Uploaded March 2017 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
This is what to do when an employee is working against the best interests of the team.
Transcript:
Hi there, everybody. Cameron Morrissey here. Today I wanted to talk about the remedy for employees who poison morale. Not every employee that you have is going to be onboard, to say the least. How do you handle those employees that are always negative? I actually had an employer whose HR department called them vampires. How do you handle those particular employees? The first thing to do is actually counter-intuitive. You don't handle the employee; you handle the people that are surrounding the employee. The issue is the effect that the employee has on others, so you want to inoculate those that are around this employee from the poison that this employee is spreading. You want to make it so that when they say something negative, the team around them is kind of saying, "Huh? That doesn't make any sense." The way you do this is you make sure that you're communicating with that staff more, that you're asking for their opinions on decisions and how things are going, that you're explaining the why. Now this is all basics. This is what you should be doing as a leader, but it's important to pay extra attention to those people that are going to be having to deal with somebody who has a whole lot of negativity and is trying to poison the team against you really. You want to just be available. Make yourself available to them. Walk around. Say hi to them in the morning, in the evening, in the afternoon. Just try to communicate more with them, and that will inoculate them against that poison that this employee is spreading. The second thing that you want to do is you want to address the employee specifically. Tell this employee that when they have concerns, when they have negativity, to bring that question to you. Oftentimes, and you can explain it to them this way, oftentimes it's simply a misunderstanding. "I would rather that you brought it to me as opposed to just talking about it amongst yourselves. Get clarity from me. I'm always available." Mention the effects that it has on the others around them. "Hey, when you're spreading this around and this negativity, it brings everybody else down." They may or may not be aware or consciously aware of how their actions are affecting other individuals on the team. Call out those inconsistencies where you have examples where you can bring up where took the negative track on things instead of getting the clarity and showing that it was actually a positive. Let them know that you are sincerely there for them. This is that communication and availability part for the individual. Make sure that you call it out and put them on point for those things. Those are really the two things when you talk about remedying an employee that poisons morale. You want to inoculate those that are around them from that poison and then you want to try to address that poison directly with the employee themselves. Thanks so much, everybody. Have a good one.
This is what to do when an employee is working against the best interests of the team.
Transcript:
Hi there, everybody. Cameron Morrissey here. Today I wanted to talk about the remedy for employees who poison morale. Not every employee that you have is going to be onboard, to say the least. How do you handle those employees that are always negative? I actually had an employer whose HR department called them vampires. How do you handle those particular employees? The first thing to do is actually counter-intuitive. You don't handle the employee; you handle the people that are surrounding the employee. The issue is the effect that the employee has on others, so you want to inoculate those that are around this employee from the poison that this employee is spreading. You want to make it so that when they say something negative, the team around them is kind of saying, "Huh? That doesn't make any sense." The way you do this is you make sure that you're communicating with that staff more, that you're asking for their opinions on decisions and how things are going, that you're explaining the why. Now this is all basics. This is what you should be doing as a leader, but it's important to pay extra attention to those people that are going to be having to deal with somebody who has a whole lot of negativity and is trying to poison the team against you really. You want to just be available. Make yourself available to them. Walk around. Say hi to them in the morning, in the evening, in the afternoon. Just try to communicate more with them, and that will inoculate them against that poison that this employee is spreading. The second thing that you want to do is you want to address the employee specifically. Tell this employee that when they have concerns, when they have negativity, to bring that question to you. Oftentimes, and you can explain it to them this way, oftentimes it's simply a misunderstanding. "I would rather that you brought it to me as opposed to just talking about it amongst yourselves. Get clarity from me. I'm always available." Mention the effects that it has on the others around them. "Hey, when you're spreading this around and this negativity, it brings everybody else down." They may or may not be aware or consciously aware of how their actions are affecting other individuals on the team. Call out those inconsistencies where you have examples where you can bring up where took the negative track on things instead of getting the clarity and showing that it was actually a positive. Let them know that you are sincerely there for them. This is that communication and availability part for the individual. Make sure that you call it out and put them on point for those things. Those are really the two things when you talk about remedying an employee that poisons morale. You want to inoculate those that are around them from that poison and then you want to try to address that poison directly with the employee themselves. Thanks so much, everybody. Have a good one.
