Five Ways to Spot a Toxic Employee

Recently in episode 713 with Dr. Dave Weiman, we talked about handling toxic employees. The episode was a refreshing kick in the backside for how we tolerate certain team members who don’t lend a lot of value to the culture of your business.

Toxic employees are a drain on the company’s morale and productivity. How long have we noticed their behavior and never addressed it? They may not be maliciously trying to sabotage the company, but they still do it.

Here are five ways to spot a toxic employee:

1. Toxic employees know others will pick up their slack and don’t care. It is almost impossible to change toxic behavior, but you can almost always change the production level of a positive team player employee. Toxic people have excuses for their behavior and don’t work well with others.
2. You risk other employees leaving because you, as an owner, are tolerating toxic behavior.
3. 20% of top business employees follow all the rules and are self-motivated. 20% at the bottom- unhappy wherever they are, complain, and are “problem children.” 60% in the middle that can be drawn up or down. Therefore you need to pay attention to the bottom group.
4. Toxic employees do not think they’re the problem. They don’t like new ideas, challenges or change and don’t care about improving the company.
5. You don’t realize they are a problem because you picked or hired them. Listen to your gut, to your people, and to your customers.

Toxic employees are a drain on the company’s morale and productivity. Don’t head any further into 2023 without thoroughly reviewing your team.