I don’t get it! Here we are in the midst of one of this country’s worst economic times and there are still companies out there that either reinforce or ignore bad behavior by their key employees. Have we all gone crazy? Don’t we realize that taking care of your customer and creating a positive working environment is the key to success?
Last week, I received a phone call from an HR professional who told me an all too common sad story. It was about a salesman who was responsible for bringing in over 50% of all the sales for her company. Yet, when he had to place an order with the operations team, he called the order filler names I never even knew existed. He told her she was “. . . totally incompetent and wouldn’t be able to get a job shoveling horse manure”. Not surprisingly, the order filler was devastated and reduced to tears. Soon after this encounter, the order filler quit. When the salesman was confronted, he told the HR manager that he had done nothing wrong and was in fact, saving the organization from the loss of a big sale and lots of revenue. Unfortunately the CEO refused to discipline the salesman even though this wasn’t the first complaint against him and morale in the order filling area was miserable. Does this sound familiar?
Any HR professional has had this experience whether with a salesperson, tenured faculty member, attorney or world renowned physician. These individuals are very capable of bringing value to their organization while at the same time making life miserable for others who work there. They cost companies millions of dollars every year. On Rob Sutton’s blog he talks about the concepts in his book, “The No-Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t”. It is an excellent guide which defines the “Asshole”, what s/he does to warrant that title, the effects of the behavior on others in the workplace and how to deal with him/her.
So what can be done? Well, recently more and more organizations have decided to confront this issue but it has to be done in a planned and methodical manner. The term being used to describe these folks is “disruptive professional” and programs to deal with them are cropping up. Perspectives has developed one such program; the goal of which is to make sure that these high level employees behave in a professional and respectful manner with customers and co-workers. To insure success, both the organization and the “disruptive employee” must be assisted. The leadership must be supported in their efforts to identify and constructively confront these individuals and the identified employees need to learn and practice good behavior.
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