Have you ever faced a challenging employee at work? Dealing with difficult employees can be daunting, but it’s an inevitable part of managing a team.
These individuals, with their problematic behaviors and disruptive tendencies, can drain your energy, lower team morale, and hinder overall productivity. Ignoring the issue isn’t an option — knowing how to address and manage these situations effectively is key to maintaining a thriving workplace.
This blog explores the most challenging employee types and provides practical, tried-and-tested strategies to tackle them head-on.
By understanding their traits and adopting proven HR approaches, you can transform workplace challenges into opportunities for growth and better team dynamics.
In a 2019 study, 79% of employees reported feeling disengaged at work, and this disengagement often manifests in problematic behaviors. Such employees can create a toxic workplace environment, leading to higher turnover rates, strained customer relationships, and a dip in overall performance.
In the sections below, we’ll discuss three common types of challenging employees and offer actionable strategies to effectively manage them.
Poor performance is often seen because of a lack of motivation, ability, or both. It can result because of misalignment, poor communication, and lack of resources.
Rather than considering such employees as lazy, it is imperative to look for the real reason behind their poor performance and lack of motivation. Maybe it is the nature of the work that doesn’t challenge them anymore. Maybe they care more about imposing an impact and feel frustrated due to the lack of investment by others.
Sometimes, you need to keep an eye on the company’s policies and processes which can constrain them without enhancing the outcome. Also, it can be possible that they are not skillful enough to perform a specific task.
Employees in a company feel demotivated and valueless when there is no scope for career growth and development.
On another flip, lack of motivation is just a passing phase; it is not related to their work at all. Many times, problems in personal and health life can be the reason for poor performance and becoming a challenging employee.
Bad behavior is one of the most challenging employee types you can have in your company. Their toxic manner affects the entire team and a negative attitude creates a worse work environment. Often bad attitudes will serve as passive instead of direct confrontational. It is not subtle to eye-roll, smirk, show up late, or be inattentive at meetings.
A hard-working employee can become cynical because of less consciousness, gossiping at work or regarding colleagues, and discovering negativity in every proposal or interaction.
A bad attitude seems very funny initially but it drags down everyone after a certain point of time and proves to be the cause of major disruption in employee performance.
That’s not the end; showing a bad attitude, especially when dealing with clients and vendors can put your reputation and business at stake.
Employee morale is easily disrupted by undermining authority. Plus, it badly affects productivity too making other team members doubtful regarding your leadership ability.
Not every employee undermines the authority by possessing bad intentions. Some do so to highlight a different perspective on the circumstances. Their passion for the perspective and style of communication lets them overlook how they undermine others.
On the other hand, disruptive behavior of the employee can be deliberative to undermine you. Being a leader you must have the ability to distinguish these two explicitly for addressing the issue efficiently.
If you are dealing with the most challenging employee types then these tips can solve your problem.
When you face any problematic employee in the organization, focus on the specific behavior instead of personal aspects. Try not to judge them as it can result in unproductive conflict without any chance to solve the issue.
The goal is to find an effective way to put an end to unacceptable behavior and take correct behavior to foster a healthy working environment. You need to lead them from the front for optimal support and solutions.
Often employees are not aware of in what ways their behavior can impact the work culture of an organization. Bring this thing to their attention in a casual way with good intentions. Remember not all problematic employees are inclined to problems. Share some examples of negative behaviors with them so that they can understand them better.
Employee’s bad behavior and the reasons behind it are different for every individual. So, being the leader you need to find the root cause to address the issue. Remember, the reasons could be:
Problematic or difficult behavior can take place due to the perception and experience of the employee at work. Hence, it is of paramount importance that managers must accept feedback seamlessly and with seriousness. Poor performance can be the result of a degraded management style and problems related to other employees in the organization.
Give them a safe and secure space to express their opinions listen to them actively and try to understand them without any prejudice. Most difficult people need someone who will hear and understand them and this approach can bring a drastic change in their behavior and attitude.
Being a leader, learn to lead from the front and guide the instructions clearly so that the team can make the most of it. During any conflict, you must eye on two objectives:
You may need to provide detailed and clear feedback on their behavior including correct examples to achieve this.
You have to put the behavioral changes and expectations with other colleagues in a document. Now plan to develop objectives with a stipulated time frame and daily progress evaluations. In this way, you can be on the same page. Documenting related consequences of failing will certainly bring important behavior changes. Most of the time, the employee will consider the seriousness of the matter with a better plan and related consequences of no action.
After the action plan of the employee is ready it is now imperative to track the progress. It will let them attain their goals within the expected timeframe.
Here’s how you can track the progress:
Maximum transparency is possible to attain with written observations. Then when the agreed period ends evaluate the success with the reports.
A rigorous and adequate recruitment process will prevent issues with challenging employees. New aspirants must undergo background checks and employers should find out the reasons for leaving the previous companies along with the behavior of the candidates.
Firing someone or sharing negative feedback is not easy at all. People get upset because of flare-ups and tension. So, being a manager, you need not touch the nerves to avoid criticisms and judgments. Always maintain a neutral tone and professional body language. A respectful, professional, and honest attitude is important. Before making any drastic decision you need to get to the bottom of the reason to find why some employees are challenging!
Try out these effective solutions to deal with the most challenging employee types in your organization
As it is an interpersonal issue, it is indeed a good decision to inform HR when you are experiencing such a situation with any employee. It possesses 2 benefits- HR will be aware of the issue and can bring any relevant policy to deal with it. Secondly, they have the experience and specialization to deal with every kind of individual. Hence, they can give important advice on tackling such employees.
When any employee undermines authority, you better ask certain questions to yourself. It will help in determining the intention behind the behavior of the employee.
If you put your employee suspect of undermining with a purpose then these questions can help you:
In such cases, you must listen to the feedback of employees as it can have valuable insights for the company. Be present while listening to destructive behavior and constructive criticism.
Display your leadership by tackling problems with calmness and coolness. You must maintain the company culture and values and instill them in everyone even in problematic employees.
Always start by doubting to handle an unmotivated employee as it will give them additional benefits.
Ask these questions to yourself:
You can easily put an end to the lack of employee motivation by:
In other words, de-motivation can result in a toxic work environment and disruptive behavior.
Terminating someone’s employment is the worst thing one has to do at a certain point in time. But if there is persistent bad behavior and negativity of the employee then you need to take drastic action. Speak and discuss with the HR department and grab information on company policy to let people go.
Being an aspiring leader you must learn how to tackle the most challenging employee types easily. A rational and calm approach is the key to the problem and you must evaluate all the triggering factors beforehand. Then with a professional approach, you have to make the correct decision on the behalf and welfare of the operation and organization.
You need to observe behavioral patterns and work performance metrics to figure out the challenging employees. A few common indicators are:
If anyone on your team finds it tough to work collaboratively and engage in frequent conflicts, you should do the following:
Disruptive behaviors like aggressive communication and gossiping can affect the overall morale and productivity of the team. You can take care of it in the following ways:
Often employees who are resistant to change are triggered by overwhelming or unknown feelings when it comes to new challenges. You can resolve it by:
Passive-aggressive employees often use subtle methods for expressing dissatisfaction and these are some ways to take account of it:
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