It Only Takes One Toxic Employee To Infect The Entire Team

It’s little things that cause the most damage… 

We like to point to the watershed moments, the grand events and single one-off encounters that remain lodged in our memories like the manifestations of grandeur we need them to be.  We hold onto these pivotal junctures as our shaping points – those critical defining convergences that we’ve convinced ourselves were the crossroads of our identity.  Yet when we look a little deeper, search a little farther, we must face the truth… that they weren’t. 

No… not at all. 

What affects us the most are the small and continuous travesties that we encounter daily that take the greatest toll and wear on us slowly, as a flowing stream eventually erodes coarse granite smooth. They are patient stalkers these deceptive aggravations lurking in our subconscious, and their summation becomes a weight that will crush us much faster than we believe.  Because we are taught to ignore them and look the other way.  The more everyone else sweeps them under the rug, the more we are convinced that the damage isn’t real. 

Yet the damage is real.  The damage is uncontrollable.  And left untreated, the damage can be deadly. 

It only takes one toxic employee to infect the entire team. 

There is a disease spreading across offices everywhere, and no, I’m not talking about COVID-19.  I’m talking about the power one single toxic employee can wield.  And left to their own devices, they become an office plague, infecting and destroying everything they touch.  Like cancer they need to be cut out before it’s too late. 

Because make no mistake about it, these people will literally kill your culture. 

Negativity can destroy people’s lives. 

Maybe you disagree with this statement?  Maybe you think I’m overstating it.  But this is what I have found to be true.  This is what I have seen with my own eyes and heard with my own ears.   And you know what I’m talking about.  You’ve been around that type of vindictive antagonistic person before and had to deal with them.  How many times have you had a conversation with someone, and they confide in you if they could only change that one person in the office then everything would be fine? 

Yep, you smile to yourself in recognition, because you remember uttering those same words yourself. 

It’s a dispiriting notion. 

But that’s how it works.  It only takes one bad apple to spread like wildfire until it’s too late and the entire team might as well have Ebola.  They’re fucked.  And before you can even blink, top talent is jumping ship.  It doesn’t matter how brilliant or accomplished a toxic employee is, sooner or later they will cost you everything. 

So why is this constantly allowed to happen across offices all over the world? 

Because people let it.  They don’t like confrontation and would rather ignore it.  But I don’t think managers realize how much damage they are causing by sitting idly and letting the negativity fester.  It’s as clear as night and day once you have become enlightened – if you want to save your office culture, you need to do what needs to be done.  Yet this is such an important step that so few have the courage or willingness to take. 

Don’t kid yourself, toxic employees are everywhere… 

Take a look in the mirror right now.  If you’re telling yourself: hey, this is only a big office problem, or vice versa, this is only a small private office problem?  Then you just might be that clueless manager or worse yet, that toxic employee yourself.  Do not be this person!!! 

No, there is no office too big or small that is immune from this potential malignant disaster of negative employee terrorism.  I’ll give you two examples. 

The Office Manipulator: 

Manipulator – a person who controls or influences others in a clever or unscrupulous way. 

My wife works in a small dental office run by one dentist with 10 employees total.  This is your quintessential small business example and a private business in which the dentist has 100% control over who he employs.  You’d think at first glance, there is no way a toxic employee can hide or exist in this environment. 

But yep, you couldn’t be more wrong. 

I’m not going to get into the details, but let’s just say the office manager fits the toxic employee designation to a “T”.  There have been past complaints issued, bullying, lying and stealing (we’re talking a ticking time bomb of legal liabilities) but the dentist will not fire her.  In fact, she has thrived.  Year after year, she has received raises for doing less and less because she has learned how to manipulate the boss. 

Now, you’re probably saying, no Q-FI, there is no fucking way that can be true in America!  But yes, it is… and easily can be I might add.  Because the problem has evolved from no longer being a toxic employee obstacle, to becoming a toxic boss nightmare – and once you reach this level, there is no limit to the amount of abuse that might take place. 

And as you might guess, the result has been an exodus and revolving door of top talent from his practice over the past 10 years.  Once this office manager gets caught in a lie, she’ll push relentlessly to force out the other employee through intimidation, bullying and manipulation, so she keeps her position of power. 

It’s a sick and disgusting cycle to watch, but I feel it is a more common situation than most business owners would like to admit. 

The Office Parasite: 

Parasite – a person who habitually relies on or exploits others and gives nothing in return. 

I work for a large, global corporation – the opposite of my wife’s office.  Yet, my department has the exact same problem.  We have a toxic employee that my boss refuses to take any action on. 

Now in my situation, this employee is not the bold noxious manipulator, but rather the cowardly venomous parasite that likes to infect and inflict harm on his team from the shadows.  He offers no value, and if anything, purposely goes out of his way to destroy value or any happiness other employees are trying to enjoy or work towards. 

So what does this toxic employee do? 

First, he is always negative which makes him extremely hard to be around and draining – I don’t think you can understate how destructive incessant negativity can be on one’s psyche.  Second, he fucked up on a major project, got reprimanded and then took it out on an analyst by making her run reports late on Christmas evening (I couldn’t even believe the vindictiveness of this at first).  Third, when other employees were successfully working from home to help with childcare (pre-pandemic), he complained that this made the department look bad and that his fellow coworkers were not in the office enough to his standards, which my boss resolved by taking the privilege away (I should write a separate post on toxic bosses). 

The final straw, however, is that he clips his fucking nails in the office!  Ahhhhhhhhhhh!  This one kills me.  Do your personal fucking hygiene in the bathroom or at home!  Hahahaha.  I know this isn’t people’s top priority for toxicity, but it fucking drives me nuts! 

So, this is my ask to all of you managers out there, because I know that many people who read my blog are either management or have been in those roles in the past.  Protect your teams.  Value your people like family and be generous to them because someone else will.  And if you made a mistake and hired a toxic employee, own up to it and make it right.  Terminate them.  Save your team and slay the corporate dragon of ambivalence to be the hero your employees deserve! 

Because let’s face it, hiring toxic employees does happen more often than not, and I think it’s harder than ever today to be able to really gauge a person from a resume and a couple interviews.  Yet, you need to be responsible for your actions, good or bad.  If you allow that ego to grow too big, and you can’t rectify your own mistakes, it is your employees who will suffer.  And these people are your most valuable assets!  You owe it to them to provide the best working environment possible. 

Because if you allow the toxicity to become your team’s problem and not your own, you’ve lost the battle… before its even begun. 

-Q-FI 

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P.S. Ever have to deal with a toxic employee or coworker before?  I hear your answers being shouted through my keyboard with a resounding “YES!”  Tell me all about it below.