Managing Negative Employees

What is a negative employee? They are people with poisonous attitudes and behavior patterns who negatively influence the people around them. Negative workers come is various shapes and sizes. Sometimes they spread rumors, gossip about coworkers or bad mouth their superiors to their faces and behind their backs. Basically they are unhappy people who resist the positive efforts of others.

Managers often hesitate to terminate them if they are productive or have special skills/experience. Sometimes managers do not understand the amount of stress a negative employee creates. It may be hard to accept that a negative employee who did a good job did so at the expense of the productivity of others. Yet ignoring or tolerating the problems and atmosphere they create can easily and quickly result in dissatisfaction among other employees.