Toxic employees can be hard to spot, which means that most businesses will encounter them sooner or later. Someone who excelled during the interview stage may display toxic behaviour weeks or months later. It's up to managers to know what to do next.

You can identify whether you have a toxic employee by looking at how they act over a period of time. It isn’t just a bad day or a bad week – these employees exhibit an ongoing pattern of behaviour.

Toxic attitudes in employees include:

• Negativity: Your employee has a negative reaction to everything at work and often takes their irritation out on their co-workers
• Gossiping: Employees might purposefully divide up teams by gossiping, causing conflict and division
• Tendency to shirk responsibility: Your employee continually blames others for mistakes and criticism
• Laziness: Your employee lacks motivation, misses deadlines and doesn’t mind wasting company time
• Bullying: Employees might harass or demean co-workers, regularly holding up examples of their work as “what not to do”.

These toxic employee attitudes can ultimately affect everyone in your team, sapping morale and productivity.

Of course, Plan A would be to get rid of your toxic employee. But that’s easier said than done. This person might be frustrating to work with, but usually their behaviour won’t have crossed a line. As a result, it can be hard to dismiss them.

This means that you’re probably faced with Plan B – learn how to manage your toxic employee.

The first step is to try to find out what’s causing your employee’s behaviour.

• Is your employee unhappy with their job?
• Is there a problem they are struggling with in their personal life?
• Could they be frustrated with another team member?

Meet with your employee in private and ask how they’re doing. It can sometimes help to find neutral ground for the conversation, like a nearby coffee shop.

Encourage your employee to be open about any problems they’re experiencing with their career or home life. If you can get to the root of what’s causing their behaviour, you can use this information to address the problem.

For example, they might be going through a difficult divorce, which has led them to temporarily relocate to the other side of town. It’s already a tough experience, but the lengthy commute could have exacerbated their feelings of negativity.

Once you know this, you might be able to offer company-sponsored counselling or some time off.

Toxic behaviour can sometimes be tied to an employee’s low self-esteem or doubt about their performance at work. Here are two common situations to avoid.

Situation one: Your employee’s out of their depth

Employees who don’t feel capable of doing their job can exhibit toxic behaviour. They might feel embarrassed to admit they’re out of their depth, so it’s easier to pretend they don’t care about it.

The solution: As a manager, look for ways to upskill your employees. If there’s a training budget, encourage them to take advantage of it. Alternatively, set aside a day every three months where employees can work with a colleague to learn a new skill. Making an effort to boost skills across your team will stop your employee feeling singled out.

Situation two: Your employee doesn’t feel valued

It’s hard to emphasise how crucial it is to celebrate good work. Hardworking employees can develop toxic attitudes over time if their efforts are ignored. This can lead to frustration, a disconnect from work and irritation with colleagues.

The solution: Make positive reinforcement part of your performance management strategy. In one-to-one meetings, take time to celebrate the positives and remind your employee how important their contribution is. When a big project’s been successfully completed, treat staff by taking them out to lunch.

Sometimes your employee won’t realise that their behaviour is toxic. This tends to be the case if they’ve exhibited the same traits over a long period of time and it’s become normal to them.

In these cases, a direct conversation is the best way forward. Have a meeting about their behaviour and explain how it’s affecting other people.

While toxic employees can easily get under your skin, it’s important to avoid an emotional response here. Keep everything closely tied to work, whether it’s their own output or their impact on your team’s productivity.

Do:

• Use concrete examples to explain their behaviour and its effects
• Discuss the behaviour you’d like to see in future
• Work with your employee to create clear, measurable goals for the following months

Don't:

• Go into the meeting unprepared
• Use vague terms like “annoying” or “frustrating”
• Expect everything to be resolved after one meeting

Toxic employees rarely take negative feedback well. If they try to debate or argue with you, avoid joining in. It creates an “us versus them” mentality, which can ultimately lead to divisions in your team. Make it clear that the meeting is specifically about them and their behaviour.

If they aren’t willing to work with you to move forward, have consequences in place. For example, if they’re up for a bonus, make it dependent on improved behaviour. Most people will try to change their behaviour if they realise that something they care about is at stake.

Toxic behaviour will rarely disappear overnight. It might be weeks or months before you see any improvement.

Have regular meetings with your employee to check in on their progress. Recognise and reward improvements. It’s a good idea to involve HR in these meetings too, since they’ll be able to provide advice and recommendations on how you can move forward.

If your toxic employee is still having a negative effect on others during this period, try to discreetly separate them from the rest of the team. You could rearrange desks, assign your employee to a different project or encourage them to work from home more.

While this won’t improve the toxic behaviour, it will at least allow your team to be productive and focus.

Unfortunately, some toxic employees won’t improve. If you need to dismiss your employee, it’s essential that you’ve documented your management process so far.

Keep a record of the employee’s toxic behaviour and any steps you’ve taken to try and resolve the issue. This will demonstrate that the behaviour isn’t a one-off and that there have been opportunities for your employee to change.

This documentation could include:

• Notes from your meetings
• Warnings
• Relevant feedback from peers
• Performance evaluations
• Formal complaints

Toxicity can come in a number of different forms. It can delay projects, drain resources and sap momentum. Above all, it has a tendency to take over your time as a manager.

You can easily spend half your week trying to appease or motivate the employee, and the other half unpicking the problems they’ve caused in the team.

Make sure you still have enough time to spend on other employees and the work you’re supposed to do. Many toxic employees will see time-wasting as a game, so recognise when you’re being pulled into debates or arguments that aren’t productive.

Finally, regularly remind yourself about the positives of your job. If things start to feel overwhelming, consult your HR department about how to move forward or talk to a peer who has gone through a similar experience. Having a support system in place can make all the difference.