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Fear your manager won't consider
it significant
– Some employees feel there's no option left
but to go their manager with an interpersonal problem. They may be
right. But, the employee fears the manager will think they're making
a big deal about nothing or worse think they're just stirring up
trouble. This is one of the most common reasons participants in our
workshop on dealing with difficult employees stated they avoid
escalating problems. One participant, Ken shared this story. He
worked for a silicone manufacturer on a production line:
"Our manager pretty much leaves us to do our
jobs. It's a very high paced job. We have responsibility for the
main production line in our plant. My team was responsible for
running the second shift. My other team members, and I, had had
enough. Brian had been an obstacle to the team for too long. Any
time a problem came up or a decision was made he'd spend more time
trying to prove his opinion correct than support the team. He was
constantly challenging everything we did. It's okay for someone to
disagree but it wasn't even constructive. If we didn't follow his
suggestion he'd spend the rest of the shift pointing out every
little problem and blaming the rest of the team. I think he wanted
us to fail. Anyway, we'd had enough. I told him the team was tired
of his negativity and that it was unproductive but that just drove a
wedge between him and me.
Finally, I went to my manager and told him what
was going on. About mid-way through the conversation I could tell
I'd made a mistake. He just couldn't appreciate the impact it was
having. I couldn't convey months of aggravation effectively. As I
left his office he said okay I'll talk to him - but nothing ever
came of it."
This is a great example because it's typical.
When you face a difficult situation you have three choices: take no
action (which rarely rectifies the situation), confront the
employee(s) and try to work it out, or escalate the issue to your
manager. |
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