Tips for dealing with dysfunctional behavior

As a manager, part of your job involves solving a variety of problems, either with clients or equipment or, sometimes, other employees. At times, it may seem like you're more a referee than a manager.

Dysfunctional behavior in the office can be a number of things. It can range from interoffice conflicts as the result of personality clashes and misunderstandings, or much more serious offenses, like sexual harassment or unethical or dishonest behavior in the workplace.

Regardless of the nature of the dysfunction, if you are dealing with some level of dysfunction within the office, it is important that you resolve it for a number of reasons. Conflicts or problems that are left unchecked can result in lawsuits for hostile work environments, sexual harassment charges, and other serious concerns for your company.

If you find yourself having to deal with dysfunctional behavior, consider the following tips:

Always have a policy or handbook that details behavior and consequences.
If you don't have an employee handbook of policies and procedures, you could find yourself at a loss for handling dysfunctional behavior in the office. Some behaviors offices commonly have policies on include:

• Harassment. This could be sexual, bullying, favoritism, and any other type of behavior that is illegal or makes another worker uncomfortable.


• Internet and computer usage. In today's technological world, many employees will have computers and internet access to handle their daily tasks. Make sure you have a policy regarding internet usage on the job and distinguish between them; for example, spending time on the clock checking myspace may bring a warning, whereas downloading pornography could be grounds for dismissal.


• Conflict. Interoffice conflicts are inevitable in most office environments. Bringing different personalities, tastes, and opinions together is bound to result in some type of clash sooner or later.


• Illegal activity. Most companies have zero-tolerance policies on stealing from the company or other types of illegal behaviors.

These are just a few. When it comes to dealing with dysfunctional behavior, consider the following tips:



• Approach the individual in person, privately. Don't confront someone where everyone can hear or when there are other people present. In addition, don't take the easy way out and send an email or leave a note. This looks cowardly from a manager. Schedule a meeting with the person to discuss the problem and consequences.


•  State the cause of the problem. This is important to make sure everyone is on the same page because the person may think the behavior is alright. Or, perhaps a false accusation was made.


•  Make sure the person knows why it is a problem. At the same time, make sure the person knows how their behavior is dysfunctional. Point it out in the employee handbook as well, or any type of document they may have signed stating they read and understood it.


•  Follow through with consequences. If you have a zero-tolerance policy on something, be prepared to follow through with termination. Not disciplining employees or ignoring dysfunctional behavior could make you liable as well should another employee choose to sue or go to the police, if the actions were bad enough.

It is important that you develop an atmosphere within the office that is free of conflict. The above tips will help you to deal with dysfunctional behavior in the workplace.

Rating: 0/5 (0 votes cast)

---

Categories: Employee Performance,

Help others find this article:
Socializer, Digg, del.icio.us, reddit, StumbleUpon

Favorites: Add to favorites
Tags: