Toxic Employees… and how to Neutralise them

A growing buzz phrase in business is ‘toxic employees’; those motivated purely by personal gain or using unethical means to manipulate colleagues. It’s something that most will have endured in our careers, and reports estimate their cost at £10,000 a year (HBS, 2015). So what’s the best way to deal with them?

A toxic employee doesn’t necessarily underperform. They can actually be highly productive, as often it’s over-confidence driving their toxicity. Regardless, once you’ve identified the toxic culprits what do you do? Experts prescribe corrective feedback as the first action. So expose the behaviour, break it down, and monitor it. Then offer regular and forthright feedback. If things don’t improve, the third and final stage is sending them to the nearest exit before they contaminate the company.

Of course, ‘prevention is better than cure’, so building close relationships and having informal chats can unlock early signs of a toxic attitude. So, the three-step strategy: prevent with principals, follow-up with feedback, and if necessary enforce with exit!