How to deal with toxic employees
This question comes from a member of our private group. (I’ll add the link to join the group at the bottom of the article).
Ally, is a HR manager for a FMCG business in Tanzania.
Ally Asks:
How can I overcome toxic employees? Our industry workers are very radical. Some of them belong to trade unions and for them being a trade union representative is like a safety valve to misbehave and not comply to company rules. I'm coming from the beverage industry. We have around three 30,000 employees.
Greg’s Response:
There's a concept in a book by Eric Berne called Transactional Analysis that states, if people feel victimized, they then start to look for a savior in order to push back against the threat.
In this case the savior is in the form of other people, they try getting cliches and tribes together, trying to get the trade unions involved...etc
And then next thing you know there is a huge workplace issue.
Fundamentally, people like to be in a position of “I'm okay. You're okay.”
So it's all about asking the question “how can I have a high regard for myself, but also too, how can I create environments where people have a high regard for others?”.
So when I do think about that, “I'm okay. You're okay.” idea, then I'm thinking, “well, what can I do to maintain that?”.
Because if I don't maintain that, then people are going to start playing games, which is being toxic.
You need to consider “what can I do that's within my control and build a relationship to respect that person so that they can see that we're all on the same page and we are all looking for the same outcomes?”
And then at least we have the two parties who are then able to talk and to listen to each other in an attempt to work towards a mutually beneficial solution.
So, Ally, that would be the first place to start.
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