Do you have that one troublesome employee in your business? Do you have that single person who is always negative? Have you hired one of the most annoying people you’ve ever met? Don’t worry—every business owner has been at that point some time in their professional careers. Not every employee is hired equal and some of them will develop annoying personalities over time. Perhaps it’s a result of their attitude or maybe they’ve grown tired of working for your business. Whatever the situation, when an employee goes from happy to disgruntled, they’re a ticking time bomb waiting to explode and take your business down with them. In order to defuse this nasty situation, we’ve compiled a list of tips to help you manage disgruntled employees.
Take better care of them
The employee in question might be upset or frustrated because you just aren’t taking good care of them. There are many ways to take better care of your employees, such as encouraging them to be a little more healthy around the office or ensuring they have the right tools and equipment to carry out their jobs. It doesn’t take much to improve their satisfaction in the office, and you’ll be surprised at how big of an effect this has on their working mentality. However, if you feel like you’re already taking enough care of them, then you may want to revise your methods or simply look for other reasons why they might be frustrated at work.
Finding out the truth
Although this is a drastic measure, there are times when you’ll need to actively look for the truth. If you suspect that your employee is doing something that could potentially ruin your business, such as leaking private company information to competitors in exchange for something, committing fraud or responding to customer service enquiries with rude comments, then you might want to consider a lie detection test. The cost of lie detector testing is surprisingly affordable for what it could possibly do to save your business, but your employees are not obligated to take them so it’s not enforceable. This could also destroy any trust that your employee has in you, so use it as a last resort.
Fire them
If you have evidence that they’re doing something that is either ruining your business or giving you grief, then you can fire them. Dismissing an employee without sufficient reason could result in some backlash, and they might be able to claim compensation or get their job back. However, if you fire them with evidence, then there is nothing they can do and they’ll be forced to accept those terms. This should be another last resort measure, and you need to have a replacement in mind or ready to replace them should you decide to fire someone. Firing an employee can be an incredibly difficult decision to make especially if you have invested a lot of time, effort and money into their growth, but it’s the best decision if they’ve grown distant to your business.
