How To Handle Bitter Employees

by Debra J. Schmidt

Do you have employees who are cynical and constantly complaining about their job and company to their co-workers? Perhaps they have been employed at the company for many years and are good workers.

Here is a method that some of my clients have used to turn the situation around.

One employee’s negative attitude is highly contagious and can seriously damage the morale of an entire work team. What’s worse, managers who coddle these individuals send a powerful message to the rest of the team, "It’s OK to be cynical and even disrespectful as long as you do your job."

These are the same managers who lose the respect of the employees who are doing a great job AND have a positive attitude toward the company.

Every employee within an organization must be held accountable for his or her behavior. It is unprofessional for any member of the staff to exhibit behavior that is verbally disruptive or destructive to other members of the team.

Anger and hostility are forms of manipulation. These are unacceptable workplace behaviors and should not be tolerated in any employee at any level.

This is the plan

Here’s what you can do if your constructive feedback and warnings have failed. Be sure you discuss this plan with your Human Resources director, and you have his or her support before you:

• Tell the offending employees that you are giving them a "gift" of a paid Friday off.
  
  However, they must use this day to carefully think about whether or not they would like to continue working at this company. Tell them that their cynicism is unprofessional and will no longer be tolerated, but because you respect their work, you will give them an opportunity to turn their attitudes around.
  
  
• Give them two options:
  
  

  If they choose to continue their employment, they need to come to work on Monday morning with a typed contract outlining the specific steps they will take to turn their attitude around to become positive team players.
  
  

  If they choose not to take ownership of their attitude, then they can either turn in a letter of resignation or be terminated?

Remember, employee respect is earned. To be an effective manager, you need to treat each member of your staff with equal fairness.

This cannot be accomplished when we wear blinders to avoid dealing with the bad apples!

Debra J. Schmidt, a.k.a. “The Loyalty Leader”, is in demand as one of the nation's top customer service speakers and trainers. She is the author of “101 Ways to Build Customer Loyalty.” You can subscribe to Debra’s free email newsletter, loaded with tips to help you build customer and employee loyalty, at: http://www.theLoyaltyLeader.com

Some Related Articles:

If I Had to Fire Donald Trump...How to Terminate an Employee
Myths of Psychological Testing for Candidate Selection
How to Handle the Dangerous Employee
How to Handle Negativity in the Workplace
Three Basic Rules for Management Communication
Conversations can be the Key to a Manager's Success
How to Kill the 'Turf' Mentality
Don't Fight, Just Think - and Counter the Attack!