By Maxie Carpenter, MVC Advisory Resource / Bentonville

Have you ever wondered why some employees behave the way they do?

• Why do they consistently come to work late?
• Why do they always call in on Monday or Friday?
• Why do they consistently misuse the time clock?
• Why do they take longer than normal breaks and lunches?
• Why do they spend too much time on the phone with personal calls?
• Why do they seem to get sick a lot and always have a doctor’s excuse?
• Why do they always have a reason for not meeting deadlines?
• Why do they always want to combine personal time with holidays for extended time off?

These are just a few of a myriad of behaviors consistent to some degree with some employees in a majority of workplaces.  As a small business owner, if you’re struggling with some of these issues, it probably means that there is not a Policy & Procedure process in place that sets forth guidelines and rules that govern these behaviors.

Note the use of the word “behaviors,” because that’s what they are.  These types of behaviors are reflective of those employees who will constantly push the envelope to gain an advantage that allows them to “create their own work environment.”  The problem is that this type of environment negatively influences productivity, the morale of other good employees, and customer service.

Employers have to realize these “difficult employees” survive by exploiting weaknesses in the organizational structure of the business.  Those weaknesses could be any number of things:

• a business owner who is gone the majority of the time visiting with customers

• an office administrator who doesn’t have strong leadership or organizational skills, or is dictatorial

• an office structure where meetings to communicate and instruct are not held on a regular basis and most significant,

• a lack of policies and procedures that direct how business is conducted on a daily basis.

The most important advantage a set of Policies and Procedures brings to the workplace is the disciplinary culture that guarantees both consistency and quality in delivering to the marketplace, the way employees treat the customer, and each other.  Unless these guidelines are in place, there is little an employer can do to change negative behaviors short of replacing people, which is too often the case, and which costs the business its profitability and hastens its demise.

Maxie Carpenter is a professional analyst and counselor, author, and President of MVC Advisory Resource, Inc. He is the author of “I Didn’t Ask You to Dance!” and “Managing Difficult People in the Workplace.” You can reach Maxie at www.mvcinc.org.