Let Go Of Unsatisfactory Employees

I hear it all the time. Employers/business owners tell me that their bookkeeper stinks or their production manager is lazy, or, most typical, that the sales manager is not doing his job and there are no new sales. Poor skills, unsatisfactory work habits, low productivity, low success, losing customers, frequent absence, tardiness… but still they keep these employees on so the program may continue as established. Better limping than crippled altogether… or so they think.

Why would a business owner want to keep employees who wreak havoc, who fail to live up to established standards and are unproductive and a bad influence on other employees that want to achieve stated goals and do a good job? It makes little sense but it happens in an overwhelming percent of the situations I confront where the owner/manager refuses to fire unsatisfactory employees. It’s an amazing and frequent failing. It seems as though once hired, people seem to have a right to under-perform and still hold their job!

There are a number of factors here to consider:

1. Has the employer established clear performance standards, so employees know what is expected, or is it left to each individual to determine for themselves?

2. Has the employer given the employee adequate feedback as to what is acceptable in their performance and what is not?

3. Is there adequate job training?

4.  Are warnings issued that identify areas of dissatisfaction if improvement is not occurring?

Irrespective of these answers, which if supported with appropriate actions would improve an employee’s value to the company, there are ineffective employees everywhere. What should one do? Well, train, of course, review, improve as best as possible, but here we are focusing on the unresponsive, poorly performing, bad attitude employee that is hurting the business. In short, warn them, try to fix the issue and then fire them as soon as it is determined that they are unwilling or incapable of changing.

So many employers hold on to bad employees as if they are they are valuable assets. Why?

1. They are used to what they have and are more comfortable and therefore likely to keep the poison they are familiar with rather than look for the (possible) poison they do not know–a new employee–and be forced to train again and absorb the learning curve as the business adjusts to the loss and then ramps up.

2. They are unwilling to confront the employee and dislike the negative energy that emerges out of firing and thus prefer to leave it alone.

3. There is real concern for loss in the transition and a belief that the next person will be just as bad or worse. (Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy.)

4. They wear blinders and refuse to recognize and remove poorly performing employees and prefer to blame it on the economy, others, whatever is convenient for the moment, or just accept it as an inevitability.

5. They believe that only this person knows the ropes and the filing system and the history of the customers or the production standards or the sales route and it will be impossible to replace someone with such valuable knowledge of the business, clients, and history, even if they act poorly in certain situations or have poor work ethics. They simply know too much.

6. Personal relationships prevent action. Personal weakness, fear of confrontation and lack of control dictate an employer’s reluctance to rid themselves of bad apples.

My response in a word? Baloney. Large amounts of it. This is pure silliness, irresponsibility and bad management. One bad apple can spoil the entire barrel and be the source of overall company underperformance, business decline and whole lot of wasted time, effort and money. An employer must respond to such a situation.

In conclusion… Immediately upon noticing poor behavior, inefficient work effort, a poisoning of the well, warn, retrain and, if no progress is forthcoming, fire and rebuild. It will work. There will be no deep-seated repercussions that are bad for the company and you will survive and be better for it. Lots better. It will be an excellent demonstration to the other employees that you are committed to excellence and the standards demonstrated. Leaving a bad employee on board is a source for self-destruction. Eventually, the employee will poison others and set a bad example that results in others acting poorly as well. Rather than fire in a moment of rage, get in front of this runaway train and fix it or change it as soon as recognized. That’s the rule for long-term survival and reaching the excellence you envision for your business.

Of course, there are as many ways to prevent such a situation from occurring, subjects for other entries in this blog, however, the bottom line is that there is far more danger and damage done to your organization by retaining employees unfit or unwilling to do the job effectively than from losing the limited or occasional talent the individual brings to the business.

Do not fall into the trap so many employers do, unwilling to fire and retrain the right way. This is a serious issue demanding more effective response by business owners. If you own a business, run it as effectively as you can. Build around good, solid employees. Train them, reward them and remove the ones that are ineffective and refuse to change or grow. The poison you know is not a better option than a new employee.