Human nature being what it is, employers can expect friction within work groups from time to time. Personality clashes and misunderstandings will strike nearly every workplace at some time. Handling that strife often requires a deft touch that rises above human nature. While a supervisor’s natural reaction may be to scold, ignore, and make life miserable for a disfavored employee, that approach has the potential to make things even worse.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
A recent survey from CareerBuilder found that 27 percent of bosses surveyed had a current direct report that they wished would leave the company. The survey found that younger managers, those ages 25-34, were more likely than managers 55 and older to have an employee they would like to see gone (32 to 24 percent, respectively).
Bosses struggle with what to do when an employee’s performance and/or behavior is so bad that they would rather start over with someone new than try to reform the current employee. Forty-two percent of the managers in the survey said they are likely to issue a formal warning. But others reported taking a less direct – and potentially hazardous – approach. Besides issuing a written warning, the bosses said they resort to:
- Pointing out shortcomings in the employee’s performance more often (27 %).
- Reducing responsibilities (21 %).
- Hiring someone else to eventually replace the employee (12 %).
- Moving the employee to another work area (8 %).
- Keeping the employee out of the loop regarding new company developments (8 %).
- Communicating primarily via e-mail instead of in person or over the phone (7 %).
- Failing to invite the employee to certain meetings or involve him/her in certain projects (6 %).
- Failing to invite the employee to social gatherings with coworkers (3 %).
Legal risks
When managers and supervisors respond to a disfavored employee the wrong way, they make the employer vulnerable to legal claims. For example, a boss who points out shortcomings of the employee he or she doesn’t like while ignoring the same problems in a favored employee runs the risk of legal trouble. The problem employee’s shortcomings shouldn’t be ignored, however.
“If the feedback or criticism is a fair and constructive assessment of the employee’s work performance, then there is little risk,” says Danielle Ryman, of counsel with Perkins Coie LLP in Anchorage, Alaska. “Ideally, a supervisor will have documentation or examples supporting feedback that the employee is falling short of expectations.”
The managers in the CareerBuilder survey who have employees they wish would leave need to take action instead of just hoping their problem will go away, Ryman says. “Hoping an employee will leave is not effective management,” she says. “An employee who is falling short of performance expectations requires the supervisor’s attention, and a supervisor should consider a performance improvement plan that identifies performance deficiencies and expected improvement within a certain time period. The improvement plan should also put the employee on notice that failure to meet expectations may result in further disciplinary action, up to and including termination.”
Supervisors also need to be consistent in how they treat similarly situated employees. “This doesn’t necessarily mean that identical disciplinary measures must be taken for all involved employees, but management should consider and be able to justify why one employee was treated differently than another,” Ryman says. Inconsistent treatment of similarly situated employees can be used as evidence to support discrimination claims for breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, she says.
Bosses who reduce a less-favored employee’s responsibilities as a way to push him or her out also provide ammunition for someone looking for a legal claim against the employer. “A reduction in responsibilities or exclusion from opportunities can be considered an adverse employment action even where there is no attendant decrease in compensation or title and could be offered as evidence to support an employment claim,” Ryman says.
So how should an unhappy supervisor handle a problem employee? Tackling the problems directly and documenting the process will serve the employer better than taking actions to encourage the employee to leave. “Communicate expectations, give honest and fair feedback, and document your communications with the employee,” Ryman says. “Then, if the employee is falling short of expectations, you can show why the decision was made to terminate.”