Toxic Employees

Today’s topic is one that has affected my business recently, toxic employees. In 2018 I hired Linda. I had only been in business for about a year and a half so Linda was one of the first people I hired. I’d had a less than stellar experience with the first person I hired so when I met Linda, who seemed aligned with my vision, I was ecstatic. She started as a pet sitter with my company but it wasn’t long before she progressed to a manager position.  

Things were going along well. I was 3 years into my business and I had completely stepped out of the field to work on the business full time rather than in it. Linda was my manager in every sense of the word including managing people. The sitters were closer to her than they were to me and that was fine. It was the way I had designed the business. I didn’t want to be the person that everyone came to nonstop with questions and needs. This gave Linda a keen insight into employee morale and attitudes to the business policies and decisions. This was invaluable to me because it was my link to employees and allowed me to make policies that worked for my employees.

Things were going so well that in2019 I made plans to make Linda a partner in the business. I drafted a partnership agreement, laid out terms, and investigated profit-sharing options. Around the same time, I chose to transition from independent contractors to employees.

Linda disagreed with this change. I often wonder when things started to go south with the relationship. In retrospect, I believe it was that change that ultimately led to a toxic relationship.

After that point, Linda started pushing back on any policy changes. Pushing back isn’t exactly the right word. It was more subtle than that. Manipulation is a better word. Instead of the helpful feedback on how to better craft an employee-friendly policy, she would come back with a list of reasons why the status quo shouldn’t be changed.

She started to be abrupt in text communications, in some instances refusing to comply with requests. She started pushing the boundaries of our policies, twisting them to suit her needs. When I would call her out, she would deny that she’d done anything wrong. She would accuse me of asking her to be responsible for our policies and systems and then second guess everything she did. I would call her to talk through the latest issue and she would rant for what seemed like hours, calling me names and accusing me of being a terrible person. I would remain calm, and rational and let her vent. I figured it was a stressful job, letting her vent, even if it was abusive to me, was the right thing to do. If you know me, you know I’m all about personal accountability. I took these accusations to heart. I spent countless sleepless nights trying to figure out how to be a better leader, mentor, and manager to Linda. After these phone sessions, we would come to some strained agreement. Time would pass and things would seem to go back to a good relationship.

I was also losing employees because of her although I didn’t know or didn’t want to believe that at the time. When employees questioned her decisions or direction, Linda was curt or downright rude to them. I should have realized this was happening since she was treating me the same way but I was a little blind to it. When employees would bring up issues with Linda I would defend her or I would smooth it over and move on. I can’t directly link this to the reason people would leave but I’m sure it played a part.

All this time I convinced myself that Linda was a great employee with a few issues but that they stemmed from my inability to effectively manage her. There were many things that she excelled at. She was efficient, responsive, and terrific with clients. I convinced myself that these things outweighed the other negative things. And besides, if I improved my managerial skills, I could work on the negative things by being a better manager to her.

Linda finally quit on her own after another policy change in 2021 that she disagreed with. After Linda left it became clear how much damage she’d done to the business. In addition to bad-mouthing any policy she disagreed with to employees, she had consistently refused to let other managers take care of core parts of the business. She believed that others were incapable of learning the more complicated parts of the business and that only she was able to do them effectively. This created a knowledge hole when she left that I had to scramble to fill. It took me a long time to realize it, the signs were there, I just didn’t want to see them.  Linda felt superior to everyone around her (including me).

I think most people have had a Linda in their lives. As business owners, we cross paths with a lot of people. At some point, you will hire a toxic employee. It doesn’t matter how good your screening systems are, these types of people are experts at projecting the image that they want people to see.

What does a toxic employee look like?

• They are unsupportive of company policies to the point where they spread this discontent to other employees.
• They push the policy boundaries. They follow the policies enough to be able to claim they’ve done nothing wrong but in reality, they are bending things in their favor.
• When they do get called out for something, they spin the story to protect themselves.
• They speak negatively behind your back to other employees and even clients.

We hang onto toxic employees even after we start to see them for what they are for a variety of reasons.

• We’re afraid of losing them. This sounds counterintuitive but while they are ultimately harmful to the business, they are still contributing to the business day to day in positive ways.
• We’re afraid of them. An employee working for you is at least under some control. An employee who has been fired and is now disgruntled is a threat to your business in a variety of ways including stealing your clients or other employees or posting untrue information about you on the internet.
• We’re simply too overwhelmed with the other demands of our business to deal with an issue as thorny as confronting a toxic employee.
• We’re afraid of losing the tribal knowledge that they have and we’re unable to or don’t have the time to ensure that knowledge is passed to others.

There are several short and long-term effects having a toxic employee in your organization can have. In the short term, this person is likely spreading the same toxic attitude around to your other employees. There’s nothing an unhappy person likes more than to share their misery with anyone who will listen. And it’s important to keep in mind that your employees are often more visible to your clients than you are. Having employees who are being fed negative information will project a negative attitude to your clients. Looking longer-term, great pet sitting businesses are built on referrals, both employees referred other employees and clients and clients referred other clients. When this pipeline is contaminated by a toxic employee, it’s difficult to build that reputation back up.

Those are the negative effects on your business but let’s not forget the negative effects on you. You’ve worked hard to build your business. It’s your baby and you’re proud of it. Most of the time you look forward to working on the business. When a toxic employee develops though, you start to dread interacting with them and your business. This hurts your health and your attitude about things which you then pass on to other employees and clients.

So how do you defend against toxic employees? The best defense is a good offense. Making sure your sourcing, hiring, and screening processes are tight is the best way to combat bringing this type of person in in the first place. No process is 100% effective but the next best thing to do is recognize toxic employees for what they are quickly and take action quickly. It may sting in the short term to let them go but the damage they will do if left in place will be worse.

You make dozens of decisions about your business every day. The most difficult ones, we tend to put off. Try to keep a long-term perspective when you’re deciding your next moves and recognize that you’re doing the best you can.

Another article you might like;

Non solicit agreements – Are they worth it?

https://www.thepetbusinesscoach.dog/non-solicit-agreement/

About Eliza

Eliza is the owner of two successful pet-related businesses; Preferred Pet Partners, a pet sitting and dog walking company, and The Pet Business Coach, offering coaching and resources to aspiring or current pet-related business entrepreneurs. She maintains two awesome blogs. One for pet parents https://preferredpetpartners.com/blog/ and one for pet business owners https://thepetbusinesscoach.dog/blog-page/.  Eliza also supports various animal rescue and shelter organizations. Eliza and her husband have a growing pet family. Visit her websites: www.preferredpetpartners.com or www.thepetbusinesscoach.dog.