Office politics can be a nightmare at the best of times, but how do you cope when there is a member of staff who is making people uncomfortable on a constant basis? There are many reasons why toxic behavior can be damaging to a work environment, but often, finding ways to defuse situations and ultimately resolve them, can be very challenging. Finding a pathway to workplace harmony is a difficult one, and resolving every instance of unusual behavior can take you away from more important tasks in your daily diary. However, by not addressing the issues, you expose yourself too much greater potential risks.
The angry member of staff
If you have an employee who seems to explode for even the slightest of reasons, then you already know how much that can affect the atmosphere and productivity of your workplace. Anger management issues in an enclosed environment can very quickly spiral out of control and may end up costing you money on excessive staff turnover and a reduced work-rate. Dealing with those staff members with a temper is very difficult, but it does need to be addressed. Anger quickly leads to an environment of bullying, and that exposes you to legal risks as well. Address the situation carefully, but use the disciplinary procedures that are in place, and always open dialogue with offers of practical support.
The unpredictable employee
Some members of staff work brilliantly on one day but can’t finish even the simplest of tasks on the next. That unpredictability makes it very hard to organize workloads and meet targets, but it’s a particularly difficult problem to tackle. Finding out the cause of that unpredictability is the key. It could be that they have a new baby at home that is affecting their sleep, or it could be something much more difficult to tackle.
Drugs in the workplace cost the economy an estimated $100billion a year. Not only that, but drug use in the workplace can cause a number of social and medical problems that are impossible to put a financial cost too. In order to protect your staff, your business, and your customers from the dangers of drugs in the workplace learn about the signs of high-functioning drug addiction and learn to recognize opioid withdrawal symptoms or behavior that indicates a staff member is intoxicated.
The distracting comedian
One of the hardest types of disruption to tackle is that of the employee who treats everything as a joke. This a very challenging element to manage, because humor in the workplace is important for staff morale and even productivity. However, if you have a member of staff who interrupts meetings to makes jokes, it can disrupt workload for a long time afterward.
Tackling the member who spends large parts of their day sending memes and joke emails to the whole office is hard because stamping down on the culprit can damage staff morale even more than the excessive joker. Don’t make the mistake of fighting fire with fire. Often, a short discussion about limiting the interruptions to their work will suffice, but this needs to be tackled carefully.
There are many types of odd workplace behaviors that can affect your business. Learn to recognize issues before they become overwhelming, and you’ll stand a much better chance of reaching that workplace harmony that every business owner dreams of.