Note: This is a true story, but details have been changed or obscured to protect the privacy of all parties involved.
Despite my gut feeling that it was a
bad idea, I hired her for many reasons. She was the only candidate who had ever
gone to college. She was articulate. She liked the same kind of books I did and
she was personable. My boss liked her and I thought my boss knew everything.
The first six months, I could do no
wrong.
She plied me with sugar-coated compliments. I was the best boss she’d
ever had. I was smarter than everyone else. I was such a good trainer.
In the beginning, her mistakes were
small. I would correct them gently. They would reoccur. I would correct
her again rationalizing that this was a difficult field to learn. The last
person I trained took three years to reach complete fluency.
Then she started missing work.
Calling in sick and then confessing to co-workers that she’d actually gone
shopping. Or that she’d been out-of-town consoling her (adult) child whose
(very old) dog had died. Hardly valid excuses from any employee, let alone a
new one who had yet to master their job.
Training, a laborious process for
our field, became erratic due to her staccato absences. In on the day we
processed her first order, out on the day the order came to its logical conclusion.
In on the day we did the month’s accounting, out when there were questions
about her accounting entries. In on the
day she was asked to send regulatory documents, out on the day we learned they
had never been sent and
put our license in jeopardy.
There was also in, but sick and
slumped over her keyboard. In, but leaving early. In, but gossiping with a
friend and not sliding into her cubicle until an hour after her start time.
I spoke to her about her attendance.
I put her on probation. My boss wanted to terminate, but I intervened promising
she was worth the effort to save. If I could go back in time, it would be that
moment I would change.
Initially, the probation seemed to
have a positive impact. But then, things spiraled downward. She was, once
again, out more than she was in. Work quality suffered and there was no
continuity. I couldn’t even talk to her about her performance issues because
she was never there.
She had officially crossed the line of being more work to
manage than she was worth.
The fateful day came when she
actually came to work. I immediately called her down to my office. The intent
was to discuss both attendance and performance issues. Before I could open my
mouth she slapped a packet of FMLA paperwork on my desk.
A tirade followed, informing me that
I never trained her, everyone in the company hated me, and that she had a
lawyer who was ready to sue my employer for millions.
Then she threatened to take me to HR if I didn’t watch my step. The
sugar-coating was now infested with maggots.
I was speechless at the reversal in
her personality. However, I had enough wits about me to recognize the
power play and confront it head on. My personal ethic is I will not be bullied
at work. I would rather lose my job than suffer a bully. My employee had
unknowingly hit my personal limit. Instead of caving to her power play and
allowing her to manipulate me at will, I jotted down what I could remember of
our conversation and notified my boss along with HR.
From that first meeting, things
quickly got worse. HR met with her. She told them I had them boondoggled and
spouted off all sorts of lies. When my boss and HR refused to bite,
she
spread vicious rumors among my staff and other departments, actively targeting
my reputation.
She told stories about me so
disturbing that people went to HR with them. They were worried about her and
afraid of what she would do next. She wasn’t as good as she thought at hiding
her toxic nature and I had over a decade of service at this employer, meaning
that, thankfully, my credibility was solid.
I had never before seen someone work
so hard to discredit me and actively recruit people to their side of reality.
It
was incredibly threatening.
You would think between the rumors,
threats ,lies and poor work performance that it would be an easy matter of
terminating. You would be wrong. The FMLA paperwork proved to be her savior.
Our labor lawyers refused to
terminate for fear of claims of discriminatory retaliation. Never mind I had
four inches of documentation. In fact, the lawyers said they had never
seen such a well documented case of poor performance, but that didn’t help me.
Perhaps at a different company with
a different policy and more tolerance for risk, things might have been
different. It didn’t help that she went around telling everyone about her
regular meetings with her lawyer. We would meet to discuss her performance only
to be forced to listen to rants about her pending lawsuit.
On several occasions, she was too
ill to work, but in her email notifying me of the absence, she would note she
was meeting with her lawyer that same day. So too sick for our office, but not
too sick for litigation.
She had us cowed. The official plan
was to wait out the FMLA and then proceed with termination. It felt like she
had won.
Time dragged on.
Morale in my
department sank. Other staff members, wondering why they worked so hard when
she didn’t even have to come to work, let their performance lapse.
Despite doing everything in accordance
with company policy, I too felt defeated and couldn’t blame my staff for
slacking off. After all, going by outward appearances, we weren’t doing
anything about X and therefore couldn’t do much about what Y and Z did without
facing accusations of uneven policy enforcement.
Eventually, after eight long,
demoralizing months, X gave the jig up and simply never came back. It was
anti-climatic. I had looked forward to a final confrontation to discharge all
my long-simmering anger, but it wasn’t to be.
Vowing to never allow myself to be
put in such a situation again, I exhaustively Googled and researched toxic
employees. I read about sociopaths and psychopaths in the corporate world. I
contemplated spending $500 on e-books written by self-avowed experts on sticky
human resources situations. Between my experience and research, I analyzed
my mistakes and crafted the following tips on preventing toxic employees from
festering.
How to Fire a Sociopath
1.Before confronting the employee, discuss the situation
with your manager and HR and make your action plan transparent. They may have
valuable input and their review will keep you out of conflict with company
policy.
It is vital that you know where HR and your manager
stand on the situation, so start there before doing anything else.
2.Have 30,60 and 90 day reviews in addition to a 6
month review of new employees. My Fortune 500 employer did not have stringent
review requirements for new hires and I followed their lead, much to my regret.
3.Document, document, document from day one. You may
never need it, but a paper trail is essential to terminations when employees
are prone to lying and manipulation. Also, have the employee sign off on a
meeting agenda for anything covered verbally, or follow-up all face-to-face
meetings with an ‘as we discussed’ email.
4.Have a training checklist outlining key tasks,
performance deadlines (coinciding with the review schedule), and a spot for
both the trainer and trainee to sign and date. This eliminates the ‘you never
trained me’ argument.
5.Have the employee review and sign an attendance
policy that includes instructions on how to call in sick and request vacation
time. This eliminates the ‘you never told me the policy’ argument.
6.If an employee can’t master basics such as spell
check, simple deadlines, showing up to work on time or at all, terminate as
soon as possible. It’s not going to get better. Believe people when they
show you who they are.
7.Be sure any problems are documented and addressed
well before the employee’s one year anniversary. Most employers have a coaching
and/or investigative process they must go through before terminating an employee.
Allow enough time to go through the internal Human Resources procedures and
programs prior to the completion of the first year.
8.Be prepared for lies and power plays in
confrontations. Expect the employee to try and turn the tables on you or
deflect attention to another employee’s short comings. Some employees react to confrontation
by becoming angry and loudly defensive, while others tend to fall back on
emotional arguments (i.e. everyone hates you). I call it the ‘Deflect, Deny and
Decry Protocol.’
The only way to handle this is to be scrupulously
honest, be sure your documentation is in order and to mentally be ready for it.
It’s hard to hear someone say mean things about you
even if you know they are untrue. Steel yourself so the meeting doesn’t get
derailed. Simply reiterate, “This meeting is about you and your performance.
Just as you wouldn’t want us to discuss you with the rest of the staff, we
won’t be talking about anyone else but you in this meeting. However, if you
like we can set up a separate meeting with HR to discuss any concerns you may
have.”
9.Maintain your composure and professionalism, don’t
give the employee any ammunition. This is difficult because, as you saw, you
have to be above reproach for months on end. It’s hard not to make an innocent
mistake and easy to just give up, especially as more and more time passes.
However, unless you plan on finding a new job, you need to see it through to
the end to ever have a hope of a pleasant work environment again.
10.Have your manager or HR witness all meetings to
eliminate the ‘he said, she said’ game. Never let yourself be found alone with
a troublemaker. Establish this rule with HR and management when you first meet
with them.
It is not safe to meet with toxic employees without a third party observer.
11.Monitor staff morale and behavior. Don’t allow
the problem employee to form a powerbase with lies and manipulation. Praise
employees who are performing, be sure they know they are appreciated.
In addition, don’t let other employees behave
unprofessionally toward the problem employee as this can become a source of
legitimate complaints which can delay termination. Even if you are discreet,
people aren’t stupid. They know when someone isn’t working out or isn’t pulling
their load.
Insist that your staff conform to company policy and
performance expectations, if they protest using the problem employee as an
example, fall back on ‘this is about you and your performance not so-so and
so’.
It’s also good to emphasize the importance of being
inclusive of everyone in the department. There is no ethical reason to gang up
on people. Bad apples weed themselves out without any help from anyone else.
The employee’s poor performance will speak for itself.
12.Prior to any meetings, review policies and
procedures and ensure your entire department is in compliance. You can bet that
any valid inconsistencies in policy administration will be used against you.
13.If the employee ‘lawyers up’ do not engage in a
legal conversation. Refer them to HR to discuss any legal issues. Assuming you
have vetted your course of action with HR and have their blessing, continue the
meeting, confining it to performance issues. If the lawyer comes up, let the
employee speak but do not participate, merely pick up where you left off on
your agenda as if the lawyer was never brought up.
14.If the employee is being disruptive or you’re losing
control of the situation, walk away. Normal employees in the process of
being coached are interested to know how they can improve, but toxic employees
just argue and confuse the issue. So cut the meeting short (which reinforces
your authority) and simply say, ‘this doesn’t appear to be a good time, let’s
plan to continue this later’ and leave.
With proper preparation, the employee should not
derail you, so if this is happening, reassess your preparation and
documentation to identify weak spots.
15.Toxic employees are not as smart as they think
they are. However, they sure do think you are stupid, which is their fatal
flaw. So long as you are professional and consistent, they will hang themselves
with no help from you. Be patient. Fight the good fight and don’t let a bad
apple subvert your ethics or proactive management style.
There is a bright side to the situation, you will
learn a lot about how HR works and will improve your management skills.
