Funding Focus

How to Fire for Attitude

• By Kelly Riley
• Sep 01, 2007

Coaches, medical professionals, teachers and parents have all been reminded that attitude can lead to success or failure. The workplace is no exception.

In the last issue, we focused on the high cost of turnover and why continual monitoring of employee turnover rate should be a standard metric toward gaining financial success. In an effort to reduce turnover, you could actually increase your company’s costs by not terminating mediocre employees in a timely fashion.

One of the most damaging employee behaviors for a company is a bad attitude. The behavior can spread throughout an organization as quickly as the news that a surveyor has arrived. Counseling an employee for attitude, however, can put a supervisor on shaky ground.

Attitude involves the way we communicate our mood to others, as well as how we look at things mentally. Attitude is never static; it can change quickly or slowly over time. Factors that can affect an employee’s attitude include financial problems, family stressors, health concerns and/or personal disappointment. Another significant factor that affects attitude is self-image. If you fail to see yourself in a positive light, rarely will you see others favorably.

Sometimes a negative attitude is simply the result of what has been termed “negative drift.” It usually occurs slowly, and can be brought on by the continuous bombardment of negative stimuli from multiple sources.

A poor attitude in the workplace can be seen in many ways. The employee may demonstrate low productivity, stifled creativity and increased absenteeism. Staffers with poor attitudes may promote the development of cliques within the organization, and have increased complaints from customers and coworkers. Often, they are at the center of conflicts.

To address issues succinctly and without bias in the workplace, we must relate the person’s behavior (poor attitude) to workplace processes. In counseling sessions, never use the word “attitude.” All counseling sessions need to be documented, including the verbal ones.

To tie poor attitude work behaviors to how it affects the workflow process, consider the following examples:
•    Jane’s communication with fellow employees lacks professionalism. She often sighs, scowls and/or rolls her eyes. This behavior has resulted in others being hesitant to come to her and decreased department productivity.
•    On three occasions this week, it was noted that Jane was not at her desk. Investigation revealed that she was talking to co-workers about issues not related to work. This behavior took her and others away from their work.

In the first example, instead of focusing on the behavior, we focused on how it affected the job and the overall performance of the company or department. The second example is a classic case of what I call the “Monday morning ballgame syndrome.” These employees spend Monday morning going from desk to desk, department to department, telling others all of the details of the weekend’s events (often a ballgame). While we want to support employee interaction, there is a time and place — the break room during lunch.

When conducting a counseling session, be sure to follow standard HR practices.
•    Clearly communicate what remedial action is expected from the employee. For example, the employee could be expect to treat all customers and co-workers in a respectful, pleasant and welcoming manner, and department productivity should return to expected levels.
•    Reiterate any policies that are being violated.
•    Address the process, not the person. Doing so ensures the motive is not interpreted as a personal assault.
•    Document the employee’s response, which could range from accepting full responsibility and pledging to improve, to demonstrated agitation and denial (not a good sign).
•    Above all else, always apply company policy and penalty even-handedly and without discrimination to all employees in comparable situations.

There is a saying: “hire slow; fire fast” — good advice as long as all the I’s are dotted and T’s are crossed.

This article originally appeared in the Respiratory Management Sept/Oct 2007 issue of HME Business.