I’m sure you have employees who produce excellent results and whose behavior is exemplary. These are obvious keepers!

You probably also have employees who produce excellent results but whose behavior is objectionable. They may destroy trust, create anxiety, and undermine other employees. They may require constant attention or damage control. Or they may whine incessantly. Whether these employees are toxic, more trouble than they are worth, or energy suckers, they are not keepers.

So why are you keeping them?

Everywhere I turn there seem to be executives and managers who suffer, and let their organizations suffer, because they won’t bite the bullet and terminate employees with bad behavior.

Common excuses include:

• “But he is so good technically.” I doubt he is irreplaceable, and if he is, what would you do if he got hit by a bus tomorrow? It is time to start the replacement process.
• “He isn’t that bad all the time.” That’s not what you were thinking when you read the second paragraph of this article. That’s not what his co-workers would say if they felt they could speak honestly. Ask yourself how relieved people would be if he quit or was moved to another division tomorrow. Don’t delay. You owe it to your other employees to remove objectionable behavior.
• “I can’t fire him; he’s in a protected class.” No one has the right to make others miserable. If you can see and define the difference between good behavior and bad behavior, you don’t have to put up with the latter.

When my clients make good behavior a job expectation and unload the trouble cases, they invariably breathe a sigh of relief and wonder why they waited so long.