Everywhere you look at the moment, media, HR professionals and employers seem to be talking about “toxic employees” and the magic bullet of how to deal with them. We regularly speak to employers who have a specific person in mind who they think is “toxic”. The phrase has some power, invoking barrels of nuclear waste poisoning entire eco-systems and all the people around them. In practice, the vast majority of situations are just the reality of different personalities dropped into an unusual environment (a workplace or office) without the skills to do that.
The best way to address toxic behaviour – drop the word “toxic”
Labels are easy to throw around, particularly if they’re the “hot topic” of the moment. In recent years we’ve seen it with bullying, safetyism and now “toxic employees”. Most of the time the labels are unhelpful in solving the problem. We generally advise employers to avoid those labels and focus on the actual behaviour which is concerning them. That does involve doing the hard work of identifying actual incidents, behaviours, stylistic issues, or personality clashes.
All of that work should take place without having pre-labelled someone as “toxic”. That could be seen as a form of mistreatment in its own right, or having predetermined the outcome of any formal process. The word can be deeply personal – i.e. it labels someone as inherently bad, rather than focussing on things that they have/haven’t done. It escalates matters unnecessarily in the same way as other inherent labels (bully, bigot, lazy etc).
The other key advice we give is not to delay in addressing culture concerns. New Zealanders are well-known for avoiding conflict and generally have a “chill out, bro” attitude, even in the workplace. That can lead to a great workplace where niggles / personality differences are minor and fleeting. However, if behaviours are creating a real problem, ignoring them can let pressure build to a point where real harm can be caused to a business through lost productivity, staff departures, and grievances for not protecting other staff from the individual concerned. Simple and low-level intervention can either solve the problem or provide a good platform for formal steps before the behaviour causes serious harm.
Practically, taking action may range from an informal catch-up, starting a low-level disciplinary process, through to commencing a more detailed performance improvement process with the employee. As with any employment steps, a fair process is the foundation for a good outcome. Exactly what is best will depend on the circumstances of your particular workplace and the issues you are facing.
How can we help?
WRMK Lawyers has Northland’s largest team of employment law specialists. We help our clients with all their employment processes. If you need help or guidance, please give one of us a call or contact your usual WRMK lawyer for advice.
WRMK Lawyers takes all reasonable care to make sure that the information in this article is up-to-date and accurate at today’s date. It is necessarily general information and not intended as legal advice to be relied upon.
Our thanks to Simon Davies-Colley for writing this article.
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