Women in Business: Dealing with Difficult Employees

Overview:
Employees are one of the most important assets in a business but employees also bring the biggest challenges. Similar to people, the problems come in all shapes and sizes from a trivial irritation to an incident which fundamentally breaches the trust you have in an employee. Most business will at some point have to deal with a difficult employee and when that time comes, managers often feel that facing the difficult employee will be an uphill battle and decide to “see how things go”. More often than not the problem is not resolved for a substantial amount of time, which can create a negative working environment to colleagues and for customers.

 

Benefits from attending:

Getting it right when it comes to handling difficult employees is important, not only to avoid complaints from customers and other employees but most small businesses cannot afford the costs associated with defending a claim at an Employment Tribunal to its purse and reputation. If the employee is successful in their claim, the business may then also have to pay compensation to the employee. This event is designed to help you identify the cause of the problem and to provide practical advice as to how you can tackle difficult employees.
 

I completed my Law Degree at The University of Sheffield between 2014 and 2017 and used my time on the course to specialise in employment law. I then completed the Legal Practice Course on a part time basis between 2017 and 2019 whilst working as a Legal Adviser. In 2019, I jointed Taylor Bracewell to specialise further in the employment field.

I initially wanted to work in the legal industry as I wanted to change the world (a rather big task for one person!). Employment law is similar as an individual’s job / business is often their world so if any problems arise, it can feel as though their world has been turned upside down. 

 

• ‘The Victim’ is the least accountable person in the office who never takes responsibility and always claims that they are the victim. 

This section will focus on clearly defining what each employee is responsible for and will set out how to approach performance management plans. 

 

• ‘The Hisser’ is prone to ranting and raving and can often intimidate other employees. They usually have an opinion about everything and when they are wrong, they become defensive.

Often disciplinary action may be required so I will cover how to approach the disciplinary procedure. With that, such profiles are often unhappy with the decision to consider disciplinary action and may raise grievances. I will also cover what grievances are and how to handle them.

 

• ‘Negative Nellie’ doesn’t like change and will resist any new policies and procedures.  

In this situation, I will review how and if an employee’s contract can be changed without their consent. I will also describe the difference between a handbook and a contract and the importance of such. 

 

• ‘The Ghost’ often disappears when work needs to be done.  This may because they have a lot of time off work or they may always be “nipping for a coffee”. 

Again, this will cover the disciplinary procedure but will also consider sickness absence procedures / capability procedures to help in those situations where a business is concerned by an employee’s sickness record.