In yesterday’s post “Managers who don’t like who they manage” the second reason listed was “Poor work ethics” and the third “Lack of ability to complete jobs tasks.” We will cover these topics in today’s post. If you decide that a person has poor work ethics, then you must already have a definition of what good work ethics are that you are holding them to.
Good work ethics usually are defined as (but not limited to):
1. Gives a days work for a days pay.
2. Is reliable, and on time.
3. Positive attitude and helpful to others.
3. Good interpersonal skills.
4. Altruistic and goal oriented.
5. Correct conduct and behavior at work.
I am sure more attributes could be added to this list, but these spell out good work ethic pretty well. As a manager I would be happy if my employees fulfilled these five points. The problem is when they do not. It usually is in more than one of these areas.
Poor work ethic should be addressed as soon as it appears. If it is not, then the offending person thinks how they are behaving is acceptable.
Before employees are hired they should be given the company’s code of conduct and asked if they have any questions or problems with what would be expected of them if they were hired. Once hired the code of conduct should be in the employee handbook and a signature obtained that the employee has read the employee manual and will adhere to its content.
In the handbook under “Employee Relations and Communications” should be a section called “Employee Problems Solving Process.” This section would address step-by-step how employees and managers would go about addressing problems they are having with an employee or co-worker’s poor ethical standards.
Here are a few the issues that were brought up by these managers;
1. An employee’s behavior affected the work of others. This should be addressed by having specific examples of what the offending employee does and how it affects their co-worker. The offending employee needs to be told and the examples discussed along with what they need to do to rectify the issues.
2. Employee continually does not complete assigned tasks. What needs to be addressed to fix this is to find out if the employee has been given adequate training in the first place to complete the work task assigned. If so, and this has been demonstrated, then the issue of lack of caring needs to be addressed. The employee has to be able to give a valid reason as to why the work is not completed. If there is none, then disciplinary action should be taken.
3. Employee is not a team player, only cares about his or her job tasks and is self-centered. This issue can be a bit more difficult as the employee is doing their job, but is not committed to be helpful and work with their co-workers accomplishing the goals of the workplace as a whole. If your work environment is one that has a team atmosphere then this employee will cause issues with the rest of the team. Some people were never taught to look around themselves to see how they can help out others. Work culture is powerful and if all employees do not buy-in then it becomes toxic. The company’s code of conduct needs to address “team players” and what the culture is so this issue can be addressed according to the set standards.
The issues above and many more happen each day in our workplaces. How does your company handle ethic breaks in employee conduct?
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