Managing Disruptive Employees In Workplace

A workplace comprises different categories of people. You get to see those who are cool-headed and respect authority, you also get to see those who are recalcitrant. These ones are often rebellious towards constituted authority. They sometimes flout orders without minding whose ox is gored. First of all, the ideal thing any company should do apart from having laid down rules that guide the activities in the workplace is to nip an employee’s disruptive behavior in the bud, before it escalates into something unbearable.

Dilly-dallying on such matters can cost the company a lot of things because it often leads to low productivity, and in the workplace. Employee morale, productivity, and customer service levels are at their highest when employees work effectively as a team and practice basic tenets of civility and respect for each other. This unfortunately is not always the case when employees display inappropriate and disruptive behavior.

There are various types of disruptive employee behaviors which are; Gossiping, Bullying, Sexual Assault, Exhibiting Insubordination, Disobedience, Display Of Incivility or Insolence, etc. Any display of such behaviors should be treated appropriately. One thing a company must understand is that there are so many impacts of disruptive behaviors in the workplace. It can decrease productivity, performance, and employee commitment. It is often said that “one bad egg spoils the bunch”, meaning one person’s negative demeanor or bad behavior can affect a whole group of people influencing them to have the same negative attitude. In summary, toxic behavior spread like a virus.

In a 2016 survey conducted by Weber Shandwick, civility in America VII: The state of civility, 30% of managers indicated that they had forced or threatened to fire someone due to incivility and nearby 25% of employees said they had to quit a job due to an uncivil workplace. These disruptive behavior are not trivial, and they should be treated with urgency. There are strategies a company can use to deal with difficult employees and disruptive behavior.

Be Observant And Listen: Often, why employees display disruptive behavior is because they feel they are not being listened to. The ideal thing a good manager does when such behaviors happen is to observe closely and understand fully the issue. If possible, the manager should have a tete-à-tete with the employee asking the reason for such behavior. By so doing, they get to hear their point of view and also understand the employee’s issue causing them to be rebellious. It is funny that not being heard can be a factor in de-escalating negative behavior. It might probably be that the employee proffered a solution that could improve the company but he or she wasn’t given attention, or his/her idea despite how good it was, was not implemented. To ensure that there is less display of disruptive behaviors, managers should ensure that they listen carefully to employees’ remarks, suggestions, etc.

Document and follow disciplinary policies: Often, employers tend to forget that job performance expectations include behavioral expectations. Managers need to see the importance of documenting employees’ interactions after exhibiting disruptive behavior. Employees who exhibit such behavior should be made to sign a document ensuring that they would behave better. It is understandable that after causing a disruptive behavior, managers hope the behavior will go away and the employee will turn a new leaf. But if unfortunately, it doesn’t have the documentation in hand, it will support a manager’s action to either discipline or terminate before such behavior becomes untenable. Not documenting and following disciplinary policies makes it difficult to fire an employee because it is ideal when he or she is shown an agreement written that was breached. One very important thing employers need to note is that even if job goals are met, any employee displaying negative behavior in the workplace is still being disruptive.

Follow Up With Employee: Once an employee is being disruptive in the workplace and has been cautioned, the manager shouldn’t close up the matter and put the file away. Rather there should be a thorough follow-up on the employee. One of the greatest factors in sustaining employee improvement and performance is to follow up on their improvements. It should be recognized and employees should also be held accountable for the failure in correcting their wrong behavior. While a follow-up is advised is because there is a high probability of an employee repeating such behavior. Nothing irks other employees than seeing disruptive behavior go unaddressed or ignored. This automatically gives them the impression that the manager is incapable of dealing with such a situation.