Let's talk about 'problem' staff...

Passive aggressiveness in particular. Team members that are passive aggressive express their discontent in indirect and subtly hostile ways.

❓ Do you recognize any of the behaviors in any of your team members?

1. Agreeing with a request that they don't really want to do and then deliberately failing to follow through.
2. Giving you the silent treatment or one word answers to show they are annoyed.
3. Saying something derogatory followed by 'I was only joking.'
4. Rallies the troop by stirring up trouble. 'It's not really for me to say but...' (and then says 'it' to everyone.🤦🏼‍♀️)
5. They give you a backhanded compliment - 'I noticed you stayed late last night, I was really surprised.'

6. Responds to your requests with sarcasm or little digs.
7. Repeatedly does not follow your process or system.
8. Refuses to take responsibility
9. Say things like 'forget it' or 'fine' when it's obviously not fine!

I used to have a great quote on my office wall that said "You deserve what you tolerate!" Whenever clients started to moan about any of the above, I'd point to the picture. 🤣

Sadly, this type of behavior is often tolerated and sometimes for a really long time. And it's not always the team! I've been brought in to work with a fair few managers and directors like this.

Passive aggressive behavior should never be ignored as it can lead to a toxic work environment, an unhappy team and high staff turnover. And generally, the person displaying the passive aggressive behavior is not a particularly happy bunny either!

If you want to know more about how to deal with this, please give me a shout! I'd love to chat.

What about you? What's the best (or worst) example of passive aggressive behavior you've seen?