Many managers struggle with addressing performance or attitude problems in their teams. Mostly for good reasons, let’s be honest: the exercise is difficult, not pleasant and sensitive. It takes time, a lot of energy and the results are rarely spectacular.
So what do managers tend to do instead ? They take it easy on the person, give him/her less and less work to do to the detriment of the ‘good performers’ who get the new projects, clients, and share all the workload.
By doing so the manager avoids unpleasant conversation for sure but also, gradually, devoids the person’s job from substance… And this is the entry point to a potential complain for moral harassment against the manager.
As a reminder, giving constructive negative feedback to address low performance is NOT harassment.
Closely monitoring someone’s performance in a dedicated and temporary ‘Performance Improvement Plan’ is NOT harassment either.
If you find it difficult to draw the line or need support in addressing cases of low performance, contact us.
Article written by ERIA.