About the Course:

Toxic Employees have interpersonal styles that demonstrate a pattern of counter-productive work behaviors. While Emotionally Intelligent employees, being aware of their feelings & those of others, exhibit a pattern of appropriate self-management.

Most organizations have employees who, on occasion:

• Complain & gossip excessively
• Use inappropriate language
• Are mildly insubordinate

The toxic employee problem is surprisingly prevalent with research showing:

• 95% of employees have & 64% are currently working with a toxic employee
• 50% of employees have thought of quitting & 12% did because of a toxic employee
• 25% of employees have reduced their work effort due to a toxic employee
• 20% of employees feel they are a target weekly & 10% of employees see toxic behavior daily

Toxic employees cause significant overt, covert, people-related & financial damage, with their visible behavior just being the tip of the iceberg. For example, in one organization, the day a former employee left the organization is considered one of their annual holidays.

Course Objective:

Clever toxic employees:

• Utilize their technical expertise to intimidate & manipulate
• Know who to flatter & who they can abuse
• Turn their toxicity on & off depending on the impression they want to make

Unfortunately, organizations can work against themselves & even promote toxicity by:

• Restructuring his/her job to accommodate a toxic employee
• Tolerating toxic employees who have valued expertise
• Not assertively seeking employee feedback as to whether there is toxic behavior in the workplace
• Not communicating to all employees, the specific interpersonal behaviors that will not be tolerated - with the associated consequences
• Managers sometimes attempt to fix this type of problem by addressing a toxic employee's attitude.
• And while a toxic employee's attitude certainly affects his/her behavior, managers usually find that controlling an employee's attitude is next to impossible.

Managers can be much more effective by:

• Discussing the specific behaviors that are negatively impacting other employees and/or the organization
• Using positive & negative consequences to influence that behavior

Who is the Target Audience?

• Anyone with managerial or leadership responsibility

Basic Knowledge:

• No Prior knowledge is required