The worst employee problem: “one bad apple spoils the entire bunch” theory, it’s true.

I recently had an opportunity to see the incredible dynamics of ” the one bad apple can ruin the entire bunch” theory at work, and its an amazing process to observe.

This client happens to be a towing company which works 24/7 in a major metropolitan market. The ‘bad apple’ in this case, was using the trucks, equipment and work time to repo cars for another business while collecting a paycheck  from both the original employer and the repo second phantom employer. Not a good thing at all. The result of course was the man was not able to do the primary job very well for the original employer and to accomplish his plan he had to lie and con everyone in the shop,  That was the scene.

For a month, while this was going on the company seemed as though it was going through hell. Nothing was working well. men were not dependable, men were showing up late or not coming in at all. Men were under performing, or performing erratically. There were arguments and bickering amongst the men, men were acting poorly with clients and customers. Paperwork was not being done appropriately, and the manager was looking very bad.

We could not figure out why everything was nuts for the entire month. Our numbers were of course off, and the manager blamed it on the summer slow down.

Utter chaos that was occurring amongst the men.

The owner and manager began to sense something was very wrong and while not being able to immediately put a finger on the issue they just knew there was a problem and they needed to ferret it out. Ultimately they figured it out, confronted the man and fired him on the spot.

Then the most amazing series of events occurred. Everything smoothed out, without a word being said. The men absorbed his production requirements without adding an additional man to replace him, the arguing and bickering disappeared, the men all began to show up on time and take care of the equipment, and began working effectively with motivation and determination and with full cooperation, the way they were trained and had recently stopped doing.

The entire business appeared to breathe a huge sigh of relief and come together as a team working efficiently and effectively with revenues increasing dramatically, attitude becoming incredibly pleasant and the business being productive, profitable and ran smoothly.

It was an amazing and dramatic transformation that ran throughout the entire company, from office staff down to the clean up guy. Everyone stepped up a major notch and the business is now producing at a very high level and most importantly with far less stress, far greater results and it appeared as though everyone wanted to come to work and do their job and enjoy the entire experience. In a word it became a great place to work and earn as everyone was doing well.

I dare say that the men began to smile, joke around a bit and enjoy their work, again. It was the most amazing and dramatic transformation I have witnessed in a long long time. It was as if someone had cast a spell over the company last month and everything that could possibly go wrong did with everyone having a bad attitude at the same time and it was terrible.

With the removal of the ‘bad apple’, it all came together, immediately, without management or the owner uttering a single word, it just transformed itself overnight. The ‘bad apple ‘was routed out and the bunch excelled.

It was like night and day.

Never before have I seen such a blatant example of “one bad apple spoiling the bunch”, how the disease spread throughout the company and without even knowing why everyone was dysfunctional and acting poorly. Then without an outright reason, the moment after removing the “bad apple” the bunch responded and miraculously became the model group any manager would love to work with. It was an amazing transformation.

It is true…one ‘bad apple’ can spoil the bunch and it does it mysteriously invading the entire company and turning everything negative. So clear was this that I was compelled to tell this story as I am certain many companies have ‘bad apples’ and because of many barriers are reluctant to confront and remove the ‘bad apple’ allowing the entire bunch go bad, and the business itself.

Most ‘bad apples’ are not quite as bad as this one was, however the point remains the same.

Examine your own business and if appropriate immediately get rid of the bad apples. Call for help 413-549-2966 Norm will arrange a no obligation teleconference with me.