Dealing with a toxic employee

[Blue789]

Myself and two other interview panel members appointed an assistant approx 6 months ago. After advertising the role twice, he was the only person who scored sufficiently against the essential criteria, so essentially the only candidate.

However, he has turned out to be extremely rude, loves to break rules and overconfident.

When he first started during his induction we explained that annual leave is booked via the online system and can be booked either as a full day or half day AM/PM. The following week he turned around and said hell have to leave 1.5 hours early and will work through his lunch to make the time up. I explained that's not how we do things here. We are a very large organisation. So I went back over the procedures for annual leave again.

He then put in an annual leave request for half day PM. There's literally a drop down menu that says full day/AM/PM and they are the only options for everyone. I approved it. However, in the comments box which you can't really see when approving the request was leaving at 10am and will he back by 1:30. I approved it as it came though on the system as half day PM. And approved an AM request for another team member. Then the day before his leave he announced to the whole team that he was taking annual leave and leaving at 10 and back at 1:30. I spoke with him about this and his response was well its my leave and I'll decide how I use it. His tone was totally disrespectful and very argumentative, he then followed this up in an email to HR stating that is induction must have been a complete shambles, and if he's not followed the procedures he's not taking the blame for the that.

He changed spreadsheets to suit him, without checking with other users if there were any implications for them. I only found this out when he turn around and said I've heard the X spreadsheet is X's baby and she wouldn't like it changed. Well that's tuff, I've changed it whether she likes it or not.

In team meetings he has stopped the meetings to answer personal calls, and even left meetings to chat on his phone. I asked if his call was urgent as answering his personal phone and walking out of meetings for that should only happen if its important, such as waiting for a call from the doctor. He replied no nothing like that, but all my calls are important to me. During the meetings he would also get up walk about, fidget under his desk and another team member raised concerns that he wasn't engaging at all. I also addresses this with him and got the response, yes that's because I can do more that one thing.

I also arranged for him to meet with other departments as part of his induction, one of those was HR. I later found out that the Senior HR Manager had found him to take over the place, like he could have sat there all day talking and wouldn't take the hint that people were busy, he showed no respect for people working. I fed this back to him and he denied anything had happened at first, then called me back to admit the she had actually stood up and told him bluntly to get out if their office.

I've received feedback from my line manager about two months ago that he was extremely defensive towards his advice over important communication to customers.

Last week I agreed a date with him for his probation review meeting and said that there is a firm which I will need to fill out as it must be completed by the probation reviewer. His immediate response was, I'm not bothered about any of that anyway. This seemed extremely disrespectful of the process.

In the past two weeks he's been doing alot for my line manager.

I have also received emails from another two staff members raising concerns about work he had recently undertaken in their office. He missed some items when he was there then double counted others. I have asked him to go to rectify this, he has been extremely argumentative over this. I found out that he then phoned my line manager and my line manager over ruled me and says he has made mistakes but doesn't need to go back in to rectify them.

I have raised concerns with my line manager over his loose tongue and disrespectful attitude towards his probation meeting. My line manager agrees he's loose tongued but says he can look beyond that and isn't bothered by it.

In the meantime I'm the one dealing with the complaints about him.

Has anyone been in a similar situation or got any advice please.

Can't you get rid of him? If he's that troublesome then surely there is sufficient evidence for warnings and sacking him?

If you're dealing with multiple complaints about him, then those can be noted and sent up the chain.

As he has been there only 6 months you can simply terminate his employment.

Just fail his probation. You don’t need to give a reason in the first 6 months. He doesn’t fit with the company end of.

but I do think your annual leave system is a bit dated and restrictive.

You need to get rid especially as he is still on probation. Sounds awful.

Not managing someone but I have a colleague who is almost identical. He is a total nightmare . Unfortunately our head of service is rarely around and doesn’t listen to what her managers and fellow workers are saying and he manages to sweet talk her into renewing his temporary contract. Get rid of your nightmare employee while you still can. He will only get worse .

Omg he sounds horrendous but if it's within 6 months you need to get rid! How people can be so rude and dismissive of any manners in a new job is beyond me

I agree that the annual leave system is restrictive and employee should be able to take a few hours a day if this doesn’t impact on the business too much. Bit apart from that then if it’s not working you can let him go that’s the point of probation is it not?

It sounds like he's not any more obstructive than you are.

You seem to like asserting your authority over him - is he the only assistant?

You say he was the only applicant. What made you choose to recruit him? Were you completely oblivious to his attitude or did you just not want to tell your boss you didn't find a suitable applicant?

Your manager is happy with his work. The fact both he and your line manager are bypassing you suggests he's complained about you too.

He sounds awful! Gather evidence of all this. If people witness his comments they could not it down so it's recorded? He sounds like he's being really disrespectful.

Do you have a formal performance management process or an official way to fail probation? Put him on it, evidence all incidents in writing according to the process and let him dig his own hole. Get rid of him, a bad attitude is impossible to work with.

Her line manager disagrees with her concerns so that'd be difficult.

Why was he coming in for his am annual leave in the morning and leaving at 10:00am ?
Your annual leave system and time off does seems really rigid and frustrating to try and work within, why not just let him work through lunch and leave early ?

It's not my annual leave system, its the companies I work for. I respect that those are their procedures, even if it may seem slightly old fashion. Their procedures apply to all employees, not all with the exception of this one new employees.

Sounds like he has a major issue with female authority figures!

What's the probation process been? Is there nothing till 6 months or has he had review meetings? In which case has it been raised?

I agree you need to fail his probation. Collate everything, including when you've raised issues with him and his response, then you can build a timeline of performance concerns.

SaveloyDip you may be right, he did admit that he left his last job after falling out with his boss (female) and refusing to do what she had asked him and all other colleagues to do. He said his colleagues had no issues with her request but he did, so he left.

There’s nothing at all to indicate it’s an issue with solely female authority figures - he just sounds like an arse

Maybe not @Deathbyfluffy but the fact he won't follow guidelines when told them by his female bosses, had to be told to leave the female HR heads office, but gets on with the OP's manager points in that direction to me.

But he is definitely an arse either way @Deathbyfluffy

Thanks to everyone who's commented so far, the frustrating part is not only dealing with the complaints, that's time consuming, plus the disrespect from him, but when you appoint someone to a position like I have, you naturally want then to succeed. Its so disappointing, I do think if he's behaved like this early days, it's only going to get worst.

Simple- fail his probation and get rid of this idiot.

Can you put together a list of issues and complaints you've had, with dates if possible (rough if you don't have the exact day), and present this to your LM/ HR as an explanation of why you're keen to fail his probation and try to get them onside with this (presuming you need their approval). Really build a picture.

He's a complete pain in the arse and will take up a lot of your time to manage.

I would try as hard as I could to end this here, at the probation stage rather than have to performance manage him and all that palaver.

I think I get it, it's a constant onslaught of unhelpful and obstructive little incidents, a lot of which sound petty in isolation.

Sorry to say but I reckon the more this goes on and the sicker you get of him, the more he will defend his shit behaviour by wearing you down. He may eventually open a bullying grievance or similar. In the meantime try not to let it irk you personally.

If you can’t get rid you need to manage him better now you know what he’s like
like in the meetings tell him you don’t care if he can do more than one thing today in that meeting he will only be doing 1 thing

no personal calls in meetings if he needs to be contacted tell him to give them an office contact number

not taking criticism some people are like that you just deal with them differently

I’ve managed people like this you need to be direct and take no shit .Be beyond clear with any instructions so there’s no room for misinterpretation

It sounds like you almost have enough evidence for him to fail probation? Start giving firm oral warning, followed by written warning etc. much harder to get rid once probation period is over.

"Dear XX, whilst I am sure this will be as disappointing for you as it is for me, I must regretfully terminate your employment as you are not a good fit for the role or the team. Good luck for the future..."