You remember the game; everyone sits in a circle and passes the "hot" potato around as quickly as possible while music plays. The person holding the potato when the music stops is out of the game. Often times in our organization, we revisit our childhood by playing hot potato with our underperforming staff. The question is, when the music stops, who loses?
I've witnessed this event twice recently and it reminded me of the seemingly difficult decision that business leaders sometimes face. In each scenario there was an employee who, for one reason or another, was not a good fit. Employee A, who we’ll call Emily, is sweet and kind. She’s a widow and a single mother who has been with the organization for over a year. Despite her kind disposition, Emily doesn’t exhibit the core values of the company and she lacks the competence to do her job.
Employee B, who we’ll call Marley, is highly skilled in her role. She talks a good game but lacks initiative when it comes down to actually doing tasks that she deems beneath her, or that require her to exert too much effort. In general, her attitude is terrible.
While these employees work in different roles, in completely organizations, they both became the hot potato. Both managers, rather than directly addressing the unproductive behavior(s), passed these employees on to another department. The problem, therefore, didn’t go away, and a different group of co-workers now have to manage the deficiencies, either in competency or in attitude.
The employer was afraid to simply give direct feedback and let the employee go if necessary. In the case of Emily, the employer felt bad because she was a single mom. In the case of Marley, the employer didn’t want to lose her highly technical skills. Learn more about providing constructive feedback to employees here.)
So who loses when the music stops? The answer is, everyone else. When you burden your team with employees who don’t belong in your organization, it impacts morale. Why? Because it sends a message that standards of customer care don’t matter. That the time and energy of your employees doesn’t matter (consider the hand holding that Emily requires just to do the basic functions of her role). It sends the message that patient care doesn’t matter (consider that Marley doesn’t want to learn how to monitor anesthesia, therefore spreading another co-worker thin).
I cannot stress this enough. Have core values in place. Have a regular performance review process in place. Have a process for progressive discipline in place. And don’t be afraid to let people go. I know that in certain industries it’s hard to hire. So what? You will lose good employees because you want to hold onto a bad one. The good employees are willing to pick up the slack until you can find a replacement, I promise you. If they aren’t, send me an email and I’ll send you a Starbucks gift card.
It’s time we honor the good employees we have by not keeping people around who don’t meet our minimum performance standards. (If you are ready to term, check out our offboarding checklist.)
Stop playing hot potato with your underperforming staff. Instead, get out the legos and build a solid foundation for the amazing organization the rest of your employees will help you create.
John Jinks says
Well done.
The game of hot potato from one department to another has to stop.
Either the employee develops and becomes a valued contributor to the team or they need to be let loose.
Nancy says
Agree! Too many managers avoid the “hard” discussion about performance and/or behavior and pass the problem on to others. If this is occurring in an organization the underperforming employee needs to be coached or termed…. And so do the managers passing the hot potato.