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Cost to the Organization When Disruptive and Difficult Employees Are Left Mismanaged
By now you’ve probably realized that when a difficult person is making your life miserable as a manager, and making the lives of other employees miserable, that person is also costing the company a lot of time, energy, and money.
The truth is that companies damaged heavily by difficult people are operating on one or two cylinders. In today’s competitive marketplace, that can be serious indeed. Companies need to innovate, need to have their employees work together, and need to maximize the resources they have, not have people milling around at the watercooler cursing each other out. Difficult employees can affect companies by …
- causing good employees to leave.
- reducing productivity.
- reducing the generation of good ideas.
- reducing morale and commitment.
- making management look stupid or neglectful.
All of these impact the bottom line. So at this point, let’s take a moment to remember
that our own jobs depend on the continued existence of our companies. A
company crippled by difficult people may not be long for this world. And as our
company goes, so go our own jobs.
Now, here’s the kicker. While difficult people often cost the manager, co-workers, and
the company in terms of mental health, productivity, and so on, it doesn’t have to be
that way. The key here is that difficult people must be managed, not ignored. That’s
the only way to avoid or prevent incurring the costs I’ve outlined.
(back to the main difficult employees page)