Are You The Proverbial ‘Difficult Employee’?
Sign in

Are you the proverbial ‘difficult employee’?

Resource TalentEquity
Last month I had a meeting with one of my old friends, who is now VP–HR in a fairly large IT setup. He informed me that he is planning to lay off a couple of hundred people in his company, in a phased manner. What surprised me was that he mentioned that out of them around 80% are ‘difficult employees’. I wondered aloud what was his definition of a ‘difficult employee’. What he told me was interesting and forms the basis of this post.

“In every department/organization there are few people who are arrogant, demeaning (to others), insubordinate, not trustworthy, (always) cribbing and unproductive. And these
employees are a huge drain for an organization in terms of wasted time, reduced productivity, inefficiency, and ultimately resulting in customer loss.” I again asked him as to why did the
team, then not take precautions while hiring? He said these are traits and sometimes it is difficult to observe them during an interview. You get to know about them only from observing
them in terms of their approach, attitude, performance, productivity and feedback from co-workers and managers etc.

It sure means that ‘difficult employees’ are at the first place in the queue when it comes to being shown the door.

Based on his observation and my research, I am listing a few traits/signs that can label you as a ‘difficult employee’. They are:

1. Work is your foe/ additional responsibility:

I, like many people, don’t like to work long hours or during weekends. But in a down economy & competitive environment your approach towards this additional work plays a huge role in
whether you are a valuable employee of the organization or not. Organizations generally perceive an employee’s worth by evaluating his/her work ethics.

2. Your personal problems are public knowledge:

If most of your colleagues are aware of all your personal problems, from hole in the shoe, missed breakfast, argument with friend, mismatched nailpolish, then this point is for you. No one is really interested in these kind of regular updates. This can create a sort of distraction among the other employees who already are overworked and busy in meeting deadline. You will suddenly see co-workers distancing from you. So keep your personal problem very personal.

3. You & your company are not on the same page:

You don’t have to be alcoholic if you work for Kingfisher beverages. But you need to understand the vision and approach of your company and work towards it. If you are heard making fun of the company or its products/services it can hamper the office environment, spirit of teamwork, your relation with co-workers and the management. The company is better off without you for the the fact that, you don’t understand and respect your work.

To read full blogpost - TE-Blog

Please share your views.

Regards,

Sanjay

start_blog_img