Michigan State University Extension
Tourism Educational Materials - 33129602
06/06/02
Problem Employees Personnel Management
R. W. Schermerhorn, Extension Professor and Head
Department of Agricultural Economics and Applied
Statistics
University of Idaho
Cooperative Extension Service
Agricultural Experiment Station
1981
Current Information Series No. 613
The problem employee is one who, for some reason, doesn't
contribute to your organization as you intended. You
expect him to do one thing, but he does another. Faulty
communications may be part of the problem, but a firm may
have excellent communications and still have several
employees who do not perform as expected.
To deal effectively with a problem employee, you have to
know why he's a problem. Possible reasons are:
1. Lack of skill in the job.
2. Misplacement.
3. Lack of job structure.
4. Incompatibility between employee and employer.
5. Inadequate supervision.
6. Emotional immaturity.
7. Physiological deterioration or poor health.
Still other reasons why an employee is a problem are poor
personal adjustment, feelings of insecurity about the job
or off-the-job difficulties. Let's examine some of these
in more detail.
Lack of Skill
Sometimes a person is a problem employee because he lacks
skill or competence in the job. His skill may have been
sufficient when you hired him, but it didn't increase as
the job grew.
Not being able to perform the job as well as he'd like---
or as well as he thinks you expect him to---can do
several things to an employee. It might, for example,
make him indifferent to customers.
Misplacement
Often an employee becomes a problem because he's in the
wrong job. Perhaps he's selling and failing miserably
because he lacks self-reliance (the capacity to accept
rejection without anxiety).
This person may begin to feel that customers don't like
him. And, in some cases, this feeling causes him to act
in a hostile way toward them.
Lack of Job Structure
Without job structure (detailed and clear instructions
about what they are to do), most employees become
confused. When an employee wonders in his own mind why he
doesn't know his job, he might decide that, "It's my
fault. I didn't pay enough attention when he was
explaining it." More likely, a confused employee will
blame his employer---"That so-and-so never says what he
wants, and then jumps on me when I do it wrong." Either
conclusion damages personal morale and tends to lower
morale throughout the firm.
Incompatibility
Some people are problems because of incompatibility with
their employers. "I just can't get along with him," a
salesman says about the store manager. And the manager
says, "No matter how hard I try to understand him, he
rubs me the wrong way."
What causes such friction between two persons---both of
whom are conscientiously trying to cooperate? Some people
call it "personality clash." Actually the situation is
more complex than this label implies. As a manager,
though, you need to be aware of such incompatibility and
realize that there isn't much you can do to change it.
Inadequate Supervision
Many employees become problems because of inadequate
supervision. In some cases, they don't know what to do,
and the boss doesn't seem to care when or how they do it.
People begin to deteriorate when they aren't kept busy at
constructive tasks. They lose interest, become
indifferent or sometimes resentful.
Closely related to this situation is inconsistent or
capricious supervision. One day the boss is strict. The
next day he's lax. Employees don't know what to expect.
"Some days he treats me awful," one employee says, "but
on other days he lets us get by with murder."
Emotional Immaturity
Other employees are problems because they are not
emotionally mature. They never completely grew up, and
sometimes they think and act like children.
To a certain extent, everyone suffers with this
condition. The difference between an emotionally immature
person and one who is called normal is that the normal
person has fewer emotional disturbances, and he is often
able to control them.
Physiological Deterioration Or Poor Health
The human body changes constantly. Deterioration sets in
early with some persons, later with others, but
eventually with everyone. Sometimes it's sudden as when
an apparently healthy person suffers a heart attack. Or
it may be gradual as when an employee loses his hearing
over several years.
Often, the most difficult problem created by such poor
health conditions are the anxiety and psychological
damages that often go with changing physical conditions.
For example, nature may repair an employee's damaged
heart so that he's almost as good as new, but he may
never overcome his anxiety. His constant fear of another
attack may turn him into a problem employee.
Summary
Most firms have some problem employees. To deal
effectively with these employees, you have to know why
they are problems. Some of the reasons behind problem
employees have solutions. For example, we can help
employees develop adequate skills, or we can shift the
employee to another job, or we can provide detailed and
clear instructions or we can provide adequate
supervision.
Other reasons behind problem employees may not have
solutions. However, if we know the reasons, we can take
them into consideration when dealing with the employee.
If we deal with our employees effectively, we will have
carried out the most important function of good
management. Remember, management is "getting things done
through people."
This College of Agriculture publication is one in a
series on personnel management. Other titles in the
series that may be helpful to agribusiness managers are:
CIS 610 Effective Personnel Leadership...........10 cents
CIS 611 Recruiting and Retaining Good Personnel..10 cents
CIS 612 Management Succession....................10 cents
You may secure copies of these publications from your
University of Idaho Cooperative Extension county office
or, you may order directly from:
Agricultural Information
College of Agriculture
University of Idaho
Moscow, Idaho 83843
Please list publications by the title and number on your
order. Make your check payable to University of Idaho,
Agricultural Information.
Issued in furtherance of cooperative extension work in
agriculture and home economics, Acts of May 8 and June
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Agriculture, H. R. Guenther, Director of Cooperative
Extension Service, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho
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