Detoxifying Agents - Performance Management

Dealing with toxic managers at work place

Who are toxic managers…

Some people are simply miserable to work for. The reasons could be poor interpersonal skills, unfortunate work practices or just their personalities, which in turn affect the performance of the employees. The work atmosphere is often governed by their mood swings. They are called ‘toxic managers.’

Why do we have toxic managers

“Just because someone is a brilliant engineer doesn’t mean he’ll be a brilliant manager. Yet that’s too often how a company demonstrates status”, says Deb Haggerty, head of Positive Connections, a consulting firm that teaches employees how to deal with personality differences. In other words, management often fails to see good managerial skills and qualifications as two different aspects. Lynn McLure, Arizona-based expert on managing high-risk behaviours and author of Risky Business, a book on workplace-violence prevention, adds, “The biggest single reason is because it is tolerated”. This means that a company has toxic managers simply because the company’s culture allows it – either knowingly or unknowingly. Another reason is the sole emphasis on producing results or meeting targets, thereby ignoring crude management in the process. Toxic managers also thrive in a workplace where the employees are scared to say that they have difficult bosses, for fear of losing their jobs.

Should HR care

Though toxic managers may produce results by meeting their targets, they eventually have a negative impact on the efforts of HR to create a happy, healthy and progressive workplace. Toxic managers create a hostile work environment. They are more often the reason for increased absenteeism, turnover, job-hopping and employees not feeling appreciated. This could drain the financial resources of the company.

How can HR help

Identifying toxic managers is tricky and crucial. This being the situation, HR should take the necessary steps, especially when employees prefer to work for toxic managers rather than risk their jobs. At the slightest increase in turnover or transfers, HR should ask the employees the reasons for the same. Also, if one hears a lot of ‘I’ rather than ‘we’ from a manager, then it suggests an impending problem.

Keeping the lines of communication open

“Being communicative and being observant is vital” says Bay. This is because employees won’t disclose that it is difficult to work for manager ‘X’. In such cases, it is necessary for HR to first identify manager ‘X’ and then communicate to the employees that the problem needs to be discussed. Sometimes group discussions with the employees help in discussing the matter as they convey peer and management support to the employees. However, not everyone is comfortable with voicing his opinions publicly. HR should approach the employees individually and take their consent on the problem.

What more can be done

HR should ensure that its primary focus is on identifying toxic managers and solving problems related to them, rather than counselling issues. Some of the methods for identifying toxic managers are:

• HR should encourage employees to send emails – they can use Internet sites, which offer free email with anonymous user names (example hotmail.com).
• Anonymous hotlines also help enormously in dealing with toxic managers. They can be set up with limited resources by dedicating one phone line with voice mail solely for the purpose. Management can also hire an outside agency that would refer the issues relating to toxic managers to HR.
• A 360-degree performance review can also prove helpful. This review is done to obtain feedback on a particular manager from various sources – thus rating him on various aspects like listening, empathy, awareness, healing, etc.

At Westcast Industries Inc. in Brantford, Ontario, Wayne Phibbs, vice president of HR, uses a monthly ‘report card’ meeting for employees, designed to measure their job satisfaction. He feels that such open discussions and forums every month considerably increase employee satisfaction.

What next

After identifying toxic managers, HR should deal with them in a positive fashion, or else they would end up feeling criticised. Confrontation, intervention, follow-up and/or termination, would be the most logical sequence of handling toxic managers. One should be firm and specific while confronting. The problem must be stopped so that it doesn’t infect the entire department. If the problem is particularly behavioural, enabling the manager to attend some training programs could solve the issue. However, if a manager’s main issues are emotional, alcohol or drug related, then a good therapy or counselling can help.

If after all this, there has been no improvement in the manager’s behaviour, then the matter is of serious concern. There are two things HR can do in such situations. If the manager is highly skilled, then he can be transferred to another managerial position where he is less likely to behave in the same fashion or create fewer problems. However, if that’s not possible, the manager should be asked to leave. This is because his performance related behavioural issues could negatively impact the department’s productivity, and he should be told just that. Keeping a record of all these incidents and documenting them is always advisable.

Prevent future problems

Having dealt with the current toxic managers, HR should ensure that organisation does not have to face more. “Behaviour has to become part of the job,” says McClure. In other words, to begin with, organisation should include behaviours that will and won’t be tolerated, in the job descriptions. It should be mentioned that a dignified treatment towards all the employees is necessary and that they will be evaluated, compensated and possibly disciplined based on their ability to meet HR objectives – relating to employees and managing them positively and productively.

All these efforts taken by HR communicate the importance the company gives to treating employees well. Thus, HR is also empowered to help dealing with toxic managers and in turn positively impact the performance of the employees and that of the company.

Reference:

The Manage Mentor