How to Handle Employees with Bad Attitudes
Unfortunately, even when farm managers try to hire the best team, there is still the chance they will have a difficult employee or two.
A difficult employee could do some of the following:
■Does the absolute minimum work expected
■Criticizes the farm employment polices
■Gossiping
■Backstabbing a fellow employee
■Has a bad attitude
No one likes to deal with these types of problem employees, but when you have an employee who is disruptive or has a bad attitude, you need to address the situation as soon as possible.
Here’s why:
■A difficult employee usually has no enthusiasm or drive to do his or her job at an adequate performance level.
■An employee’s bad attitude can affect the morale of co-workers—of those who work hard and follow the rules.
■It can also test the farm manager’s ability as a manager, because your employees will look to the manager to handle the situation.
■If not addressed, other employees will think that bad performance is acceptable.
Use These 5 Steps
Consider using these steps to deal with employees who may have a bad attitude.
1. Make a distinction between bad attitudes and bad behaviors. Attitudes are, after all, subjective; what seems like an attitude problem to one person may not seem all that bad to another. Since it is difficult to document an attitude, documenting instances of employee behaviors is the key to correcting them. Determine how an employee’s bad attitude is contributing to bad behaviors that are easy to describe.
2. Document instances of the employee’s bad behavior. Include dates, times, any other employees who were present or involved, and the details of the incident. For example, if an employee refuses to work on an assigned project, documentation should include the date and time the refusal happened, and a description of what the employee said.
3. Meet with the employee to discuss documented incidences of bad behavior. You may want to include an uninvolved third party in the meeting to help calm a difficult situation, while also protecting the employer from claims of discrimination or harassment by the employee with the attitude problem.
4. Discuss the documented incidents of bad behavior with the employee impartially. Assume that the employee wants to improve and change. Discuss how the behaviors affected the overall dairy’s organization most notably other employees. Ask the employee what they would like to do to remedy the situation.
5. Develop a plan to help the employee to change his behavior. Give the employee a specific amount of time to implement the steps of the plan, and set a time to reassess the situation after the time period is up. Let the employee know what the outcome will be if the steps for the plan are not enacted, and no change is observed.
Just like everything in life, when you ignore a small problem it only gets bigger. The same holds true when managing employees with bad attitudes--things only get worse. Don’t wait until the situation gets out of control. Deal with it now and aggressively.
Editor’s Note: Dr. Gerald Higginbotham is Ruminant Business Manager in California for Micronutrients, a Division of Heritage Technologies, LLC. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah and Ph.D degree from the University of Arizona. Dr. Higginbotham is a member of the American Registry of Professional Animal Scientists and is a diplomat of the American College of Animal Sciences. Contact him at 559-907-8013 orgerald.higginbotham@micro.net.
