Comments on: Be a Toxic Employee

By: Margherite

Margherite — Mon, 22 May 2006 15:15:05 +0000

What Javitch has done is list the effects of bullying in the workplace (a.k.a. “mobbing”), well-documented to be the cause of all sorts of social and physical illnesses. It generally occurs when top management is either very weak or distant from the rest of the organization.

By: J. Timothy King’s Blog » Blog Archive » My Performance Sucks, and I’m Proud of It!

Sat, 20 May 2006 03:29:56 +0000

[...] Be a Toxic Employee [...]

By: JAFB » Be a Toxic Employee

JAFB » Be a Toxic Employee — Thu, 11 May 2006 18:12:48 +0000

[...] Although I think it overlooks the realities of poison employees, Be a Toxic Employee has good points about creativity and comfort levels in the workplace. [...]

By: mt

mt — Wed, 03 May 2006 16:47:20 +0000

Mr. Javitch has actually identified a common problem in organizations, but unfortunately, he’s confused the cause and effect. He lists a bunch of “symptoms” that, ostensibly, can be used to identify problem employees. In fact, as Mr. King notes, these are indeed often symptoms of problems in the workplace, but the symptoms only confirm the existence of the problem, not the cause. Often toxic employees do exist, and if they are not dealt with appropriately by management, they may result in “non-toxic” employees acting out.

The real indicators of a “toxic employee” as a root cause are:

Employees whose judgements are routinely questioned.
Employees whose decisions are routinely dismissed, and rarely carried out with enthusiasm.
Employees that few collaborate with willingly.

Unfortunately, managers are often reluctant to address the root cause, even when identified. They may have been involved in the hiring decision, and feel the need to justify their hire. Or they may themselves not be in position to effectively deal with the problem employee. To those employees who find themselves in the midst of such a situation, I think the only practical course of action consists of: a) always acting professionally and, b) build a paper trail.

By: J. Timothy King

J. Timothy King — Mon, 01 May 2006 19:58:23 +0000

I agree, Basil. Overtime is harmful. It’s another of those software process addictions we have.

-TimK

By: Basil Vandegriend

Basil Vandegriend — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 17:07:16 +0000

I agree that Javitch is missing the mark on at least some of his criteria – particular working overtime. Even ignoring the ‘for no reason’ part, working overtime seldom improves productivity over the long term, and frequently hurts the company more than it helps. In business-speak, working overtime has negative ROI in the long term. See my article Overtime Considered Harmful for further discussion on this point.

By: J. Timothy King

J. Timothy King — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 14:02:57 +0000

Hi, lazyethel. Thanks for the kind words. Yours was my initial reaction when I read his piece. I was angry. And I do agree that following his advice would ignore and beat down the most valuable employees. Now, there are problem employees in the world, and some of them do crazy things you and I would never dream of. But managing conflict is a two-sided problem. And it’s dangerous to look down a list of symptoms and thereby label someone “problem employee.” We need to look at the whole relationship, not just at the other person. And we each need to ask ourselves, “How am I contributing to this problem? What can I do to alleviate it?”

-TimK

By: lazyethel

lazyethel — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 09:02:57 +0000

Mr King is absolutely correct and Mr Javitch is clearly living in a sadly unenlightened state. I would never, ever hire someone with Mr Javitch’s attitudes.

It has been recognised for some time that employee attitudes are key indicators of management failure. This was, after all, the point missed in the US after WWII in relation to Deming, Juran and others.

Moreover, it has also been recognised that “difficult” employees can also be the most valuable. They may be the ones asking the challenging questions that no-one else can face up to, and we are all familiar with the programmer who is difficult to manage but is the only one who can produce the really shiny code out of a hat.

I really wish people like Javitch would just go away. Like, back to Mars. Leaving the rest of us to deal with real, oxygen breathing people.