Comments on: Working with a Difficult Employee

By: stop whining

stop whining — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 01:16:42 +0000

In reply to Rachel Peterson. Stop playing the victim.

By: Jane

Jane — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:45:48 +0000

I, too, have worked with employees that have 20-30 years with the company and have been allowed to be ugly and rude. The same excuse is “They have been here for so long we can’t fire them”. It is unfortunate that this is the excuse a small or large company would use, because, eventually you will lose the good employees because they are sick and tired of working with these ugly and rude behaving employees. I was able to transfer to a completely different department within the company, just to get away from this person. They eventually retired and what does the company do…name an area after her! WHAT?

By: Josie

Josie — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:50:55 +0000

Hi Ron
While my issue is similar, it is not exactly the same. I have an employee who I used to think was a “cup is half full” person. We had a conversation about that almost 3 years ago and she underwent a “remarkable transformation”,.. until marital and home issues have unveiled the truth – she is a “cup is empty” person.
She is productive, reliable, honest, and good at her job BUT her negativity has poisoned the office moral. Another “conversation” about her “negativity” will not work, as she is extremely sensitive about this.
All suggestions are welcome!

By: Celine

Celine — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:51:05 +0000

Hi Ron,

Reading your response makes it sound so easy to help this employee improve the behavior and working relationship with others. How would this approach be applicable to a soulmate who is acting rude and seems not to understand how it is affecting the other partner even when it is expressed?

By: Barbara Blakely

Barbara Blakely — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 20:02:32 +0000

Being a parent of a teen that shares many of the characteristics as your difficult employee I found a lot of great tips in the article that I plan to use. It outlines real strategies we can use to “turn around” our teens bad behavior. Unfortunately we bred the bad behavior by tolerating it for so long. Of course we can’t fire our teen, but hopefully he will come around!
Any tips on how to start the conversation for our “renewed” expectations for behavior in the family would be appreciated.

By: Kimberlee

Kimberlee — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:36:15 +0000

Years ago I worked for a Government agency that was experiencing a major growth spurt, due to newly mandated programs. The Program Manager was thrilled to have me on his team. However, there were several individuals assigned to his team that had been labeled “difficult”. The Program Manager took; what I thought at the time, a very novel approach to the situation. He not only treated everyone as if he thought they were the cream of the crop, he did little things that made it clear to his colleagues that he was extremely fortunate to have this. Being treated this way, most of my co-workers strived to be as good as they were told they were. There were a couple who really were not capable of it. This was also easily handled. We had a meeting where we listed all the duties we would have to have accomplished with our new unit. Management assigned each of us a couple of major tasks that best suited each employee. After that, one by one the employees picked the remaining tasks. First we went through and picked the ones that matched as closely as possible with what we were already doing. After that we each picked a task we really wanted. But in order to do this, we had to accept a task that was less desirable as well.

This worked so well, I noticed it being used in a couple of other newly formed units as well. It was amazing seeming people who were considered “damaged goods” being an asset to their department.

By: Stephen Ruten

Stephen Ruten — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:46:16 +0000

Sometimes, these articles happen just as I need them and today’s lesson is a perfect example.

Thank you,
Stephen

By: Samantha Olson

Samantha Olson — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:39:23 +0000

I am not a supervisor or mangager/no one of real authority at my job. I started working in my office over 2 yrs. ago and I “inherited” an employee who has a long histroy of bad behavior such as being rude, stirring up trouble, and refusing to work with me as a team player. She has been with this company for over 30 years and knows through her past experiences that she can get away with mistreating certain staff. I’m the only one in the office with her most of the time so I’m the lucky one who gets mistreated. I’ve gone to my supervisor, Director and Boss. They all tell me the same… she’s been here too long to fire, she isn’t going to change, you are just going to have to figure out how to deal with her. We have went through counseling and while that taught me a lot and I put it in practice all the time with her, I don’t see anything we were taught put into practice by her with me. It was a VERY hard few months of work, sitting with this lady who in front of people acted like my friend but when it is just her and I she acts like I’m her worst enemy. Since she has been with this company for so long she has a lot of vacation time stored up, so she goes on 2 week vacations a couple times a year. My supervisor has even told me “just look forward to those 2 weeks here and there when she is on vacation, maybe that’ll help you get through how she treats you.” I’m now 7 months pregnant, I refuse to let her continue to mistreat me and especially don’t need it while pregnant so I continue to let my supervisor know whats going on. My supervisor is finally fed up with me coming to her and she has now turned on me, making up lies and saying I’m the one the problem lies with. I’ve called the previous gal who worked with this “inherited” employee and she told me she was mean back to her and was never in the office in order to get through working there with her. I’ve let my supervisor know that but it doesn’t make a difference to my supervisor. I’ve asked to be transferred and I’m told I can’t. When asked if I could be moved to a different office I’m told no. Other people in the company have volunterely come to me asking how it is working with her and telling me stories of when they’ve had to work with her and how mean and rude she was to them. They all say they can’t imagine how my work days are with her. Got any help or advise since I’m not a person in authority?

Sincerely,

Desperate!

By: Rachel Peterson

Rachel Peterson — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:30:30 +0000

Hi Ron,

I could be one of those “Difficult Employees” I work in a medical clinic, I am the only person on the administrative side, every one else here are nurses or physicians. I am the front desk person, the phone operator, medical records, and many other duties that in other clinics are handled by many others. In my office, I do not feel respected as a person or the job I do because of the way I am treated mainly by the Nurses. They do not greet me, ask me how my weekend was, my husband has been out of work for almost 2 years and deals with depression, no one asks me “How are you?” This has lead me to shut down and just do my job. I can take responsibility for my actions, I can see where I have contributed to this situation, but please don’t assume that just one employee is behaving badly. I learned early on as a Sunday School teacher never to take to heart when someone tells you, “Better watch out for that one, he’s a trouble maker.” I would have missed out on some real joys and blessings in keeping a child in my own mind labled “Trouble maker.” Perhaps your “Difficult” employee has been left out, or gossiped about, I think your whole group needs to work on the team spirit thing and value each other.