace event such as: serious injury, assault or crime that involves co-workers. Here is one of many resources you can access for help in this area: The Workplace Trauma Center.

Finally, when intervening with an employee, consider whether the supervisor needs to be brought into the communication loop. HIPAA and other privacy concerns as well as the good of the employee and company must be balanced here. But when faced with this dilemma, I often choose to provide a little helpful information that will prevent the supervisor from unknowingly making the situation worse.

Most HR folks are great in this kind of situation.

3. Never help to implement or prolong unethical or abusive practices

This one is tougher though it probably doesn’t come up quite as often as the other two situations. As an expert in abuse and intimidation in the workplace, I know that HR professionals are placed in difficult situations that require some deep thinking. If a company owner doesn’t want to fire an offending supervisor, you will likely be watching employees suffer. The choices are to work on convincing the owner why this is a bad plan (call me for a free consult on persuasive facts to sell this idea); coach the offending supervisor; and/or provide advice and survival techniques to staff. When the issues are mild, any combination of these approaches will work. However, I have seen and read about some incredible boss/subordinate abuse that goes way beyond anything that should be tolerated in the workplace. Unfortunately, some of these required an HR professional to ether look the other way or acquiesce. I know, it isn’t the typical scenario, but it happens. In most cases of serious and ongoing abuse the employees sued. Sometimes they win. Even if they didn’t win, court proceedings were made public so all the world will know about the company’s disrespectful or negligent practices. The greatest selling point to the owner in this situation is the risk that a bullying boss may pose for pushing a victim to depression or other incapacitation. In one case I know of, the supervisor was so vindictive and controlling towards a particular employee that she made it clear that no one else in the department was to speak to the victim. When the boss was in, no one spoke to her. When the boss was out, people were friendly in a noncommittal way. Sounds extreme but it happens more than you might think.

Twenty-one states have considered anti-bullying legislation aimed at these extreme victimizing cases. Public sympathy will be with the victim not the company.

Finally, it just isn’t right. I really don’t care how important the knowledge or expertise of the offending supervisor. No one is irreplaceable. He/she will cause human suffering and work disruption that is frankly indefensible. Combining this with the risk of lawsuits will help convince an owner to do something to address the offending behavior.

I was once asked by an owner to implement a “performance counseling” for something innocuous with an employee the owner had previously targeted. I was able to dodge this issue once but in the end, had to leave the position. The owner became more insistent and I gained awareness of the unethical approaches as the rule for this owner, rather than the exception.

The guiding principles here should be:

Company sustainability;
Fairness, respect and lawfulness;
Employee health and well-being; and
The rights of all employees.

Good luck and feel free to call for a free consultation at: Contact me on my website.

HR Talent Alignment and Positive Culture = Cooperative Gain

Posted on August 26, 2011 by Suzi

Cooperative gain is a phrase I heard once used in a scientific context and adapted to Human Resource management here .

Cooperative gain

This is what happens when company goals and values are shared by employees, supervisors and owners. Job design and employee activities are aligned for working productively and respectfully toward company success. The “gain” is that company goals are achieved and employees enjoy their work. It feels like a good place to work. Issues are dealt with swiftly and decisively. Employees who work there want to be there. Employees weigh in on company decisions. They feel heard and owners make sound, thoughtful decisions.

Uncooperative gain

This is when the company has low or modest profits and overall financial results even though employee activities are not particularly aligned with company goals. Company needs are met to some degree but employees are disengaged. In this case, the company has either an incredible product/service with steady demand or employees are relatively powerless. It may also be that employees are not the “most important” asset – manufacturing or other heaving equipment and materials with little human intervention. The modest company gains may not be sustainable because employee negativity and lack of alignment will eventually bring about a failure to adapt to market changes. In addition, employee apathy or even sabotage is more likely here with the potential to curtail forward progress.

Cooperative loss

This is where employees and the company are aligned in activities and values but the company experiences financial or market share losses. It may be that owners are not savvy or strategic and haven’t recruited the right talent. Or it could be a result of unexpected market change; sudden loss of key personnel; competitor breakthroughs; patent expiration or other factors outside employee control. Unforeseen changes in federal policies or applicable regulations may also produce this situation.

Uncooperative loss

This is where the company is suffering losses because employee engagement is lacking. The company’s failure to enlist employees in organizing to support company goals results in disorganized corporate culture, unclear values or values which do not include integrity, professionalism or respect. Perhaps employees are distracted from their work by chaotic employee relationships, fear, intimidation and toxic employee bullying. Maybe the company has never stated its concept of the ideal culture. Recruitment and performance evaluations fail to consider employee commitment to the values and results required to achieve financial goals. Left unattended, this sort of environment results in ongoing difficulties, acquisitions and sometimes, in company failure.

HR Response to Mental Health in the Workplace

Posted on August 4, 2011 by Suzi

I wanted to make a Human Resource oriented addendum to this wonderful article

Responding To Mental Illness in Your Workforce: Leading a Culture Change

tweeted by @psychcentral 8/3/2011. The author, Carol A. Kivler, MS, CSP takes an enlightened and sensitive approach to individuals suffering with mental illness in the workplace. The article is aimed as helping leaders understand the issue of mental illness in the workplace. I appreciate this because I have found my HR friends can benefit from increased comfort with this topic. There are times when my HR training and clinical experience collide. This is one of them.

A unique perspective

I came to the practice of HR from a business background and then Clinical Social Work. My views on mental illness and HR arise from a very different place than my HR peers mostly because of my exposure to severe and chronic mental illness. The sigma Ms. Kivler discusses is very powerful indeed. Because of my experience, I am not afraid of individuals with mental illness. I know that these are fellow human beings with a variety of personal values and styles. I know that only a very small percentage of people with mental illness are violent. It’s just that when a person with mental illness commits a violent crime, the media, especially fringe media, bombard the general public with disturbing images and sensationalized information. I also know that most mental health issues in the workplace are mood disorders such as depression and bipolar disorders which respond well to medical intervention.

Finally, I know that the mentally ill were not all raised in chaotic or abusive homes. I was raised in a lovely family by good parents (not perfect, but good enough) and had a brother who suffered from bipolar mood swings and psychoses from the age of 20 until his death at 48. The voices he heard told him that he, and not others around him, were bad. I know first hand that the essence of who he was as a person, was not the paranoid, odd behavior and religiosity my brother expressed, but it was the sweet, creative and sensitive individual who worked part-time while well on medication. He would never have harmed anyone.

The American workplace is in need of good information like the tips covered in Ms. Kivler’s article, particularly making information on mental health a part of wellness programs. If only employers could take this information and adopt it freely. I think it is possible but HIPAA presents a psychological and legal barrier to some of the actions suggested in the article. The discipline of HR tends to be generally risk averse. It doesnt’ make them mean or uncaring, just cautious. Let me explain this.

HR is naturally cautious

Employers are responsible for removing the appearance or fact of ADA discrimination. In addition, employers are required to protect the privacy of employee personal health information. To do this perfectly, employers would never want to know if someone has a mental illness. Once you know, you are open to accusations of misusing it in order to keep people from promotions or other employment opportunities. For this reason, medical benefits information or other employee-employer correspondence regarding the diagnosis of mental illness are kept in separate “medical files” and not in the personnel file to which supervisor’s have regular access. Employers must also try to prevent this information from being casually released and discussed amongst co-workers. As such, they may ask employees to refrain from discussing their conditions with their peers.

What is the right balance?

I believe that the answer is to emphasize compassion and inclusion a bit and loosen the mentality of “eliminating” risk to more a risk management posture. Ms. Kivler’s article is timely because presenteeism is an emerging HR issue. It’s like absenteeism in that productivity is negatively impacted. However in presenteeism, the employee is at work but distracted by stress and other matters. Mental illness appears to be one of the growing reasons for this distraction. I would conduct training as Ms. Kivler suggests – fold this into the wellness program. I would make sure that the HR department is a safe and informed place for any employee to go if he/she needed support for time off or accessing counseling benefits. This requires that HR staff be held to a high standard of listening, seeing this in the same nonjudmental way that they see say, diabetes, and well versed in the ways in which mental illness can affect employee performance.

I would make sure my performance evaluation system focuses strictly on what and how the employee performs the essential functions of the job and NOT extraneous and irrelevant information like: age, race or disability. I would encourage the company to sensitively approach employees whose performance seems to be impaired by a personal issue in the same way whether it is divorce, an ill relative or their own mental illness. I would ensure that these individuals receive referrals for EAP or mental health counseling. And finally, I would ensure that my HR staff are comfortable responding lawfully and respectfully to requests for accommodations for a bona fide disability whether it represents a physical or mental impairment.

Staff training and stereotypes

Part of the role of sexual harassment statutes is to prevent harassment in the workplace. The practical effect however, is staff training and development. Employers are comfortable conducting training about how employees should behave when they encounter harassment in the workplace. This means no sexual innuendo jokes, slang, etc. Ms. Kivler suggests that use of the word “mental” should be more comfortable (I agree 100%). I would add that we could also support employees to be more sensitive about comments that could be harmful: crazy, loony or even worse “lazy” as applied to those suffering from depression when they can’t get out of bed.

I am grateful to Carol A. Kivler for writing about this topic. It is timely and very important. I also look forward to @psychcentral’s thoughtful tweets each day on topics of individual mental health.