Letting bad-attitude employees hang on to their employment is one of the biggest mistakes small business owners and family business owners make.
Most of us, at one point or another, have faced this issue. It becomes especially difficult when this person is a key employee.
How many of us have a top performer, stellar by every measure, except they are constantly bullying their way around the business, stirring-up negative feelings everywhere they go and causing antagonism and stress at every turn.
Everyone in the business silently hopes to avoid them and everyone in the business is quietly happy when they are gone.
These types of employees are often aware of their value to the business and begin to feel untouchable, particularly as their negative influence continues to go unchecked.
Many small family business owners and managers feel like they are helpless in this situation.
The thought of losing them is terrifying and the thought of dealing with them is paralyzing.
I have been caught in the exact situation more than once.
I have seen many others caught in this situation as well.
I can state, without hesitation, that in every case, whether my own or others I have seen, the very best move for you and your small company, even if this person is your top salesperson or top shop technician or top anything, is to send this type of employee packing for another job.
I know, I know…easy to say. I can hear readers right now thinking to themselves, “You simply don’t understand. Our case is unique—we could not survive without him/her!”
If that thought is running through your mind, I will tell you emphatically but tenderly, you are wrong! One more time, even stronger, you are dead wrong and it is hurting your business!
Several years ago, I recall having this conversation with a board member serving on my small company board. We had an employee that was the unquestioned best performer on the shop floor. His work was fast, meticulous and always perfect. In addition, he was very smart and could figure out nearly any complex problem. He could work all the shop equipment to perfection and could even repair mistakes made by others. We heavily relied on him and the thought of losing him was so paralyzing that my dad offered him a very small piece of equity to keep him handcuffed to our small business.
Unfortunately, he was also the number one butt-head (to put it nicely) on the shop floor. He had a short fuse and would explode at anyone who dared cross his opinion. He had no patience for others and would hold grudges that could last not just months but years. Sadly, he would find certain employees that he, for whatever reason, decided he didn’t like and he would peck at them relentlessly until many of them would eventually quit.
Because he was so accomplished on the shop floor and so smart at his job, he was often the most critical of management, questioning every decision that we made and blaming nearly everyone in the organization, aside from himself, for any setback, no matter how insignificant or slight.
Frankly, he was my best employee and my worst employee.
Our little family business endured this for many years, always wishing we could find someone else but never having the courage to let him go.
Many people, after hearing me complain, would advise me to let him go but I just couldn’t see a way to do it.
As I mentioned earlier, I finally had a board member pin me down on the issue. Something, in retrospect, I very much appreciated although it didn’t feel spectacular at the time.
This board member was a trusted friend and someone that I knew cared about me. He finally told me, after hearing us bemoan our plight for several years in our various meetings and counseling us to find a way to let him go, “Rich it is either him or me.” Meaning, if you don’t summon the courage to let this guy go then I will resign from the board. That was how strongly he felt.
I was shocked as my board-friend purposefully brought me to a critical crossroad. I knew, deep down, that he was right.
I finally made up my mind to get the thing done. I set a date on my calendar and told myself, “No matter what, this is the day when I let this person go!”
The days slipped quickly by and the dreaded morning, after a long sleepless night, finally arrived.
I went out to the shop floor and asked him to come with me to my office. We sat down and he took a big sigh, as if to say, “What now,” never expecting what I was about to say.
I quietly and methodically told him the time had come when our paths where going to part.
He looked at me in stunned silence and disbelief trying to gauge if this was the real thing or an April fool’s type of joke.
Once he realized that I was deadly serious, he simply acknowledged the decision and quietly left.
I sat in my office unimaginably relieved to finally be rid of him but also concerned about how I would replace him.
What happened next is the key lesson which should give everyone hope.
That afternoon, once the word spread through the company, several people came quietly by my office to offer their support.
The overwhelming voice that I heard in all of these small conversations was profound and could be summarized as follows: one, we are so grateful you let him go, he was driving us all crazy and making work miserable and two, we will step-up boss, you will never know he is gone.
The next day at work the mood was, for lack of a better word, gleeful. People were happy to be at work and the mood and tone of the whole company was much lighter.
In the next weeks, I was shocked to see that people, to their word, were stepping up. I started to see incredible things that I never thought possible without, my now fired, keyman to make sure it was happening.
The reality was that Mr. Negative was holding back people on purpose. His influence was keeping his peers down and people from performing at their best. Other employees in the company were reluctant to step up for fear of crossing his path and because, frankly, they thought this must be what the boss wants!
The unintended message that I was sending was that this type of behavior was my preferred choice.
It seemed almost overnight, but within a couple of months I had four or five other fantastic employees that were constantly stepping up and impressing me with surprising, and previously smothered, talents.
I know that readers will be tempted to say that worked for me but my situation is different.
Again, I emphatically suggest that you might be surprised how similar it is.
I have seen it play out time and time again. The names, job roles and individual stories vary but the results are almost always the same.
Negative, abrasive, fear-mongering employees will hurt your business much more than you think.
I mentioned a couple of reasons already but for emphasis I repeat them again, along with a few others, as follows:
1) They keep others in the company pinned down and smothered, keeping them from performing their best work.
2) They sabotage your change initiatives, either quietly or overtly, and keep you from making improvements in the business.
3) They weaken your culture and values and open the door for others to act similarly.
4) They smother your leadership and make you appear weak to the rest of the company.
5) They keep the mood and morale of the entire company in the dumps.
6) Perhaps worst of all, they are a constant drain on your personal energy.
I could likely list many more but suffice it to say that when my board member finally forced me into action he was speaking from experience. I learned from his experience and I hope you can learn from mine.
After many, many years in business, I have let more than one person go based on poor, negatively infectious attitudes. Every time I make the decision and follow through to see it happen, I feel relieved and wonder why it took me so long to do it.
Today, whenever I sense a bad apple smoldering in any one of my business groups, I take immediate action, starting with a very direct conversation addressing the issue and then, over time, if things do not change, eventual termination.
The adage, fast to fire and slow to hire has become a staple for me in this regard. Frankly, I will take attitude over aptitude every time.
People who want to be great usually figure out a way to make that happen even when they might be less gifted technically or intellectually.
The great news here, and very opposite of negative people, is that they drag others up the hill with them.
Just like bad apples negatively impact your business, great people positively impact your small business.
To illustrate, I had an employee who started in one of my factories as a temporary worker. He spoke little English when he started. His first job was a very labor intensive yet easy task of punching holes into thousands of parts.
Despite having weeks and weeks of repetitive work, stuffed in the back corner of the shop, he stood there and worked and worked and worked. He punched the parts faster than any other person in the history of our business.
One day, in broken English, he came up to me and asked, in effect, “Why do we punch these parts just so…would it be possible to use another process?” He, essentially, wanted to change to hole type from round to square, which would save an extra step in the process and make it must easier and faster.
The parts were for a long-time customer. After hearing my new employee’s suggestion, I decided to ask the customer if we could make the change—square holes instead of round holes. To my great delight, the customer said that round holes had been the way they were always done but not important—it was just a relief hole and the shape, square or round, did not matter whatsoever.
I went back and immediately changed the process, cutting the time to do the parts in half and obviously making them much more profitable.
The years have gone by—over twenty now—and this new employee has become one of my leaders. In fact, one of my best leaders. He started at a very low wage and now makes one of the highest salaries in my shop. His positive attitude is infectious. People love him because he works hard, sets a great example and is very willing to share and help others.
When he started, the language barrier was a challenge for him but using his positive attitude and incredible work ethic, he fought through that disadvantage and rose, like cream, to the top of the milk.
In addition, he had little factory experience in our trade but learned daily and eventually became an expert craftsman.
Positive and uplifting influeners in your company will make huge impacts as follows:
1) Positive employees lift other employees and empower them to do more than they thought possible.
2) Positive employees evangelize change initiatives and help others see the good that can come from new ideas.
3) Positive employees set the mark for the tone and culture in your company.
4) Positive employees advance your leadership.
5) Positive employees help the mood and morale stay high, even when facing tough challenges.
6) Positive employees give you more energy.
These are all obvious points but are you capitalizing on them? Do you have the courage to throw out bad apples even when they are seemingly irreplaceable? Do you have the courage to have hard one-on-one conversations with your negative employees even when you know it might cause them to quit or quietly dislike you?
Finally, do you have the courage to do it now or will you wait for some future tomorrow that will never come like when you get slow, or when you hire one more person that you can be sure will replace him/her?
I can promise you that such a day will be hard to find.
I can also promise you that if you are caught in this dilemma, which many of us are, the days of frustration and anxiety will never stop until you finally act.
My most heartfelt advice, understanding how hard this can be because of personal experience, is to finally summon your courage and manage these types of employees right now.
Make a firm determination to do something about this and put some hard dates down that are unchangeable.
My promise to you is that once you gut through this pruning, as it were, you will be amazed at how much better work and life can be. You will wonder, almost angry at yourself, why you did not do it sooner and you will start to re-create a family business or small business that has the rocket fuel to launch into another level of success.