How to deal with bad employees - Essay Example

Dealing With Bad Employees Some managers learn it the hard way and others learn it the easy way. The hard way for a manager is to learn by trial and error and the easy way is to learn by simply implementing solutions that have already been successful. I am a manager who actually learned it the hard way. My company maintains a no smoking policy not only within the premises even around the boundaries of the premises. The company believes that when employees representing a company smoke cigarettes near the company, they portray a negative image of the company.

This incident took place during the year of 2010 when I had to make sure that one of my subordinates who was highly addicted to cigarette smoking did not smoke within the vicinity of the organization and even around the boundaries of the organization. My higher ups were quite angered about his smoking habits as they believed that he was ruining the image of the company and was promoting others to break the rules of the company by smoking around the boundaries of the company. Due to this I took the task of ensuring that he does not smoke in the restricted areas.

At first, I believed that it would be a very simple task. I thought that simply threatening him to punish him would solve the problem in no time (Coon 238). Keeping this opinion in mind, I called him to my office and told him right away that if he does not quit smoking, he will be relieved from his duties. To my surprise, he had no fear of my threat and told me that I can do whatever I wanted to do, but he would not stop smoking in the restricted areas. I was quite dazzled by his response because he had no fear of losing his job.

In reality I had no intention to retire him of his duties because he was a very hardworking individual who had been with the company for the past ten years. After receiving his response, I went back to the basics and started my investigation and research. I have always been a fan of McClelland’s theory of need based motivation. The theory states that in order to motivate employees, a manager should help him satisfy one of the three needs of the employees (Saxena 160). These needs include the need for achievement, authority as well as belongingness.

I started investigating around and figured out that for the past 2 years he had been waiting for his promotion to the assistant manager level of the marketing department. He was quite angered due to the organizations failure to promote him even when he had given his entire life to the organization. The next day I called him back in my office and told him that he was a very important part of the organization and I did not wanted to lose him. I told him that his work is highly valued and if he quits his smoking habit near in the restricted areas, and then I will talk to the higher ups to promote him.

As soon as he heard about his promotion, there was aglow in his face and he immediately promised me that if I am successful to bargain for his promotion then he would surely stop breaking the law. I told him that has to stop breaking the law right away and then only I can bargain with those who I am responsible to report. He finally accepted my offer and did not smoke in the restricted areas in the following days. The end result was that I talked to my managers for his promotion. I showed them that he is performing very well and is a gem for the organization and the organization should not lose him.

The managers accepted my idea of promoting him and he was ultimately promoted to assistant level marketing manager position. Today, it has been more than 6 months and he has not smoked in the restricted areas. Works CitedCoon, Dennis et al. Introduction To Psychology. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2010. Print.Saxena, Rajan. Marketing Management. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill, 2006. Print.