Toxic employees can ruin a business from the inside out. Here’s what you should do in order to fix the situation.
For whatever reason, we’ve found ourselves in the middle of a number of companies who have one or two people in the organization who are toxic, but they’re not getting fired. If you have someone in your organization who is toxic, I’ve got some advice for you today.
As you know, our company does a lot of work with family-owned companies and how to transition a business from one generation to the next, and we’ve been running into many situations where there are one or two people in the organization who are toxic.
What do I mean by toxic? These are employees that either have a very bad attitude, barricade themselves in their office, have bad records and reporting, or (and) are really not accountable to anybody. For example, it could be a family member who owns stock and comes to work every day but nobody really knows what they do.
If you have someone like this in your company, I have some important advice. First, realize that you can’t run a successful company if you don’t follow good business fundamentals. Everyone in your organization needs to have a job description that tells them exactly what they need to do to be considered valuable and productive, and it’s imperative that they’re held accountable to the team. If you’re not doing this with everyone in your organization, you’re going to find toxic employees and that will lead to a toxic culture. A toxic culture is synonymous with a lack of respect, which, in effect, can lead employees to believe they have license to get away with not performing their role.
If you have toxic employees in your company, we need to have a chat. The future of your company depends on getting rid of these toxic employees and making the work environment more healthy; work on cultivating a culture that’s positive, energetic, and a place where everyone is focused on growing the business and doing their part.
It can be difficult, but simply ignoring a toxic employee because they’re a friend or family member is a bad move.
If you have any questions for me or need help with your toxic employees, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.