Toxic employees: recognizing problematic patterns early on and dealing with them

An article by Thomas Saller (Saller Consult) and Christian Ruhland (Cyforwards)

Toxic employees: You can find them at all levels in an organization. ?At first sight they might come across as friendly, competent team players - but only if they want to. Because in other settings, they can make life difficult for their organizations and for their environment.

Almost everyone has experienced working with toxic people. Most of them are not low performers. But through their actions, they can poison the culture in a company and cause considerable damage.

In detailed interviews with fifteen top managers and executives from business and HR functions, we approached the phenomenon of "toxicity" - with some surprising results.

How did we investigate the topic?

In summer and fall of 2022, we conducted in-depth interviews with fifteen business leaders and HR professionals. For this purpose, we used a semi-structured questionnaire. Via this method, we established comparability and at the same time were able to flexibly and exploratively address specifics in individual companies.

When selecting the organizations, we deliberately looked for diversity. The interviewees ranged from decision-makers in large corporations, universities and publishing houses to managers in medium-sized manufacturing companies. We were thus able to verify our hypothesis that toxic behavior can manifest itself wherever a lot of people work together – no matter if in business, administration or other forms of organization.

The interviews were scheduled to last for 30 minutes. However, most conversations lasted well over an hour. This showed us how present and painful this topic seems to be for many people w in charge. One exemplary comment from a HR manager: "The more I talk to you about it, the more I realize the extent to this issue has actually been bothering me.”

How can you recognize toxic people in your company??

When describing toxic colleagues, the following behaviors and characteristics were often mentioned by our interviewees:

1. Negativity and cynicism - toxic employees often think in terms of problems rather than solutions. In certain circles (or contexts), many of them might badmouth their colleagues and/or speak negatively about the company and its management.

2. Manipulation - toxic employees tend to make false statements, speak out implicit threats or exceed their own competency limits. In doing so, they often drag other employees into a negative spiral.

3. Personal attacks - toxic employees often attack other employees and supervisors personally and tend to escalate issues. While their language is often eloquent, they often include offensive terms and phrases.

4. Refusal to cooperate with some people - toxic employees often refuse to cooperate only with some people, while they seem to cooperate with other people without any problems. The refusal attitude includes not being available to certain people and making efforts to keep some colleagues or managers at a distance. Some interviewees spoke of a lack of empathy.

5. External self-presentation and lack of transparency - toxic employees often appear to be very busy. In doing so, they sometimes tend to disguise what they are doing all day. Their willingness to discuss critical business topics within their own area of responsibility is often low. Instead, they often portray themselves as victims and exaggerate with regards to minor incidents.

6. Lack of willingness to change - toxic employees are often not open to change and act destructively in the face of change. They find it difficult to adapt flexibly to new situations. Some interviewees spoke of "opposition as a principle", others described the behavior as "questioning to the point of back-stabbing".

7. ?Lack of ability to handle criticism - a rapid escalation is often observed, especially in case toxic employees receive critical remarks by others.

Are there additional behaviors that are exhibited by toxic managers?

Many of the characteristics described above seem to apply to both toxic employees and people in managerial positions. In addition, the following behaviors and traits are attributed to toxic leaders.

1. Exploitation of (hierarchical) dependencies and acting out of power - verbally dominant behavior or even events of crossing physical distance boundaries are reported.

2. Being unpredictable - many respondents report the technique of Management by Surprise: "I’ll ask you surprising questions about topics you can't know about."

3. Blocking of organizational progress - on the one hand, this might occur through the "accidental" procrastination of deadlines as well as through deprioritization (“this topic is not important for our team”) On the other hand, blockades are also expressed very explicitly in conversations with their staff: "I forbid you to pass this information on to the other department."

4. Two-facedness - the fact that many toxic leaders are "two-faced" is mentioned particularly frequently. While many colleagues describe their leaders as nice and competent, others find their behavior disastrous. "One executive who was known for ruining entire work biographies was called the 'smiling hatchet' in our company," reported one interviewee.

Are there any early indicators that can help to identify toxic employees?

Many of the interviewees reported that they remembered conspicuous features from the initial phase of the collaboration – but only in retrospect. These had initially puzzled them, but in the end they had not attached too much importance to them. Some examples:

·?????In the interview, the target persons stood out due to unusual behavior. Toxic persons, for example, described a particularly high number of conflict situations in the past, described themselves as "absolute representatives of the present ce culture" who wanted to see their employees every day, often interrupted the interviewers or tended to exaggerate their self-portrayal. It was remarkably often mentioned that they externalized their own mistakes, weaknesses or conflicts from the past,

·?????There were also unusual moments during onboarding. Interviewees reported excessive demands and very firm positions in negotiation talks, a non-acceptance of standard contracts and even personal insults when administrative issues, for example with regards to the employment contract, were not dealt with quickly enough.

·?????Toxic employees were often described as "not fitting into the culture" from the very first day. Interviewees report "large corporate mechanisms" ("let HR do that, people issues are not my job"), unusual personal values or an excessive focus on competition. "My gut feeling told me quite early on that this was a very special type of person that I had never met before," the head of recruiting of a company told us.

Almost all the interviewees admitted during the interview that they had not sufficiently taken these observations into account in the initial phase of the final hiring decision.

In part, this happened because subject representatives did not want to leave a position vacant any longer than necessary due to economic necessities - despite a negative gut feeling. "Her professional track record in the field of academic research was very high and this was weighted more highly by the university management than her leadership style," one interviewee told us.

However, part of the reason was that interviewees were unable to put their negative intuition into words or were not able to quantify it.

Based on many other insights into early indicators from our interviews, we have developed a "Social Fit Check" that we will use in future selection processes. For more information on this tool, please contact us ([email protected])

Even in the first phase of actual collaboration, managers repeatedly noticed peculiarities.

Toxic individuals, for example, acted according to their own agenda; some were constantly late for meetings, some were unavailable, or were permanently dealing with other topics in meetings, also in order to signal disinterest and aversion.

"It starts with little things. Small situations, insignificant moments, where you feel there's something fishy going on here - and then it builds up and gets bigger," said one executive. "For example, when you walk by our meeting room with glass walls, you see that the employees of the person in question always look so strange. That's when you notice something's wrong - and you really have to pay attention to your intuition here."

Other early indicators described that were mentioned in the interviews:

·?????The toxic person prefers to take care of cross-functional issues (PR, HR, processes...) themselves because they describe the experts for the corresponding topic as incompetent.

·?????If the toxic person criticizes others, this is formulated in a very drastic way.

·?????Employees no longer want to work on projects: "I can't work with him.”

·?????New employees who work in the division of the toxic manager leave the company during the probationary period.

·?????Other quantitative indicators in the team in question (sick leave, scores from engagement survey, etc.) also point in a negative direction.

Can any employee become toxic?

The findings from the discussions with our partners on this question can be summarized in the following formula:

Personality disposition + experienced hardship + coping strategy + toleration by environment = toxicity.

Personality dispositions:

Traits such as

·?????narcissism

·?????excessive self-centeredness

·?????lack of empathy

·?????low self-reflection and ability to handle criticism

·?????lack of openness to new things and

·?????lack of aggression and impulse control

are mentioned particularly frequently by the interviewees. It is not uncommon for these individuals to be diagnosed with above-average intelligence and a high level of linguistic competence.

Clinical diagnoses such as "mild autism" and "signs of borderline personality disorder" are also mentioned by some of the interviewees - hypotheses that we are careful about, but that are certainly worth keeping in mind.

Experienced hardships

Personality traits alone are not sufficient or will not always lead to a toxic development. About two-thirds of the interviewees reported that the target persons had experienced actual difficult situations prior to becoming toxic, e.g.

·?????Changes in the corporate context, often associated with poor communication, excessive expectations towards their role or cutting off of personal autonomy that the employee had been able to claim for himself or herself for many years.

·?????Own illnesses, illnesses of family members, separation from the life partner or problems with the children.

Due to the time period of the interviews, corona-related overload experiences (e.g., studying children caught in lockdown in another country, chronic illnesses such as Long Covid, etc.) were also mentioned.

Coping strategies

Not all individuals who encounter hardship cope in dysfunctional ways. However, due to the personal predispositions described above, the following coping strategies were found with above-average frequency among toxic employees:

·?????External attributions: "Actually, I personally would have it under control, but everybody else wants something bad from me."

·?????Excessive need to be in control: "At least the work environment has to listen to me, especially if no one listens to me in my private life."

·?????All-or-nothing attitude in decisions: "I have nothing left to lose."

·?????Strong self-reference: "Everything that goes wrong in the company has got something to do with me."

Tolerance of the environment:

This factor appears to be particularly important to many interviewees.

·?????In the vast majority of companies and organizations, managers, colleagues or other social control bodies let toxic employees go on for too long. In part, this also happens - especially among top management - because effective control mechanisms are lacking.

·?????In the interview, the interviewees spoke of an uncritical or conflict-avoiding environment ("no one tells the person that it doesn't work like that"), shrugging of shoulders ("that's just the way he is, the business figures are right") or a lack of willingness to listen to other voices ("she is actually always quite friendly to me, I don't know what you mean by that").

This "toxic tolerance" fosters a difficult interaction in which toxic employees are encouraged to continue or even increase their unpleasant behavior:

"I do not only get away with this behavior, I can even achieve my goal," can be the lessons learned for the toxic person. In particular, a lack of control on the part of top management is cited here as an important ingredient.?

What factors determine the damage caused by toxic employees?

"The toxic head of a business unit has cost us at least half a million euros in the past two years," reports one decision-maker in the interview. However, only very few interviewees are that specific.

However, most people agree on the definition of financially relevant factors:

·?????Lower productivity due to lack of commitment, lower motivation and internal resignation of other employees, reduction in the efficiency of the team.

·?????Lost revenue due to unfinished projects and friction losses in processes.

·?????Cost of fluctuation/staff turnover, recruiting and retraining of employees who quit in the division of the toxic person.

·?????Costs due to management attention: effort for preparing and following up on meetings ("handling conflicts, appeasing, documenting: that's what our CEO is currently doing for a few hours a week").

·?????Loss of trust into the management of the division due to their lack of reaction to the situation and to the toxic behavior.

It must also be mentioned that in order to estimate the damage, the potency of toxic individuals must be considered:

"If two accountants write toxic emails to each other, the effect is rather small. If we see toxic behavior in middle management in areas that are not shielded by a system around it, then that can destroy entire companies," reports a manager.

What solutions are there for dealing with toxic people?

The interviewees disagree on the right way to deal with toxic employees.

While some top managers and decision-makers try sending them to training ("What’s my effect on others?"), work with medical services or engage coaches, others find that these measures do not work in their company, for example because there is often no awareness of wrongdoing.

"We took a high-level coach. Now not only does he refuse to work with the toxic person, but we've lost him for other coaching cases as well," said one interviewee, aptly summarizing the dilemma.

The following other best practices for dealing with toxic individuals are described:

·?????Setting clear performance and behavioral goals with close monitoring and concrete intervention in toxic situations ("Lately, I said to my toxic employee, STOP! You can't go on like this. You will go home now, and we'll talk again tomorrow. That had an effect.")

·?????Managing collateral damage to prevent toxic mood transfer. This includes pulse checks with the team, but also a willingness to publicly contradict - without verbally “falling to the same level” as the toxic person.

·?????Termination or removal of the toxic person by a higher level, such as through a severance agreement

·?????Reducing the potential for harm by defining a clear and limited area of responsibility, especially if termination is not possible (“special assignment”)

·?????Neutralization through "antidotes": "I had a person in the area who acted a counterpart for this person. She managed to neutralize the effect of our toxic manager. But the price was high for this person, and she also wore herself out in the process," reports one HR manager.

Concerted action seems important in any decision. Before intervening, for example, it should be checked with colleagues whether at least some of them are also experiencing the toxic effect or whether it is just a matter of personal antipathy. In particular, the role of top management should not be underestimated. "It took quite a while to convince our managing director of the need to act, but his intervention ultimately made the difference."

Last but not least, interviewees also describe the need to take good care of themselves in the often grueling struggle with toxic personalities. "I had to keep reminding myself that I was a leader, not a therapist," one division manager describes her thought process, "and it helped me tremendously to talk about the issue with some uninvolved people from time to time - in part just to blow off steam."

What are our lessons learned to avoid toxicity?

We summarize the lessons learned in the following ways:

·?????Toxicity arises from an interplay of personal disposition, critical life experiences, inappropriate coping strategies, and tolerance by the environment. No one is born toxic.

·?????The phenomenon can manifest itself in a wide variety of behaviors, e.g., manipulation, refusal to cooperate, personal attacks, or lack of ability to change and handle criticism. Often ambivalence arises from a different self-presentation of the toxic person in different situations.

·?????A stronger focus should be placed on conspicuous social behavior already in the hiring process. Diagnostic tools and a 6-eyes principle are essential for this.

·?????If the first signs of toxicity appear on the job, these should be addressed clearly.

·?????What is needed for this is a "decision-making body" that sees the danger of toxic individuals, which in case of doubt, acts consistently and quickly and if necessary, supports tough decisions and measures.

"Basically, it's like dealing with toxic substances in chemistry," said one interviewee, summarizing the phenomenon. "There are many substances that are not toxic in themselves. If I were to drink mercury, it wouldn't be a problem to begin with. However, the mercury vapors that are produced trigger something. It is the same with us. If we create an environment in which employees don't have the opportunity to unleash their toxic forces, we can also become more resilient as an entire organization."

The authors of the study

Thomas Saller

According to Chat GPT, Thomas Saller “is a seasoned organizational consultant, coach, trainer, and facilitator, boasting a 20-year career in the field. With a primary focus on leadership and change management, Thomas has made a significant impact in helping organizations navigate through complex challenges and achieve their goals.

Thomas is also a prolific author, having published six books on various topics related to applied psychology. In addition to his consulting work and writing, Thomas is also an educator. He shares his wealth of knowledge and experience by teaching and conducting research on applied psychology topics at esteemed universities in Germany and abroad.”

To learn more about Thomas Saller, visit www.thomassaller.com

Christian Ruhland

Christian Ruhland has been responsible for People & Organizational Development at Cyforwards GmbH since 2018. In this role, he supports professional service companies as well as medium-sized companies and corporations in the implementation of transformation processes and the staffing of success-critical positions. The internationally active consultant previously worked for many years in a leading HR management consultancy as well as in a global HR management position in a multinational corporation.