Last Saturday, I was enjoying my glass of wine at this other bar in town where for some reason women patrons outnumber men.<\/p>\n
I was busy arguing with the barman why on earth did he serve me Bellingham Legacy when I had clearly and loudly ordered Johannesburger White Wine, when a conversation of the two patrons standing next to me attracted my attention.<\/p>\n
I actually ignored paying attention to the barman who was explaining to me that he served me with the same wine, popular for its tasty fruit flavours, which had just been renamed.<\/p>\n
I glued my ears to the conversation of the two loquacious patrons who were defaming their work colleagues.<\/p>\n
From their conversation which centred on their workplace, it was obvious that they are champions of gossiping and backstabbing. The two folks said all sorts of nasty things about their bosses and fellow employees. It was clear that they are the type of employees who take pride in character assassination, gossip and lying. While they laid bare many ill things about others, they never dared to talk about their own follies.<\/p>\n
The two employees were perfect examples of what students learn in Organisation Behaviour as toxic employees.<\/p>\n
These are employees who lack enthusiasm and innovation but excel in complaining, backstabbing others, acting irresponsibly while at the same time failing to grow.<\/p>\n
One professor at Alfred University in the United States, Robert Bitting once observed that \u201cjust as kryptonite saps Superman of all his superpowers, a toxic employee can sap the energy right out of your company. This toxic employee \u2014 true to the name \u2014 can poison the business atmosphere where you work, and can make it difficult, if not impossible, to manage effectively. The toxicity is insidious, and can drag you, your staff and coworkers into an abyss of morale and decreased productivity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Toxic employees are actually a dangerous lot because most of the time they are overly negative and they always blame others for their problems.<\/p>\n
These are employees who never accept responsibility for the mistakes they have made as their agenda is always to put someone in trouble.<\/p>\n
Some of them according to Professor Bitting are actually masters of illusion, who \u201cinstead of spending their energies working, they spend their energies pretending to work.\u201d Paradoxically the toxic employees are \u201cvery adept at taking credit where credit is not due, thereby severely disrupting the morale of their hard working colleagues.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some of them are actually very shrewd because when they are working for an organisation, their strategy is to align themselves with a key decision-maker, who apparently becomes their protector.<\/p>\n
Sometimes dealing with toxic employees becomes extremely tricky especially when the same characters are talented and productive people who unfortunately engage in behaviour that is harmful to an organisation.<\/p>\n
Strict companies have no time for babysitting toxic employees. The moment management realises that some of its employees are toxic, action is instant. The toxic employees are warned and if they fail to reform, they are shown the exit door. The justification for eliminating toxic employees is simple.<\/p>\n
One bad apple can bring damage to the entire team and even worse still affecting the bottom line.<\/p>\n
Organisations which fail to deal with toxic employees, who are negative, volatile and disruptive, pay the price.<\/p>\n
A professor of management at the University of Minnesota, Michelle Duffy once explained that babysitting toxic employees is a mistake because \u201cthey have the ability to destroy the social fabric of the organisation by creating friction, drama, tension, and hostility among other employees.\u201d The end result is the decline in performance of team members.<\/p>\n
According to Duffy, who also describes toxic employees as hurricanes, opines that the cost of employing such people is not just about emotional impact and performance but also their ability to cost an organisation or a company money.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can be quite damaging to the bottom line through lost work hours, people avoiding the hurricane, talking about the hurricane, being worried about dealing with the hurricane, witnessing others harmed by the hurricane and so forth,\u201d says the management expert.<\/p>\n
Are you a toxic personality, who mistakenly assumes that you are the only best personality and everyone else is crap, you better reform lest others discover you and give you shock treatment? Are you the type of personality who is not loyal and patriotic to the organisation you serve and instead waste many hours on facebook, whatsup or in informal meetings with others complaining, gossiping and strategising to bring others down instead of being productive, innovative and working hard for the benefit of your organisation? If you are so, know that you are a toxic character.<\/p>\n
Reform today and become a superstar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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