Office troublemakers come in all forms of shapes and guises. You can have an infestation of plotters who try to enlist others in their unethical plans to disturb the culture and peace of the office or you can have an escape artist in your workplace with skills better than Houdini. The escape artist will be found nowhere at the hour of need and will pop up when things have gone wrong to place the blame on others around them.

Similarly, there are other kinds of office troublemakers at work who can frustrate and upset their immediate managers and supervisors. However, as a manager, your primary motive is to mitigate the impact of the mischief propagated by your resident troublemakers. And, how do you do that? By following these tips to deal with troublemakers at work:

Identify Troublemakers

The first step to limiting the impact of troublemakers at your place of work is to identify them. Turn on your inner Sherlock and make rounds across the floor to identify potential troublemakers.

Some common characteristics found among office troublemakers include:

  • They often gossip a lot and will be found taking more tea breaks and smoke breaks than anyone else.
  • They’ll always be at the forefront of all major controversies. A row over the AC? Food stolen from the fridge? A loud political debate? You’ll find them typically at the core of all such activities.

Once you identify the troublemaker, you can limit contact with them without paying any distinct attention to them. Attention is bread and butter for them and should be restricted. Give them projects that don’t require team work.

Control Reactions

As a manager, it is your responsibility to not react aggressively or emotionally to a troublemaker. That is what they are looking for. Don’t encourage their behavior with an emotional response. In fact, try to solve all conflicts they initiate in a rational manner. Take the official course mentioned in your employee handbook and give them warnings where they are due.

Study Their Performance

Study the performance of your resident troublemaker and see how their troublemaking instincts are damaging their work output. If the output is minimal, you can think about eventual termination. However, if their performance is exceptional, you’ll have to think of ways to pacify them.

Talk to Them

No amount of warnings, suspensions and letters can do what a one-to-one conversation with a troublemaker can do. If their performance is decent, you have to sit down with them and let them know that you will consider them for a promotion or a managerial role if they can curb their troublemaking instincts.

We at JS Benefits Group have worked with numerous clients to discuss ways to handle troublemakers in the workplace. You can get in touch with JS Benefits Group immediately to devise a policy.