COURSE: PUBLIC SAFETY SENIOR LEADERSHIP COURSE

MODULE III

Lesson Plan
Topic: Managing Problem Employees
Lesson Plan Number: 1
Target Audience: Public Safety Senior Leadership Course
Venue: PPSC RTC8
Time Allotted: 1 hour
Instructional Method: Lecture/Discussion
Training Aids: Laptop, Multi-media projector,
Trainee Requirements: Notebook and Ballpen
Issue Items: Handouts
Coordination:
Training Reference Used: https://www.firstpracticemanagement.co.uk
https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikaandersen/

https://www.thebalancecareers.com

Lesson Goal: The purpose of this lesson is to provide the participants

thorough understanding of who are considered problem
employees of the organization, the types of problem employees
and how to manage problem employees issue.

Lesson Objectives: After this lesson, the participants will be able to:
1. Describe a problem employee.

2. Identify the types of problem employees.

3. State the common causes of problem employee issues.

4. Enumerate all the remedies to solve problem employee

issues.
 Lesson Plan
Lesson Topic: Managing Problem Employees

I. Introduction
1. Introduce the Instructor to the students.
a. Name
b. Designation/work assignment/work experience
c. Educational background
2. The purpose of this lesson is to provide the participants thorough
understanding of the types of problem employees and the remedies to solve
problem employees issues.

II. Motivation
What do you do when you have hired someone and they begin to manifest
problems? How do you deal with these workers when you don’t want to go through
the pain and expenses of firing them and hiring someone else? Sometimes they
are quite good at their jobs, but they have personality issues that clash with the
rest of the employees and even you as the manager of the organization. What do
you think are the solutions for dealing with them?
In this lesson, we will learn the types of problem employees, the causes of their
behavior and the remedies to solve the problem employee issues.

III. Lesson
Problem employee is someone who consistently acts in a way that is not
beneficial to the organization. It is someone who fails on a daily basis to look for
ways to maximize their performance to help the organization. They’re basically
pushing paper around and doing as little as possible to get a paycheck.
Types of Problem Employees
1. The Undecider
 Take too long to make decisions
 Thorough and extra careful even on smallest details
 They do not like to be held responsible for failures or not meeting
the deadlines
2. The Ultra-Competitor
 Likes to compete headstrong with anyone, for any reason
3. The Drama Queen
 Overly dramatic and overacting
 Use emotions as their weapon
4. The Know-it-All
 Overly eager to work
 Degrade others, making them feel she knows more than they do
 5. The Insubordinate
 Often passive aggressive
 Grumble about his work but to your face he is friendly and happy to
comply.
 Always find ways to get out of working
 Undermines your authority by his refusal to complete tasks you
assign as part of his job
6. The Overconfident
 A trendsetter, visionary and overly confident
 Disregard the organization’s well-established policies and protocols
 Play by their own rules
7. The Volcano
 Likes to explode and bombard anyone with anger and screams
 Short-tempered but would immediately apologize when they lose
control
8. The Procrastinator
 Takes on the job but always fail to keep up with the deadlines
 Thinks that he is a genius
 Hardly put the talks into action
9. The Social Media Addict
 Stays connected majority of the time
10. The Malcontent/Complainer
 Always complaining and whinning
 Nothing makes this person happy
11. The Perfectionist
 Extremely detail-oriented, stickers for the rules and negative
towards people
 Strong drive to please others
 Never satisfied with the contribution of others
12. The Bully
 Labelling you in front of others
 Calling you names
 Hauling abuse at you or ridiculing you directly and openly
 Being sarcastic towards you or your ideas
 Using physical or verbal violence towards you
 Humiliating you in front of your colleagues
 Constantly undervaluing your efforts
 Blaming you whenever things go wrong

Common Causes of Problem Employee Issue

1. Lack of flexibility
Generation F1-x study revealed that members of the workforce,
particularly the millennial generation, do not feel they are being given fair
access to flexible working conditions.
 2. Short-term objectives with no career vision
In majority of cases, money is merely one part of an employee’s
motivation. Most people want to have clear career objectives in place to
feel that there is progression for them within the organization.
3. Feeling under-valued
If an employee feels that his efforts are not being recognized or
appreciated, they’ll soon begin to lack energy and commitment in his
role. It’s important to celebrate successes and give credit where credit
is due. Try to make sure that achievements are rewarded – even if it’s
just a pat on the back.
4. No development opportunities
Regular training and development opportunities can help boost
employee motivation and engagement. Most employees will value
ongoing learning potential and the sense that they’re expanding and
improving their skills and knowledge. If a workplace feels stagnant, non-
progressive and uninspired the employee’s motivation levels will also
dwindle.
5. Poor leadership
Effective leadership is an essential factor in the motivation of your staff.
If strong leadership is lacking or is negatively affecting the outlook of the
team- employees may start to feel demoralized. Leaders must have a
flexible, inclusive approach to managing a team and be able to
communicate clearly to instill confidence and focus.
6. Conflict
Conflict in the workplace is hugely detrimental. Healthy debate is
productive but it’s important to keep an eye out for any workplace
intimidation and bullying.
7. Unrealistic Workload

It’s important to keep a check on the expectations and demands that are
being placed upon your employees. If someone feels overburdened by
a large, impossible workload – they can soon become disillusioned,
stressed and lose motivation. Equally, if an employee has a workload
that’s too light or not varied enough, they might quickly lose interest.

Remedies to Solve Problem Employee Issues

1. Don't ignore the problem.
Assuming that the employee provides value to the company and possesses
redeeming qualities, there are ways to deal with difficult employees. Most often,
 managers will simply ignore problematic staffers. Managers who live by this rule
hope the problem will just go away; that these people will somehow turn
themselves around or stop being troublesome. Ignoring the situation is the wrong
solution to what could likely become a progressive problem.

2. Intervene as soon as possible.

It is important to take action as soon as the negative behavior pattern becomes
evident--when left untouched, this problem will only escalate.

Ultimately, it is the manager's responsibility to take the appropriate action to

correct the problem. Whether the concern exists due to the employee's lack of
knowledge of the issue, lack of feedback or projecting the difficulty onto
someone else, the manager has the responsibility of addressing and turning
around the predicament. The manager needs to gather information from
employees to discern the extent of the problem and personally observe the
employee interacting with customers or vendors.

3. Research the problem personally.

Armed with accurate data and examples, the manager needs to then take this
person into a conference room or office--away from others--and calmly address
the issue. To begin, the manager needs to ask the employee if he is aware of
any ongoing issues to determine if the difficult person is aware of the problems.

If the employee is "unaware," the manager needs to describe the unacceptable

behavior. The employee might interrupt to disagree or deny the existence of
any issues. Nevertheless, the manager needs to continue by giving clear
examples of the unwanted behavior.

The manager also needs to allow the employee to respond to the allegations. If
the difficult employee refuses to believe that the allegations exist despite the
evidence, the most the manager can hope for is an intellectual acceptance of
the possibility that a problem exists.

4. Maintain privacy. Ask to see the person in private. No one likes to be

corrected in front of others.

5. Be positive. If possible, preface the conversation with a positive statement.

When you begin a conversation with a negative statement, you immediately
invite the person to put up his or her defenses.

6. Be specific. As you describe the results of his or her bad behavior, use
specific examples of occurrences. A solid formula to use: Here’s how it is
affecting me, here’s how it is affecting the team and here’s how it is affecting
the customers.
 7. Request solutions. Ask the employee for solutions and discuss them. “What
do you think you can do to prevent this from happening?”

8. Offer help. Ask what you can do to help and how you can work together to
improve their behavior or performance. Remind them that you want them to
be happy on your team.

9. Don’t demand. Ask for cooperation; don’t demand it. Even though the person
you must confront is a subordinate, it is never wise to demand that they
change their behavior.

10. Evaluate progress. Agree on specific actions to be done, behaviors that

should be avoided and a time frame to implement them. Then, set up another
meeting to discuss progress.

11. Finish positively. When you are finished talking with the person, make sure
that you maintain a positive working relationship.

12. Continue to coach. Continually coach your problem employees and

recognize when you see positive changes. Remember to pat them on the
back when you see improvement.

IV. Summary

1. Describe a problem employee.

2. Identify the types of problem employees.

3. State the common causes of problem employee issues.

4. Enumerate all the remedies to solve problem employee issues.

JOKES:

A complainer in a company approached his boss. “I have to have a raise”, the man
said to his boss. There are three other companies after me.
Is that so? Asked the manager. “What other companies are after you?”
The electric company, the telephone company and the gas company.

If a train station is where the train stops and a bus station is where the bus stops, what is a
work station?