There are productive employees, star performers and then there are those who are always dragging down others. It is not essential that these disruptors are non-productive in the work environment, but they do play their fair share in affecting others and their works.
As a manager or business owner it can be difficult to detect these troublemakers. But chances are your other workers are dealing with these “headaches” on a daily basis and can’t do anything about them.
The Unprepared Lot
This is the kind of employee who is always unprepared (even for the most important review meetings). He or she not only forgets to read the memo, he/she forgets to create the presentation and collect all the information.
It’s normal for most employees to have the occasional slip, but the unprepared lot is always forgetting the crucial meetings.
The Victim
Victims exist not only in the office but in every sphere of life. They are always blaming others for their circumstances.
If they miss a deadline, it’s the finance department to blame because they didn’t deliver the report on time. If they lost a client account it’s because another team member jumped on them.
Most importantly, these workers don’t have any control over their situation. Everything is being done to them in a planned conspiracy. They are always busy complaining about this conspiracy being run against them. They are the ones who fail to take ownership of their responsibilities.
The Constant Chatterer
He has a natural tendency to keep chattering without any specific topic. What makes this employee so annoying is that he has the power to get others involved in his unproductive chatter. He gets everyone involved and thus disrupts work big time.
What is more painful for the manager is that there’s no rule that prevents people from talking in the workplace. Is there any?
Gossip Monger
A similar type of work disruptor is the one who plays the pivotal role in your organization’s grapevine. What is more disturbing is that there could be an army of such workers in your company. They know that the company is going to fire most of the employees, that there will be no raise this year, and that a new manager is in the pipeline.
They are always busy spreading the word about the approaching employee ‘apocalypse.’
The Thief
These workers are not particularly unproductive because they don’t work. They are a liability for you because they like to steal away all office stationery or anything else they come across. They have an endless pit in their home that is constantly being dumped with all the pens, pencils, notepads, staplers and other stuff from the office.
Even if everyone else in the office knows who the culprit is, they can’t do anything about it. You don’t know where all the stuff went away.
Every workplace has these workers. Dealing with them is difficult and they could become big liabilities. Make sure to detect them early on and put them in their right place before they become a menace.
