Toxic Employees and Co-Workers

Hello all

Here's another interesting article that I thought would be good reading. I focus a lot of my early writings on the how tos and the difficulties of finding and getting a job as a Liberal Arts grad. But what the heck do you do AFTER you finally land a job -- and you find out it is an environment teeming with nasty creatures like gossipers, backstabbers, and immature and unprofessional types? Here's an interesting article that deals with these types of situations.
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Toxic co-workers: When a bad attitude becomes infectious
By Sharron Kahn Luttrell, Globe Correspondent, 9/22/02

There are federal regulations to keep workers from being exposed to hazardous material, bloodborne pathogens, noxious fumes. But what about when the workers themselves are toxic?

As far as I know, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration does not require employers to screen their people for a chronically bad attitude. Yet, such workers can be as harmful to their colleagues as cadmium in the water cooler. They spread their poison throughout the organization, sapping motivation and weakening the entire culture.

Most every organization has at least one toxic employee. Their risk to others varies according to the culture of the workplace and the susceptibility of those exposed. Some environments are ripe for infection, so even when the source is discovered and removed, it eventually pops up again in a different carrier.

Toxic co-workers infect others through mouth-to-ear transmission and can cause symptoms ranging from mild irritation to critically low levels of morale. At their most dangerous, they result in a workplace teeming with virulent strains of hissing and grumbling employees.

In my experience, there are several classifications of toxic employee, each distinguishable by their mode of delivery and their effect on others.

To read the rest of this excellent article click here