7 – Types of Toxic Employees for your Projects

What does it mean by toxic employees and how they are harmful for business? Managing a team where everyone gets along well and works in harmony is the dream of all managers. Unfortunately, the complexity of human relationships makes this dream virtually impossible. Manipulators, liars or lazy, each company has its share of toxic employees who spoil the atmosphere at work, hamper productivity and harm the welfare of other employees. To climb the ladder, some employees are ready for anything: they lie, manipulate and sow trouble in the office. A simple employee or manager, he poisons the lives of those who work alongside him and jeopardizes the projects on which he works.

Such behavior is harmful to the rest of the team and, more generally, to the company: tensions, loss of motivation, resignation … Hence the need to quickly identify and neutralize toxic personalities.

What are Toxic Employees

There are several types of toxic personalities with behaviors and intentions that differ but whose effects are equally detrimental for the company as well as for the team with which they work. Their attitude has implications for productivity because, in their contact, other employees tend to act like them, or to leave the company.

One thing is for sure: They are your worst nightmare. They rot the atmosphere by sowing trouble, doubt and stress. They mingle with everything and hawk rumors. They arrive (too often) late. They are wasting time on the rest of the team, either because they are constantly discussing and distracting their colleagues, or because they are working fast and badly, and they need to be redressed. They never help their colleagues and like to support where it hurts. In short, their behavior and intentions are unhealthy, even nasty.

Not always easy to identify and often unpredictable, toxic employees generally have three points in common. They are:

• Over Confident: that is to say, excessively confident in their professional skills.
• Indifferent to the objectives: they are not motivated by the achievement of the objectives set for the team or the company, but only by the personal glory and profit that they can draw from it.
• Convinced of always doing well: they are convinced that they always do things in the best way possible and in compliance with established rules. If they cross a line or make a mistake, it is never their fault, but that of others or a particular situation.

It is important to note that if all toxic employees share these three characteristics, then it may be more than harmful for you.

7 – Types of Toxic Employees

• The Manipulator

Nice speaker and rider, the manipulator is difficult to detect. He often speaks against his actions. This calculating mind plays skillfully on the emotions of others. Its sole purpose? Work your way up. And to realize his professional ambitions, he is ready for anything and does not hesitate to use others (colleagues, subordinates or managers). The manipulator seeks to attribute to himself the merits of his colleagues and to make the responsibility of his errors on the others.

• The Incompetent

Lack of training or inability to perform his or her job, the incompetent does not master his or her duties and causes his colleagues to lose time by his frequent errors and permanent solicitations. Disorganized and passive, he is unreliable and counts on others to correct his mistakes. It seals productivity and drains the energy of the entire team.

• The Lover

He has no motivation at work, is unable to meet deadlines, is often absent or is wasting his time surfing the Internet. Its mission: to avoid working. He demoted his colleagues by wasting their time, energy and enthusiasm.

• The antidote

Convene him in conversation and put him face to his laziness by presenting him with concrete facts. Then define together a plan of action and set specific objectives. If his attitude improves, do not hesitate to acknowledge his efforts, to encourage and to congratulate him. On the other hand, if nothing changes, crop it in public or create a file and inform your hierarchy that it is time to separate from this toxic employee.

• The martyr

He is the perfect opposite of the slacker. Too much invested in his work, he does not know his limits; he kills himself and wants above all that everyone is aware of his devotion. He often complains about his situation, risks burn-out at every moment and undermines the morale of the rest of the team.

• Too Much Social

Funny and entertaining, he is the best friend of all. Gossip and gossip at the coffee break are his favorite activities. The problem? He finds it difficult to concentrate on his work and prefers to extend his breaks and conversations rather than work. In addition to annoying his colleagues, he is wasting valuable time.

• The Sociopath

Perhaps one of the worst Toxic employees. He does not accept authority and does not respect the rules. He intimidates and manipulates his colleagues as well as his superiors. By itself, it rotates the atmosphere at work, creates a hostile environment and ruins the morale, cohesion and effectiveness of the entire team.

In Conclusion

You’ve probably met other toxic personalities. A person’s toxicity is measured both by the wickedness of his behavior and his intentions. To avoid tensions and conflicts within your team, you must identify and neutralize your toxic personalities before they cause irreversible damage and cause the company to lose money. Do not hesitate to severe, even to go to the dismissal if necessary.