Fire Bad Employees
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Toxic people have got to step up or ship out.
Bad employees, they can exist. We have all known, heard of, or experienced someone who is way past their expiration date of joy at their job, and is actively ruining culture.
The team feels it. Leadership feels it. And the impact shows up in morale, retention, performance, and people’s mental well-being. This isn’t about someone being a bad person. There can be many, many different reasons why this is happening, maybe they’re dealing with a lot of personal stuff, or who knows what else. Just because someone is currently exhibiting “bad employee” behavior doesn’t mean that they’re a terrible person, they’re human and they deserve empathy and respect.
“We have all known, heard of, or experienced someone who is way past their expiration date of joy at their job, and is actively ruining culture.”
And that doesn’t change the reality that when someone is consistently negative, disengaged, or disruptive, they create ripple effects that destroy culture and have a massive negative impact on others around them.
The “Knife in the Hand” analogy.
Think of it this way: it’s like having a knife stuck in your hand. It hurts, but maybe by now it’s a steady, familiar pain. You learn to work around it.
To deal with it, you can pull it out, clean the wound, and deal with the sharp, short-term pain that comes with that. Or you can leave it there and accept that it will never stop hurting.
Many leaders choose to leave it.
Not because they don’t see the problem, but because addressing it can be a lot of stress and uncertainty. There’s fear about dealing with conflict, it’s really stressful to fire someone, losing institutional knowledge, creating a gap of that person’s skills, etc. So the situation lingers.
“There’s fear about dealing with conflict, it’s really stressful to fire someone, losing institutional knowledge, creating a gap of that person’s skills, etc. So the situation lingers.”
But the longer it stays, the more damage it does.
The cost of avoidance.
In a lot of teams where this exists, everyone is fully aware of who the biggest problem person or people are on the team.
That shared awareness matters. It means the issue isn’t isolated or imagined. It’s affecting the entire system.
Good employees start to disengage or leave because they don’t want to work in that environment. Standards begin to slip. Frustration builds quietly and spreads. Again morale, retention, performance.
Allowing that to continue is a decision that shapes culture.
Compassion and accountability can coexist.
It’s important to hold these two ideas at the same time:
First, people deserve to be treated with dignity and understanding. You don’t know everything they’re carrying or what their life is, truly.
Second, being part of a team has to come with some expectations and a level of accountability to the rest of the team and the organization. How someone shows up matters, their behavior impacts others.
“Being part of a team has to come with some expectations and a level of accountability to the rest of the team and the organization. How someone shows up matters, their behavior impacts others.”
Compassion doesn’t equate to lowering the bar. It means being direct, honest, and fair while also giving someone a real opportunity to improve.
Coach them first.
Before making any major decision, leaders need to be crystal clear about expectations.
Spell out what needs to change. Be specific about exactly what success looks like and make the stakes and consequences known; this shouldn’t be vague or implied.
Give the person a genuine chance to step up. Support them. Coach them. Document the conversations.
If they improve, great, that’s the best outcome.
If they don’t, then they’ve got to go. At some point, you have to act.
Hard now, better in the long run.
Removing someone from a role or from the organization is uncomfortable. It can feel personal and heavy.
But in nearly every case, once the change happens, the team breathes a collective sigh of relief. Not out of cruelty, but because the tension is gone. The environment and energy shifts for the good.
And the feared “gap” often isn’t as damaging as expected. Skills can be replaced and taught. Culture is so much harder to rebuild once it’s been eroded.
“If someone is consistently undermining the team and unwilling to change, keeping them in place damages the strength and health of the team.”
Choosing the health of the team.
Leadership often means not avoiding hard decisions, and making the right ones, even when they’re uncomfortable.
If someone is consistently undermining the team and unwilling to change, keeping them in place damages the strength and health of the team.
Addressing the issue directly with honesty and respect, reinforces that the team’s health and culture matter.
It’s not easy. but it’s pretty much 100% worth it.
Related Blogs:
Toxic Employees Poison Culture: Get Rid of Them
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This article was created by Galen Emanuele for the #culturedrop. Free leadership and team culture content in less than 5 minutes a week. Check out the rest of this month's content and subscribe to the Culture Drop at https://bit.ly/culturedrop
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