The Employee “Attitude” Problem | What’s a Supervisor to Do?

A supervisor’s nightmare—the employee with a “problem” attitude. Makes you feel like you just drew the Old Maid card. 

What to do? You have an employee with a personality, work style, or temperament that is driving you crazy or aggravating others, making it harder to get the work done. And you don’t want to fire. 

Performance appraisal is how supervisors save us from ourselves. 

Good supervisors use appraisal to teach and guide. Most employees with attitude issues aren’t aware of any problem: it’s just their way.   

You know you’ve got an “attitude” problem employee when these things start to happen: 

• Peers would rather do a job alone than work with him/her
• Discussion at a meeting goes dead when he/she speaks
• S/he insists that work be done his/her way or hoards work
• Direction is always questioned
• S/he consistently criticizes, competes with, or dismisses the work of others 

Each of these situations points to an attitude that needs defining. Where to start? 

Connect “attitude” to observable behaviors that impact productivity.  

The first step in dealing with “attitude” issues is to demonstrate how the employee’s behavior is affecting the work. Here’s how you prepare: 

• Observe and take notes of specific instances (about 6) where the attitude was obvious.
• Make a list of the impacts you saw, like defensiveness from others, resistance, stalled decisions, or delay.
• Determine specifically how these impacts will affect the output of your work group.  

Next meet with the employee to talk about their performance to date and your intention to coach them to improve: 

• Raise the attitude issue by sharing your recent observations, naming the dates and situations.
• Explain what you observed and ask them to offer their perspective.
• Be specific about the current and future impacts of their “attitude” on the productivity of the group.
• Ask what they are willing to do to improve and how you can help them.

 Raise the stakes and engage the employee in orchestrating his/her own change. 

Most of us don’t change unless there are negative consequences that we can avoid by doing things differently. The more we want to make a positive change and reap the rewards, the more invested we are in the work we need to do. 

At this point, explain the next steps to the employee: 

• Together agree on a performance goal(s) for the balance of the year focused on the “attitude” change that needs to be made
• Require the employee to write and submit a plan of action to achieve it
• Establish how this change will be evaluated  

Gather direct feedback from peers and internal customers. 

Nothing gets our attention more than knowing what others are saying about us, especially in the workplace. So here’s what you can do: 

• Develop 5-8 questions with the employee to be asked of their internal customers, focused on their approach to getting work done.
• Identify 8-10 peers and internal customers that the employee will ask to answer those questions.
• Develop a process and timing for collecting the feedback and submitting it confidentially to you.
• Explain that, as the supervisor, you will also ask 8-10 people to respond.
• Compile the feedback. Discuss summarized findings with the employee.
• Reset his/her goals and strategies to improve. 

If you are cringing about the effort this takes, I understand. But if you’ve ever fired anyone for poor performance, you know that the documentation, meetings, and general agony of that process make this look like a vacation. 

The first pass at this requires the most work. The next time is much easier. How you handle your first “attitude” problem will gain you enormous credibility with your employees. It’s an approach that demonstrates your commitment to helping employees succeed. Being business fit means taking the lead when the chips are down. This is one of those times. 

What kinds of “bad attitudes” have you witnessed in the workplace? How were they handled? Any ideas to add? Thanks.