Toxic Staff: The Vampires@Work
- GeGe Beall, SPHR
- Nov 3, 2016
- 4 min read
Everybody at work knows who they are. They can list them by name, they talk about them, they are victimize by them, & they may even miss work in order to avoid them. What staff really wonder is why you, their leader, aren't doing your job & managing them.
I'm talking about toxic staff. Those poisonous people who we are allowing to negatively influence our teams, our companies, & in the end, our bottom lines. In all our talk about workplace efficiency, productivity, & retaining key talent, we have somehow missed the vampire in the room sucking the very life out of our organizations.
What Makes Staff Toxic?
Ooooo, let us count the ways! Toxicity comes in all forms of workplace torture. To be clear, we're not talking about a once in a while slip in behavior. We're talking about consistent behavior that negatively impacts your team. Here are just some of the behaviors that we may see:
Always Negative
Anger Issues/Bully
Gossiper
Pot Stirrer
Back Stabber
Drama Queen/King
Steals Credit
Blames Others
Can't Be Counted On---EVER
Attendance/Tardiness Issues
Then there are even worse behaviors that we won't be addressing here which are those that that cross the legal boundaries.
What is the Impact of Toxic Staff? The Data
In a study by Leadership IQ, over 70,000 people across 116 different companies were surveyed about the impact of Toxic Staff (Leadership IQ called them "low performers" which they defined as those who have a negative attitude, stir up trouble, blame others, etc.) They found:
93% said working with a toxic staff lowered their own productivity
87% said that working with toxic made them want to change jobs
Yet, only 17% of surveyed managers said they felt comfortable in improving or removing the toxic
In healthcare, a study published in The Joint Commission Journal on Quality & Patient Safety surveyed 4,500 physicians & nurses in 102 hospitals about the impact of disruptive behavior on patient care.
The Impact of Disruptive Behavior in Hospitals:
71% said it decreased quality
71% said it increased errors
67% said it had adverse effects on patient care
51% said it had it negatively impacted patient safety
27% said it impacted patient mortality (yikes!)
"If companies hope to keep their best employees, they have to dump their worst…If low performers start dictating the company’s culture--productivity, quality, and service will decline…and high performers will avoid your company like the plague.” ~ Mark Murphy, CEO, Leadership IQ
Ok. What more do you need? Toxic Staff are bad news all the way around.
"I Keep Hoping the Problem Will Take Care of Itself."
It won't! The problem with Toxic Staff:
They Won't Leave - they've been given power & have been allowed to behave this way. Why go someplace else where they'll have to start all over? They're not going anywhere.
They Know Your HR Policies Better Than You Do - Truth! They are master manipulators. They know when the next absence will fall off your occurrence policy; they know the details of your performance evaluation. And they do juuuuust enough...
They're Making You Look Bad - As a leader, it's a fundamental part of your job to manage the people on your team. If you allow the toxic to do their thing, you are basically telling the rest of your staff that this behavior is acceptable. Some other things you might inadvertently be telling your team:
"I don't know what's going on with my own team."
" I can't tell good performance from bad performance."
"I'm going to punish my top performers with additional work, because I can't trust the vampire."
"I'm incompetent."
"I'm going to put the overall good of the team on the back burner, because I can't/won't/don't know how to confront the toxic."
3 Antidotes for Your Toxicity Problem
1. Don't lnvite the Vampire In! - Once you hire them, it's tough to get them out. Look at your hiring process to ensure that your spending enough time on the applicant's cultural fit. Skills are NOT enough.
Communicate your cultural expectations upfront. Disney makes this part of the interview with a reported 13% self-selecting out of the selection process.
Ask behavioral questions - about past behavior which often predict future behavior
Pay attention to Red Flags in the interview. This is your only time to assess. Don't write off behavior that might be foretelling the future.
Carefully consider using Emotional Intelligence testing such as the EQ-i 2.0. This assessment is both valid & reliable. It's also legal -- & your author just happens to be a certified administrator & coach.
2. Clean Up & Enforce your Attendance & Tardiness Policies - Your staff knows who's absent or late. In fact, they probably know it better than you. Are you being consistent & fair to all staff members? Now, there is this little thing called FMLA. Talk to your HR department to ensure that you're following the law. If you've got that covered, showing up for work & on time is the most basic expectation we can have for staff.
3. Consider Creating Behavior Standards - It's difficult to find HR policies that deal with the typical behavior issues found in the Toxic -- i.e. there's no policy on Bad Attitudes. For over a decade, a healthcare consulting company called The Studer Group has successfully advocated for & implemented Standards of Behavior at hundreds of hospitals across the country. Often, these behavioral expectations are created by a group of engaged staff members & the standards address most all areas that are often seen in the Toxic including attitude, treatment of co-workers, gossip, customer excellence, problem solving, appropriate dress, etc. I've helped create standards that are one page philosophical guides & I've helped create very detailed booklets. It really depends on your organizational culture. Once the standards are created, they're rolled out to staff who sign a Statement of Understanding & Agreement. This, then, gives managers a tool to refer to & to coach & counsel staff. It can be used to get staff back on track or out of the organization if they are unable to comply.
Don't Let the Toxic Poison Your Team!
Because they will. And you'll loose good people. And you'll be stuck with a team made up of the toxic & the apathetic. Got Vampires? Call me.
GeGe Beall, FACHE, SPHR, SHRM-SCP is owner of Engaged@Work, a Human Resources & Organizational Development consulting firm that specializes in Speaking, Training, & Workshop Facilitation; Leadership Development; Staff Engagement, Toxic Staff, Emotional Intelligence; & Fun@Work!
Email: gege@engagedatwork.life
