Episode Transcript
In the last two posts on this topic, I introduced the concept of dealing with difficult employees by first classifying their specific difficulty and then taking specific action based on their classification. The seven types were named Unethical, Sullen, Lethargic, Know-It-All, Always-Late, Underperforming and Troubled.
This post discusses the issues and solutions for the last two difficult employee types; Underperforming and Troubled.
Whereas the first five employee types are honesty and/or motivation based, the interesting thing about these last two difficult employee types is that it could be you or I at any at any given time.
Underperforming: The Underperforming category falls into two types;
• Those who don’t have the proper training to do the job
• Those that don’t have the ability to do the job
For those who need additional training the answer is obvious, get them some training. For those who don’t have the ability, the right thing to do is to have a heart-to-heart talk with the person and help them find a different position within the organization that better fits their skills and abilities.
Troubled: Virtually everyone has times in their life when they are overtaken by deep personal issues such as
• Severe illness or death of a loved one
• Divorce
• Financial difficulties
• Personal health issues
• Other similar major events.
Treat this person with tenderness, respect, support and assistance.
These events can seemingly overnight make your best employee unproductive, detached or a little self-destructive. As their manager, you are in a position to provide them with support, guidance, direct them toward special organizational resources and generally make their life a little easier (for a short time) until they are able to deal with the personal issues at hand. It’s not only the right thing to do as their employer; it’s also the right thing to do as a human being.
I had a great long term employee working for me a number of years ago. Her mother was happily living in elderly housing and then had a stroke. To make things worse, her mother’s housing facility did not have the capability to provide the care that her mother now needed. My employee, we’ll call her Sue, while personally having great difficulty dealing with her mother’s failing health, had to quickly find a new living arrangement for her mother. At work, her work quality and volume dramatically decreased.
Seeing and understanding her personal difficulty, I reduced her workload and provided her with a more flexible schedule, thus allowing her to both care for her mother and find her new living arrangements. This went on for about four weeks, at the end of which Sue again became a high producing employee. Also, her loyalty to the company was enhanced and the time she missed from work during her difficulty was made up three-fold. By acting in this manner, not only did I help the company retain a great employee, but I did the right thing as a human being.
If you decide to help an employee in this way, make sure you have your manager’s and Human Resources approval, so you will not be penalized by this act of kindness by accidentally breaking an organizational policy.
The primary advice and takeaways are to know that:
• It’s possible that there will be a time when you or I may fall into the Underperforming or Troubled category
• If an employee is performing poorly because they are undertrained, provide training
• If an employee is performing poorly because they don’t have the ability to do the job, work with them to find something more suitable
• If an employee is in a short-term personally troubled state, if appropriate, try to provide support
