Workplace Behaviors That Undermine Your Company

Workplace Behaviors That Undermine Your Company

You have carefully cultivated your staff. You perform due diligence in your interviews, your background checking and in creating productive team environments. So, what went wrong? Why does it seem as though the negative vibes in your workplace have taken over?

Unfortunately, it doesn’t take much…

to damage the balance of your carefully chosen staff. It may be as minimal as one person that can create havoc that affects everyone’s motivation and ability to produce great work. Whether it is management or workers, the negativity is destructive. 

There are a lot of bad work behaviors out there

We can’t list them all! But here are some to get you thinking about what may be causing strife in your workplace.

1. Whining – we have all experienced people who whine consistently with no desire or ability to find solutions.
2. Poorly prepared – whether it’s for a meeting, a team activity or individual contributing, one person that is poorly prepared affects everyone who interacts with them or even beyond.
3. Disrespectful or abusive behavior – this is just wrong and demoralizing to all who come into contact with the offender.
4. Failure to complete work – chronically not completing work, missing deadlines and using excuses will not only impact everyone counting on that person, but will undermine the company goals.
5. Insubordination – whether in front of other employees or behind the scenes, this one can cause damage to your supervisors’ authority and ability to lead effectively.
6. Bullying, incivility and gossip – all behaviors that seek to exert power, humiliate, demean and generally abuse their direct reports or co-workers.

So, what do these behaviors mean for your company?

First, keep in mind that there are a lot of unfilled positions right now so your employees may have an easy choice to make a change to a company with a much better workplace culture. And, if you think you only have one or two difficult people, think again. Toxic behaviors can spread like a virus, especially when those behaviors are not addressed by management.

It is not unusual for managers to be unwilling to get involved in these issues and co-workers may fear the backlash if they come forward. But ignoring the problem hoping it will go away rarely works. In fact, it may actually embolden the offender to progress to even more destructive behavior in the workplace.

Why should you be concerned?

Negative workplace behaviors affect your bottom line:

• Decreased productivity
• Increased employee turnover
• Increased employee health problems and absenteeism
• Legal compliance

What can I do about it?

First, make this a major consideration when you are hiring. During the interview process, ask a lot of leading questions that require applicants to answers about how they communicate, problem solve and examples of how they handled the types of situations you expect them to encounter at your workplace.

For employees you already have, address situations quickly before the offender feels entitled and enabled to continue their negative behavior. Even the employees who help you bring in more revenue need to be held accountable for their behavior. If you are promoting someone without management experience to a position of power, make sure they are properly trained to handle that responsibility in your workplace environment.

Follow up and communicate regularly with your employees and make it comfortable for them to be honest and open with you. NO one wants to be a snitch, but some situations need to be brought up and handled before it becomes dangerous or escalates to  workplace violence.