The “toxic employee”, or how not to get caught out

Many of you have probably come across articles describing how important it is - especially in small companies and start-ups - to build a well-functioning team that can face many challenges and has the determination to overcome the obstacles life throws at it in a dynamic work environment. Of course, this is easier said (or written) than done, as you can easily see as soon as you start recruiting in your own company.

When, happy and fully committed, we set about preparing a job offer, describing all the requirements we have for the future employee, working out the benefits a candidate would receive in return and carefully considering the salary we propose, we don’t take into account that our efforts may be heavily underappreciated. We find this out quickly: after posting the offer on job boards or social media, we realise that there are not many people eager to share the challenges of working with us. Sure, CVs start coming in, but after reviewing them it turns out that not every candidate has the skills we need to further develop the company or the product it is working on.

When, after a few weeks, you come across an application from a person who is the ideal candidate to work with you, you begin the interview stage. It gives you the chance not only to verify their knowledge of the areas described in the job offer, but also to get to know the personality of your potential future employee. It may turn out that, although the candidate is very strong in terms of the skills required for the role, their personality traits raise certain doubts. And then the fundamental question comes to mind: “To hire, or not to hire?”

And this is the heart of the matter: I know many employers who assume that what kind of person an employee is doesn’t really matter as long as their work is of the right quality. I would like to warn you against exactly this way of thinking and against bringing a so-called “toxic employee” into your ranks.

What’s wrong with a “toxic employee”?

Of course, the first thing you might think is: “Why should I give up on someone who will do their job well?” So here are a few arguments that, in my opinion, should speak to every employer’s imagination:

• an employee “with a difficult character” will be the first to sow confusion in the team, and this will certainly affect productivity - not only theirs, but above all everyone else’s;
• every conflict in a team needs to be resolved as quickly as possible to avoid paralysing work, delaying tasks or - worst of all - losing valuable team members. Let’s think about who will have to deal with and resolve these disputes. Could it be… you? Is that really why you hired a new person - to waste your own time?
• a “toxic employee” is, in most cases, a person with a strong sense of their own worth and of being right. As a result, tasks are often carried out differently from what you expected, because the employee decided to do it “a bit their own way”, since “it will be better like that”.

These are just some of the issues worth considering when deciding whether we want to work with this kind of person. There are, of course, more of them, and I will try to describe them in the rest of this post.

Types of “toxic employees”

Contrary to appearances, there are several kinds of “toxic employees”, and each of them can do damage in different areas of the business. I will present a few examples based on the classic phrases this group of people use 😉

“You know, but that’s not the point…”

A very common personality type in the IT industry 🙂 This is a person who does have extensive knowledge but is completely closed to other solutions, claiming that their approach is the only right one. Such an attitude stifles the creativity of the whole team and joint problem-solving - and we all know that a team “brainstorm” is much more effective at finding the best solution to the task at hand. In extreme cases, we end up with an absurd situation in which the team works to deliver the vision of the “toxic employee”, forgetting one small detail - you and your vision 🙂

“If you ask me, you’re doing it wrong.”

Similar to the previous type, except that here the person doesn’t need to have extensive knowledge of the subject at all. In fact, they may have none - what matters is that other people’s solutions are wrong. I often hear about this type from friends in the context of people in managerial positions 🙂 So, as it turns out, there are companies that fill strategic positions with “toxic employees”… The behaviour of such a person kills the team’s creativity - nobody wants to share ideas when they are met with rejection or disapproval at every turn. In many cases this leads other team members to leave, because they lose any sense of real influence on the development of the company and the product they are working on.

“I did this, and this, and this too… All BY MYSELF!”

This type of “toxic employee” is the most frustrating for the rest of the team. The main goal of such a person is to prove to management that all the work was done by them alone, while the rest of the team either gets in the way or harms the company. Another variant of this “toxicity” is taking credit for other people’s work: “OK, Tom did the work, but it would never have happened without me. I spent the whole day motivating him by sending him cat pictures on Facebook!” 🙂 Needless to say how this kind of behaviour ends: arguments, falling productivity and people leaving. And restoring a comfortable working atmosphere in the team is no easy task.

“I did it differently, because it’s better that way”

A person who disregards other people’s opinions, even those of their superiors. It doesn’t matter that the task was done contrary to the client’s expectations. What matters is that it was done according to its author’s idea - and now, instead of a big red call-to-action button, we have a beautiful pink-and-green button with a gradient. Here the problem affects not only the team but your whole company, because the employee’s “poisonous” behaviour may well reach your client too. The question is: how will you explain to them that someone used their money to deliver a product that doesn’t meet their expectations at all? :-/

“I won’t do it, because it makes no sense”

This type has a similar “blast radius” to the previous one, but acts in exactly the opposite way. They assume they can only work on tasks that, in their opinion, add value. That approach in itself isn’t bad, because after discussing the matter it may turn out that the employee really does have a very good idea for a more valuable or efficient solution. The key phrase here, however, is “after discussing” 🙂 If the employee simply declares the solution pointless and refuses to do the task, we reach the point where we can assign it to someone else - which, of course, frustrates that other person (“Why do I keep getting more tasks while he doesn’t feel like working?”). In the extreme case, we end up with the client waiting for a feature while we beg the employee to do the task… Is this the kind of terror we expected on the day we hired them, thinking “it’ll be fine somehow”? I don’t think so 🙂

I could go on with examples, but I think this small dose already gives you an idea of how to recognise a “toxic employee” and what problems they can cause you.

Summary

Taking all the above arguments into account, I believe that in a crisis it is much better to hire someone who doesn’t have all the required skills but can work in a team and is determined to learn new things, than to work with someone highly skilled but completely unable to work with others. The best solution, of course, is to wait for the ideal candidate or to invest in a better recruitment process that will help you find them sooner.

Hiring a “toxic employee” can lead to the poison spreading throughout the whole company and causing nothing but devastation. And can you - a business owner with an ambitious vision for your company’s future - afford such a sacrifice? I’ll leave that question open, although I have a feeling I know what the answer will be 🙂

If you are interested in more posts like this, write to me - I’ll be happy to reply 🙂 I also encourage you to share this content on social media - it gives me the motivation to keep writing. Thank you!