do your actions or inaction make you one of them?
In reality, problem employees are not a problem. They are a situation. And situations do not improve on their own. It takes a courageous manager to take control of the situation for the benefit of the organization.
Fact: All organizations have a few problem employees and a few problem bosses.
Question: What do you do about them?
Question: More importantly, do your actions or inactions make you one of them?
I still think all of the talent in the world doesn’t excuse deliberate rudeness.
—LEE IACOCCA
CHAPTER OUTLINE
We all have good and bad days. At times our performance and motivation are not as keen as they should be. This is life—organizational life. This chapter is not about occasional mental mistakes or emotional grouchiness. It is about those few police employees who choose to harbor and then display chronic dysfunctional behavior. Some actually enjoy being miserable and, if possible, making others the same.
· It takes only a few problem employees to wreak havoc in a department. While few in numbers, they can develop enough synergy to impede efficiency, lower morale, and ruin the image of the department. It can take the wrongful efforts of only a handful to destroy the hard, honest work of many.
The media and investigatory bodies expose—regretfully too often—embarrassing evidence of problem employees. The answer must not be “It’s only a few out of many.” The answer must be “We are striving for and will not tolerate bad behavior in our police department.” Not only do problem employees spark for attempting to erode morale, but they are costly to the organization, both monetarily and to the department’s standing in the community. For these obvious reasons, problem employees must be dealt with immediately.
· What you allow, you encourage, and what you encourage creates new expectations.
Problem employees are typically thought about from the boss down. Here we’ll also examine those few managers and supervisors who cause turmoil and distrust in the department.
WE CHOOSE OUR BEHAVIOR
· When we deliberately choose not to stay positive and deny joy a place in our lives, we’ll usually gravitate in one of two directions, sometimes both—the direction of blame or self-pity …
—Charles Swindall
Note above the term behavior . Basically, our behavior is making choices about our values. From Chapter 2 you learned that a value could be changed by either profound dissatisfaction or a significant emotional event (SEE). At times, a manager can cause one or the other to occur. But this is a rarity. Unfortunately, many managers consider themselves a failure when they cannot adjust an employee’s value or attitude in an effort to improve the employee’s work behavior.
· A police manager cannot be held accountable for changing someone’s job-related attitudes or values. However, the police manager is responsible for controlling an employee’s unacceptable choices at work.
At the root of being a “good” employee is self-control and knowledge that regardless of how tough or confusing the situation, we always retain the power to choose what we think, say, and do. When we send up a smoke screen of blame and helplessness—“you made me do it,” “I couldn’t help myself,” “I had but one choice”—our work ethic runs amok. If we take control, we have control! If we don’t, then we’re going to be a problem employee. When we accept moral responsibility for our choices (behavior), we take charge of our lives.