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About Ed Parr
Expertise
How to organize employees, how to stop infighting, how to handle problem employees, and more. I have 25+ yrs. of managing within a variety of industries and labor environments. I have managed from 50 to 1,000 staff on projects with P&L responsibility ranging from $100K to $30MIL. I currently serve as a management consultant to business and government. I enjoy helping people, especially supervisors and managers, evolve in their careers.

Experience
Over 15 years of senior management experience including: systems development, technical help desks, customer service, back-office operations, branch administration and regulatory compliance. Responsibilities have been as large as 1,000 professionals delivering projects with P&L as high as $30 million and assets totaling more than $10 billion. Customer interaction has ranged from customer service reps to CEOs. Greatest accomplishment: Helping employees be all they can be.

Organizations
Institute of Management Accountants (www.imanet.org)

Publications
My first book, NATURAL BORN MANAGER, is scheduled to be published in NOVEMBER. As this date draws near, I'll share more information here about how you can PURCHASE a copy online on my website, at Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

Education/Credentials
A graduate With Distinction of the Thunderbird School of Global Management, Ed is a 35-year veteran of organizational leadership. He is a Certified Management Accountant (C.M.A) who has worked in management positions ranging from team leader to senior executive. He has managed as many as 1,000 employees deployed in multi-site facilities and consulted with or managed for both large and small organizations including Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, E.D.S., PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Sprint Corporation. In addition, Ed is an 8-year contributor to AllExperts.com as a pro bono management expert, advising managers, supervisors, and employees around the globe providing them practical solutions to their everyday workplace challenges. Finally, Ed is an avowed Accountability Manager who strives to learn and educate others about the fundamental truths of management.

You are here: Experts > Business > Management > Dealing with Employees > Problem employee

Dealing with Employees - Problem employee

Expert: Ed Parr - 10/31/2009

Question
I supervise an employee who has been with the company for over ten years. She is 48 years old and has recently begun suffering bouts of hysteria, crying, slamming doors, and leaving the office at 10 in the morning because she "can't stand this!". I have asked her to seek medical help, and she insists she's fine. Any advice on how to handle this or what to do next? Thank you.

Answer
Dear Iris:

Thank you for your question. I’m not a doctor, so take this observation at face value, but it sounds like you’re dealing with a menopausal employee. This has happened to me a few times in my career as well. It’s unfortunate…for this woman but even more unfortunate for your team. And, your team cannot be sacrificed for her recalcitrance to go to her doctor(s) to get help, which is all too available nowadays for this condition. What this all translates to is that you must deal with her as you would have to deal with any employee who refuses to work productively as part of your team. You must begin formal employee counseling.

How do you do this? I provide below the 3-step employee counseling procedure I’ve found to be most effective in either turning around an employee or moving him/her out of your organization. Here’s the catch that you already understand before I state it here: You must have firing authority to make this process effective. I’m simply being candid with you about how it works in the real world. You see, a subordinate only responds to the person who has firing authority. If your boss gives you this authority, this procedure will work under your supervision. If you do not have it, you must have your boss with firing authority participate with in each step of this counseling procedure.

3-Strikes procedure:
First of all, to make a decision about whether to keep an employee, you should ask yourself the following questions about your WORST employee:

a.) Does this employee’s work effort contribute to the achievement of my organization’s mission?
b.) Does this employee cooperatively and professionally work with all teammates (this includes you as the team’s manager) to achieve results that support my organization’s goals and objectives?
c.) Do this employee’s behaviors foster a work environment that creates Joy, Freedom, and Growth?

If the answer to these questions is YES, then you’ve got a great employee. Move on to asking the same questions about your next worst employee, and the next, and so on until you have asked these questions about all of your problem employees. If the answer to any of these questions about a given employee is NO, then you must proceed with formal counseling to re-align him with your organization or remove him from it. By formal counseling I mean direct conversation with this employee, with no mincing of words, about the problems they are causing on your team, and how you expect them to change immediately.

Successful rehabilitation of the worst offender will eventually influence your other problem employees to improve without further intervention. So, complete this entire procedure with the WORST offender first and see how the others respond. If they don’t change, then revisit this procedure with your next WORST offending employee and so on until they have all been rehabilitated or removed from your organization.

IMPORTANT: This 3-step counseling procedure for problem employees (of any kind) is legally, politically, and ethically correct. However, always consult FIRST with your HR or Legal professional (and your boss) about the remediation/termination procedures approved for your organization and situation.

Here’s the step-by-step process.

Step One: Have a PRIVATE meeting with the employee to discuss his issues and yours. Point out to him his behavior that is not aligned with the organization. Specifically, inform him of which policies, procedures, or teamwork rules his behavior is ignoring or challenging and how he must change to make it right. Set a DEADLINE of the next 2 weeks to accomplish this change. Tell him you will meet with him again in two weeks to discuss his compliance. Ask for his commitment to comply with your directive. Don’t let him leave the office without saying, “I will comply with your directive…” You must get his verbal COMMITMENT to perform. Also, let him know that you are documenting this discussion for “your files only,” and that you will not pass this documentation on to HR at this time. However, if he fails to remediate his behavior in two weeks time, then you will send this report along with a formal counseling report to the HR department following your next meeting with him. Further inform him that if he fails a third test after that, you will be forced to terminate his employment. You must make it clear to him that this is a “3 Strikes You are Out the Door” process.
NOTE: However, mentally give him the benefit of the doubt and EXPECT him to want to comply. There is power in mentally sending him your positive and supportive thoughts. This is VERY IMPORTANT: You must BELIEVE that he will succeed in changing his behavior and support him in this effort accordingly.

Step Two: In two weeks, meet with him again (as you had promised) to discuss his new and hopefully compliant behavior. If he is doing well, congratulate and stroke him for a job well done. And continue to pat him on the back every time he does things that support your policies as the days pass. If he continues his non-compliant behavior, then tell him that he is non-compliant with your directive and with organizational policy. Further inform him that you will be sending the original informal counseling report written earlier PLUS the FORMAL counseling report from this meeting to HR for their review and file documentation. Give him two more weeks to fully comply with your earlier directive. Make it clear that if he fails this time, you will be forced to terminate his employment. It is best to have him sign your formal counseling report stating that he understands what you’ve communicated and that he understands the consequences of his non-compliance. If he refuses to sign the document, then note this in the report, but let him know that it will still be sent to HR along with the previous informal counseling report.
NOTE: Be unemotional. Be steady and firm. KNOW that you are doing the right thing for him and for your organization.

Step Three: If his behavior over the next two weeks becomes compliant, pat him on the back and tell him he’s on the road to becoming a “valued” employee. If he again fails to comply, then call your HR representative to ask for his assistance and to serve as a witness for your termination meeting with him. Allow your HR rep to advise you of how to handle the termination wording. Always make your boss aware, well beforehand (as much as 48 hrs. in advance ideally), that you will be conducting an employee termination meeting. Make sure that you consider organizational SECURITY issues BEFORE you do the termination. Make sure you have a SUCCESSION PLAN prepared and ready to put in place immediately upon his termination and departure from the building. Do not communicate anything about this termination to other employees outside of HR except for the fact that the employee has been terminated. The terminated employee’s teammates do need to know that he is gone so that they can make plans and adjustments of their work responsibilities.
NOTE: Be UNEMOTIONAL. Be steady and firm. Many are depending on your good judgment and on your courage to help fulfill your team’s potential and to support your organization’s mission. Be KIND to him, but also be FIRM. Terminate him for his good and your organization’s.

Iris, I hope this response helps you resolve this challenge. Of course, feel free to email me follow-up questions. Please do rate me on AllExperts and give me your feedback if this response helped you. Your positive feedback helps sell my service to others who just read the first few lines of my questioners’ comments. (Translation: Please say nice things about me because this is all that visitors read on this site :-). Also, your candid feedback will help me advise others more effectively.

Cheers,

Ed Parr

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