Good Work + Bad Attitude = Bad News This article is from the August 2008 issue. By Julie Todaro and Jamie Bragg Managers face a variety of employee challenges every day. Many challenges are easily defined: it is often simple to identify low-performing employees, burned-out employees, new employees who need extensive orientation and existing employees who need training or retraining. It may be more difficult to address the challenge of the employee who does good work with a bad attitude. An attitude of rudeness, malice or disrespect can be one of the most insidious threats to workplace collaboration. Furthermore, a bad attitude can be disastrous for productivity. A manager focused on productivity may be tempted to overlook an employee’s negative attitude, especially if that employee is among a library’s top performers. But a bad attitude can ultimately impact the productivity of co-workers, which can denigrate the team and preclude accomplishment of team goals. How Bad is Bad? “Bad,” of course, is relative. The manager’s course of action is defined by the manifestation of the employee’s attitude. Consider the following questions when assessing the nature, expression and consequences of an employee’s negative attitude: Is the employee keeping attitudes and opinions to himself?Is the employee sharing her attitude with peer employees? Quietly? Non-verbally? At the “top of her voice?” Through rumors? On work time? At break? At lunch?Even though the employee’s work isn’t suffering, is the work of other employees suffering?Does management have to spend time correcting for the effect of this employee’s attitude on the productivity of other employees?Have there been absences or patterns of absences away from work or aspects of work?Has the employee demonstrated “opposite behavior”? For example, is he silent when he previously would have been talkative?Does her body language indicate unhappiness or negativity? Does she sit with arms akimbo or arms crossed? Does she roll his eyes or sigh when approached?Has there been a change in work behaviors? For example, does he no longer volunteer for committees when once he did?Has there been a change in social behaviors? For instance, has she radically changed her at-work social network?
Posted on: Mon, 13 Oct 2014 11:39:06 +0000
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