Getting the best out of your employees is key. That's where performance reviews and other tools come to your aid. Plus, thinning out those who can't succeed is more difficult, but necessary. These posts will help you stay abreast.
Face it, we all have them – unreasonable and difficult people we have to work with.
They burp. They yell. They spread rumors. They take NO accountability..
And as a manager you know you’re going to have to do something about it — eventually.
You’ve probably gotten plenty of advice:
But somehow, like the spaceships in an old Galaga arcade game, they just keep coming at you – in droves.
Here are the nine difficult people that give me ulcers:
A good workplace needs good rules. Otherwise, there would be total anarchy … instead of just the usual partial anarchy.
HR folks will attest that a solid employee handbook can help keep employees in line – and employers out of legal trouble.
They’ll also tell you that, for the most part, a company’s rules tend to reflect its values and ethics.
So, when an employer enforces draconian or even silly rules, what does that say about the business?
We scoured the globe looking for unusual rules at real workplaces.
Some seem a bit mean-spirited. Others are just plain quirky.
But they all have one thing in common: You’re probably glad you don’t have to follow them.
They are, quite possibly, the most irritating people in the workforce. They preen, they posture, they bully, they make outrageous demands.
And much of the time, those demands are met.
They are the prima donnas. The hardest part is, they’re often the company’s best performers.
Of course they are. How else could anybody justify keeping them around for so long, alienating staff and creating chronic headaches?
The challenge with this particular breed is that its members come in all shapes, sizes, personality types and degrees of quirkiness.
Four of the worst are:
Firing someone is more than just an uncomfortable task. It can be a hazardous walk through a legal minefield.
(In case you don’t think so, the headlines in the graphic above are all from the past few months. Pretty frightening, eh?)
Most companies work hard not to discriminate. They try to adhere to the dozens of workplace rules and regulations.
But there is much potential for missteps, which is one reason why unlawful termination lawsuits increase year after year.
While most are without merit, they can still be expensive.
Throw in lost staff time and productivity, and the real cost is much higher.
How well do you sleep the night before you fire someone?
Some firings are no-brainers. For instance, an employee does something so unacceptable that dismissal was never a doubt.
But what about the other ones. You know, the employees who struggle mightily to make the cut? The ones you’ve been on the fence about for quite some time?
So you can lay your head on the pillow at night knowing you made the right decision, here are eight questions you absolutely need to ask yourself before you fire someone.
An employee approaches a manager with a complaint or a problem, usually involving another employee. At that point the manager needs to consider whether an investigation into the complaint is warranted and how to best handle the inquiry.
When faced with almost any workplace complaint or problem, companies can use a basic approach that consists of 10 steps:
Why has the current, clunky version of the dreaded annual performance review stuck around so long?
You know the style: Facilitates team communication: 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 (Circle one).
Manager to self: Um, how about 3? You can’t go wrong with average. It’s safer, right? Then, 3 it is.
The lack of meaningful performance reviews is so pervasive because companies are too lazy to change, or it’s expedient to have a paper trail when people need to be disciplined.
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has been busy of late. There’s been a 77% spike in lawsuits involving wage and hour disputes in recent years. And most of those complaints have been legitimate – the feds have found violations in almost three-quarters of complaints that have been filed.
Employers are routinely getting into trouble with DOL over violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the law that governs how employees must be paid. Organizations should ensure that supervisors and managers understand employees’ rights under the FLSA so that honest oversights and mistakes don’t cause preventable problems.
Fact is, there are thousands of wage and hour violations every year, either through misfeasance, malfeasance or nonfeasance. So, what exactly does the FLSA require?
When a manager first takes over an established team, whether the manager is brand new or well- seasoned, there is always a transition curve.
The manager will encounter people, personalities and processes that have all been there chugging along, whether successfully or not.
Sometimes, hidden among the team members, will be tough employee problems just waiting to bubble over.
Here are three scenarios managers say they inherit and some ideas on how to handle them.
Every organization seems to have (at least) one difficult person.
They come in all shapes and sizes: the know it all, the chronic complainer, the passive-aggressive who always buys into your plan, then sets off in his own direction.
Short of firing them (hmmmmm), what do you do?
