Effective Strategies for Managing Challenging Employee Behavior

Hi,

One difficult employee is getting so much response or reaction from so many. The important question is, is the response varied, divided, or in chorus? Well, that teaches us about PERCEPTION. Please do not TAKE ACTION BASED ON MY OR SOMEBODY'S PERCEPTION. USE YOUR DISCRETION BASED ON REALITY. OH MY GOD, AGAIN IT IS BASED ON YOUR PERCEPTION. TELL ME HOW MUCH TIME YOU ARE WASTING ON ONE EMPLOYEE AGAINST HOW MANY? SOMETIMES IT IS WORTH IT. IF YOU HAVE EXHAUSTED ALL THE AVENUES, GIVE HER A PINK SLIP WITH ALL HONOUR, BUT BE SURE YOU ARE RIGHT. ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS: ARE YOU SURE YOU ARE CONFIDENT IN BODY LANGUAGE SKILLS? IS SHE NEGLIGENT IN HER PRESENT CAREER? DOES SHE REALLY HAVE A PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEM? IS HER OUTPUT OK? IS HER PRODUCTIVITY ALRIGHT? ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT ONLY HER ATTENDANCE, OR ARE YOU ONLY CONCERNED ABOUT HER RESPECT FOR SUPERIORS? HOW IS YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHERS? ARE YOU TRYING TO PLEASE SOMEBODY TARGETING HER? I CAN POSE QUESTIONS, BUT, ONLY BUT, YOU ARE THE BETTER JUDGE. THINK AND THINK "YOU ARE THE BETTER JUDGE GIVEN THE SITUATION." IMP - WHY HAS SHE NOT RESPONDED TO THIS?

Thank you.

Hi Friends,

All your suggestions are good, but think of the Senior HR Manager who is facing all this nonsense. Why should Sohini or any of the HR team have to deal with this kind of nonsense? :-x

Sohini, try to find an alternative for that position without her knowledge. Also, convey this to the higher authorities. Once you have candidates to replace her in your pipeline, you can issue a letter to address her behavior, or else she will be asked to leave. If she values her job, she will adjust her attitude. If she does not want the job, she will resign. Either way, it will benefit you. If she leaves, you have a suitable replacement, and if she stays and follows instructions, that's even better. Sometimes, this approach works out.

Thanks & Regards,
John
HR Manager

Hi,

Nice to see your email. Just call or send an email to all the employees instructing them to come to the office on time. If you notice any employees not following this rule, send an email to all the employees stating that starting from next month, the salary will be based on "consolidated time." This means they will be paid for the number of hours they work from when they log in to when they log out. I suggest trying this approach as it has worked well in my organization.

Regards,
Ram
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Hi,

I do agree with all of your words and suggestions. We are human resources (Humanity). If you remove the employee from the organization, will this provide a solution or should we punish them? We should be considerate to employees; that's why we have been appointed.

Just inform all the employees that from next month, HR & Finance have planned to pay salaries in a consolidated way. Then, see everyone will be on time.

Have a great day and keep smiling.

Dear Sohini Basu Roy,

I am faced with a difficult situation that I find challenging to solve. I believe she may be experiencing some personal troubles. My suggestion for this matter is as follows:

Leave her alone; do not assign her any work. Allow her to take leave and deduct her salary for the days or hours she is absent (to ensure fair treatment in comparison to other employees) until she decides to resign. You should refrain from terminating her.

You cannot be her friend because she has not shared any information with you.

Regards,

Being good to subordinates is always welcome. But remember, the rules are always the same for everyone, whether they are senior or junior. It is a matter of concern if she is not obeying you, and if this behavior continues, others will also comment, "She is always late, first mind him, then us." Surely, you will not have any answer to this question. If you cannot take action against one person, how can you handle others?

So, my suggestion will be:

1. Be good, treat her like a friend, but if she does not understand the importance of punctuality, teach her a lesson through simple steps:
(a) Memorandum (written)
(b) Verbal explanation (written)
(c) Deducting pay (firm step)
(d) Termination (last resort)

Another approach to this situation could be:

If she is irregular but completes her projects (her own part) with quality and quantity on time, then you don't have to intervene.

After all, we are managers, which stems from management. And what is management? It is managing people and time, i.e., managing people in a timely manner—neither too early nor too late, but right on time.

Friends,

Assuming Ms. Sohini Roy is giving an accurate version of the behavior and her response, I am afraid I do not agree with most of the replies.

Firstly, no one is indispensable to a company. This message should go out loud and clear to all.

Secondly, while good salary, good working conditions, and all other legal protections and facilities are rights of all employees, indiscipline should never be tolerated. Inefficiency, mistakes, blunders, and a bit of stupidity may be okay, but never indiscipline. I feel indiscipline is contagious. If you tolerate the indiscipline of one person, others will follow, knowing that it can be tolerated.

Thirdly, employees are not kids but grown-ups who decide to take up a given job consciously. It is not voluntary but a quid-pro-quo contractual arrangement.

With this in view, I feel a trainee can be terminated if he or she is not following the company discipline and not performing satisfactorily in training. Training is a status before probation, and hence, no rights accrue to a trainee. You may have a Training Officer, which could be the HR person itself. They can file a report about tardy conduct, failure to get training, and indiscipline, and based on that, terminate him or her without further ado, so that others do not copy their behavior.

Abdul Hameed

My name is Joseph Ndomba. It is the first time I am commenting on this site, but really, this situation needs attention. My suggestion is to have a final conversation with her in a mediated manner. This means you should invite a third party to act as a witness to the conversation; this third party could be her Head of Department or Supervisor. If possible, ensure that the conversation is documented and signed by both parties. During this conversation, make sure to explore all details to support the solution. Additionally, ensure that your organization has rules, regulations, or grievance mechanisms in place to handle such situations.

Dear Friend,

If any person, male or female, who else came late to the company, they should work compensatory hours equal to the time they arrived late, whether it be five times or ten times. This may result in receiving three or four warnings. The next action will be a deduction from the salary.

Ravichandiran

Hi Sohini,

First of all, have a one-to-one session (you & trainee only). In that session, try to identify the root cause of the problem. Maybe she is facing some issues in the organization that she thinks she can't discuss as a trainee OR she might be feeling that she is not getting proper rewards for her efforts. Or there may be some personal problems.

If the problem is personal, give her some time to resolve it completely. If the issue is related to rewards or other matters that she might be facing and cannot discuss, try to address or resolve the problem.

Try assigning her some major responsibilities that make her feel valued in the office. For example, give her the task of managing attendance – ask her to take everyone's attendance. This can help improve her punctuality. However, since you mentioned that she doesn't seem to care about anything, do not fully trust her. Inform your staff that from today onwards, attendance will be marked twice in the morning – once with the trainee and once with you, or keep a second option without informing the trainee. Monitor her for a week or two, and then have another one-to-one session with her.

I hope this approach works.

Good day,
Karuna Kerni