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A toxic workplace is no fun for anyone. It contributes to higher turnover, increased expense, inefficiency, low morale and often, a damaged reputation. To do nothing only exacerbates the problem and telegraphs to employees that management either doesn’t care or simply isn’t minding the store.

Dishonest people don’t just wake up one day and suddenly decide to become thieves.  Most of them were already bent and had questionable ethics before they were hired. 

The intent of the old adage ‘the customer is always right’ is that one should always keep the customer’s needs in mind and do everything one can to make them happy.

Some individuals would like to change jobs, or train for better ones, but can’t afford the time or expense of additional training or education while simultaneously supporting their families. They feel trapped, frustrated and maybe a little resentful too. Is it any wonder that people are jumping ship for a few dollars more, even if it doesn’t advance their actual careers?

Employer concerns about the overall lack of applicants, the lack of suitable and qualified applicants and complaints about high turnover have increased steadily over the past 5 years.  It’s a conversation that I now have with clients on a weekly basis, and it’s occurring continent-wide, and across all industries.

Three months ago, Emeritus, a global online education company, published its list of growing workplace trends to watch for in 2022.  All businesses are contending with changes brought about by the pandemic and everything is in flux all around us.  Many of the coming changes are unavoidable but they can be made more manageable.

It’s a challenging time for many businesses and it’s particularly problematic for those who are hiring because applicants can now afford to be pickier about which offers they accept.

North American businesses lose millions of dollars a year due to various kinds of theft.  Unfortunately, it’s often their own employees who are doing most of the stealing, and most employers don’t even know it.

80% of workers feel stress on the job and nearly half say they need help in learning how to manage stress. The other 20% is lucky because apparently everyone else is suffering; both at the individual and the corporate level.

Personality does change over time (a long time) and it’s a significant although small change over one’s lifetime. What the researchers found was that as we mature, so do our personalities. Specifically, people tend to ‘peak’ in middle age but at a level not high enough to infer a complete lack of change in personality traits. This means that personality has a stable component across the life span, both at the trait level and at the profile level, and that personality is also malleable, and people mature as they age.

There are hundreds of skills, aptitude and personality assessments on the market for good reason – because they work! If you’re not using any when hiring or promoting people then you should probably be wondering if you’re missing out on something good (because you probably are).

Deliver crappy customer service at your own peril!

Part 2: What kinds of bad apples are in your bunch?

Bad hires can cost you $50,000 per toxic worker hired.