If you have toxic workers and you’re not sure what to do with them, some say the answer is simple: Fire them.
After all, according to one report, toxic workers make their fellow employees “54 times more likely to quit.” And that’s just if you have one of these toxic workers for every 20 people on your workforce. If you have more, it could make people even more likely to leave.
For you, this is more than just an annoyance. It’s a very real cost. Replacing workers is not cheap. It takes time and work, and training is expensive. New workers tend not to be as efficient, so productivity drops until they can get up to speed. And that’s not even taking into account the time that you spend without a replacement after someone quits.
This also destablizes your workplace. High turnover rates make it harder for employees to maintain their productivity and have a strong sense of community and company loyalty. You never know if people are on the brink of leaving.
Even if you work hard to find top talent in your industry, is it really that helpful if all of the top talent leaves for the competition because that one toxic worker keeps forcing them out?
As you probably know, firing workers can get tricky in 2019. You need to make sure it is not viewed as a discriminatory act. While California is an at-will state, meaning you don’t always need a direct reason to fire workers, you still don’t want to do it rashly. Make sure you know exactly what steps to take.