As Published in Business 2 Business , September 2004

Like Bad News, Negative Employees Hit Fast....and Hard.
By Ira S. Wolfe

Question: Why is a negative employee's attitude like a dangerous hurricane?

Answer: Because where ever they land, devastation results.

While listening to the news about Hurricane Charley ripping through Florida , I was reminded of a recent consulting gig. I was called in to diffuse a bad workplace environment caused by one negative employee. Let's call her Meg.

You know Meg. Maybe she works for you. Meg and Hurricane Charley have this in common. Wherever and whenever they touch down, they leave a path of destruction. With Charley, it was a mass of battered homes, twisted wire and steel, shattered lives. With Meg, it is employee turnover, workplace disruptions, and one conflict after the other.

In three years, Meg literally dislocated dozens of co-workers. Management's best “rescue” was re-assigning these employees, if they hadn't quit first. Each time calm was restored, for a while. Then, along came Fred.

The straw that broke the camel's back came in December 2003 when Philadelphia football fans were in the tight grip of Eagles-mania. Fred came to a meeting decked out in his Eagles jacket. He opened the jacket and proudly unveiled his new Eagles sweater. Then he placed his Eagles lunch pail on the conference table. 

That was just too much for Meg to take. Meg didn't have time for hobbies and fun. Never one to hold her opinions to herself, Meg jumped all over Fred for what she felt was a “sport for morons”. Claiming that his appearance was disruptive, she refused to give her monthly report if he was dressed like that. To appease Meg, Fred was asked to remove his jacket and sweater so “Meg could concentrate”.

Fred complied, but he had had enough of everyone tiptoeing around Meg. He filed a harassment claim.

A harassment suit always get the attention of a human resources manger. That's what brought the company to my doorstep.

Many of you are surely asking, “Why would any employer tolerate Meg's behavior?”  Others might have that gnawing feeling everyone gets when a story hits a little too close to home. The reasons employers tolerate negative employees are too numerous to list here, but let me tell you one thing: A negative employee never helps a company be more productive and profitable.

Regardless of the reason why negative employee behavior is tolerated, there is a solution. It partially begins with what you'll learn in the just-released, must-read book “How Full is Your Bucket”, by Tom Rath and Donald O. Clifton and published by Gallup Press.

Go buy it, then turn to page thirty-seven and read this paragraph. It nearly jumped off the page and grabbed me:

“It is possible for just one or two people to poison an entire workplace.  And managers who have tried moving negative people to other departments to alleviate the problem know that “location, location, location” doesn't apply to these people; they bring their negativity along with them wherever they go. Negative employees can tear through a workplace like a hurricane racing through a coastal town.

I love this book. It fits so comfortably with the “bucket” analogy I use to describe Business Values and Motivators, the drivers of human behavior.

Rath and Clifton say each person carries an invisible bucket. Fill the bucket and an employee is motivated. Empty the bucket and motivation turns into negative behavior. Good managers fill the buckets of people they supervise. Bad managers drain them. It's that simple.

My book, “Understanding Business Values and Motivators” takes the bucket analogy a bit deeper.

When you read my book, you'll learn about the six personal values that drive behavior – either positively or negatively. Each bucket represents a personal value. When the appropriate buckets are full, people are motivated, energized and satisfied.  

These six values, or “buckets”, are based on the work of Dr. Eduard Spranger, an early

20 th -century behaviorist. Spranger's six values are:

Conceptual

Aesthetic

Economic

Power and Authority

Social

Doctrine

Every employee carries two of these six values, or buckets, to work. When these two buckets get filled, an employee responds positively to other people and the job. If others attempt to fill the remaining four buckets first, little motivation or even negative behavior may result.

What fills your employees' buckets? You can learn what your employees value most and which buckets to fill with a 10-question employee evaluation form.  The personalized 9-page Business Values and Motivators report you receive then describes each motivator and value in detail, including which buckets the employee wants to have filled.

Now let's go back to Meg. You have two management choices. First, determine if there is something you can change: an adjustment in working conditions, team assignments, or different benefits that will fill her buckets.

Without an employee evaluation tool like Business Values and Motivators, the solution is hit or miss. With the tool, you can identify potential motivators or irresolvable conflicts.

What if that doesn't work? Can an employee change? Yes, but values tend to be consistent over time and change occurs only after significant emotional triggers. It comes down to this. When the job and a company's culture and benefits don't fill an employee's buckets and motivating this employee requires a change in the employee's values and motivators, the best solution is to part ways.

In the case of Meg and Fred, we learned that each carried different buckets, value systems, to work.  Every time Meg looked down and realized her bucket wasn't full, she dipped into another bucket in a desperate attempt to get what she needed from her job.  When she emptied Fred's bucket, she then went on a hunt-and-search mission looking for the buckets of other co-workers and, eventually, customers.   

Just like Hurricane Charley, the damage caused by Meg is swift and powerful, the pain long-lasting, the recovery expensive. Six rising stars left the company, refusing to put up with Meg's antics and, more important, with management's unwillingness to deal with a diva.  Each former employee earned a near six-figure salary. The cost of recruiting and training replacements is at least two times their annual salaries. Consequently, the cost of keeping Meg on the job has exceeded $1 million dollars this year alone, and that does not include her salary and benefits. 

Despite this enormous cost, managers continue to divert valuable resources and time to retain negative employees like Meg. Why?  I certainly have no good answers.

What I do know is a negative employee's bad attitude tears through an organization disrupting productivity, uprooting employees and destroying morale just like Charley tore up Florida . How vulnerable is your organization to the effects of a negative employee and what are you doing about it?

You can learn more about motivating employees and what fills your employees' buckets by visiting www.understandingbvm.com or by calling Ira S. Wolfe at 717.656.4632.

Ira Wolfe founded Success Performance Solutions to help business owners hire and keep productive employees. His full range of products and services includes Interview Generator, High Motivation Employee Competency Identification and personality testing. Ira is easy to reach at 717.656.4632 or via the website at www.super-solutions.com.