How To Deal With Difficult Employees
There are several ways of dealing with difficult employees. A single strategy won't always work, since difficult employees come in all shapes and sizes, and are difficult in various degrees. In addition, the meaning of difficult can be quite subjective, and as in treating a disease, you have to more or less accurately define and understand what you're dealing with, before you can fix it. There's no cook book method of dealing with difficult employees. It's a case-by-case issue.
However the difficult person behaves, or what they do or don't do, they are by your definition, difficult. The first step you need to do though is to take stock of the situation, and take stock of yourself. As we are told in the Bible, and there's some paraphrasing here - "before you complain about the speck in your neighbor's eye, first remove the stick from your own ". Or, put another way, do you live in a glass house? Try to make sure you are not a part of the problem, even though the difficult person you're dealing with may think you are, or is trying to make you part of a problem. This applies whether you are an employee or a manager, as well as whether the difficult employee is a co-worker, your manager, or someone in a different organization ,who is in a position to make life difficult for you.
What are difficult employees like? Some are constantly angry, some are constantly critical of what you do, or what anyone else does. Some simply have irritating habits, others are lazy or don't carry their share of the load. Some difficult employees will try to undermine your efforts in hopes of gaining the boss's favor, others through gossip or rumors try to put you down. Some difficult employees are actually pretty nice people, but not very good employees, others are co-workers from Hell.
Talk To Yourself First, The Difficult Employee Next - If the difficult employee is a co-worker, there are four steps you can take. First is, as mentioned earlier, taking stock to make certain you're standing on firm footing if there's to be a confrontation, second is to talk with the employee giving you a bad time, to see if there is something that can be done. You'll find out soon enough whether or not there's been a misunderstanding or a lack of communication, if the person really wasn't aware of their actions, or on the other hand, if you're dealing with an impossible person.
Talk To Co-Workers - Thirdly, if you make no headway, it's always a good idea to get the views and ideas of fellow co-workers you feel you can trust. You aren't trying to get people to take up sides, but it never hurts to have some allies. Maybe one of your co-workers will point out something that you need to change, or maybe a co-worker can intercede on your behalf and get things cleared up and straightened out. Maybe you'll just end up with some good advice and have to take it from there.
Talk To Your Boss - Finally, when all else fails, you go to your boss, hoping perhaps that the difficult employee isn't the boss's favorite employee. That can happen.
The Manager's Perspective - This brings up the issue of dealing with difficult employees if you are the boss or manager of the organization. The rule here is to act immediately. Putting things off tells your organization that you either don't care, are fearful, or cannot handle the situation with competence. You, as a manager, may be the only one in a position to effectively deal with a difficult employee. The situation needs to be addressed before the organization as a whole is affected and productivity begins to slacken off. If the boss doesn't care, why should I?
Most managers are not well-trained in dealing with difficult employees, but that is never an excuse for not addressing the problem promptly, and working it until the situation is satisfactorily resolved.