How to Deal With Unruly Employee Behavior: Your Essential Guide

Employees empty out their feelings. The EEOC received more than 67,000 complaints of discrimination in the workplace in FY 2020.

This statistic accounts for only a slice of unruly employee behavior. When your office becomes a hub for rudeness and harassment, you need to take forceful measures.

How can you create a respectful environment to work in? How can you respond to misbehavior right away? What should you do to care for hurt employees?

Answer these questions and you can promote healthy employee behavior through simple measures. Here is your quick guide.

Create a Positive Company Culture

The easiest way to deal with an unruly employee is to prevent unruliness from occurring. Create a company culture that promotes responsible behavior and positive thinking.

Be clear about your company guidelines for harassment, drug use, and mental health. Encourage employees who experience or witness harassment to report it to upper managers. Provide benefits so employees can afford counseling and therapy for mental health problems.

You should set a good example for your workers. Do not come to work if you are drunk or high. Report bad employee behavior you see and give talks about work responsibilities.

Figure Out What Is Going On

When you receive a report about misbehavior, you should conduct an investigation into it. Talk to the employee who made the report. Take notes on what they said.

You should then talk to the unruly employee. They deserve the right to express their thoughts and refute allegations made against them. You should also interview employees who witnessed what happened or were indirectly affected.

Get to the reasons why the behavior is occurring. If drugs and alcohol are responsible, the employee should receive help for it.

They can participate in a drug and alcohol evaluation online. They can also participate in individual therapy and check themselves into a rehab clinic.

Affirm Hurt Co-workers

All types of harassment are harmful. A survivor of harassment may suffer from diminished self-esteem and insomnia. They may want to stop coming into work, or they may ask for a shift in responsibilities.

Give survivors of harassment the help they deserve. Offer them a vacation. When they return to work, ease them into their responsibilities through time instead of dropping everything on their lap.

Be transparent to your employees about what happened. If you made a report about the employee’s behavior, release it to people. Tell them what you will do to prevent similar misconduct from occurring again.

Promote Healthy Employee Behavior

Employee behavior is rarely ideal. You should take steps to create a positive working environment. Tell employees to report bad behavior and encourage them to care for themselves.

Investigate any allegation of harassment or drug use at work. Interview employees accused of misconduct so you understand all sides of the story.

You should ask the employee to seek counseling. But you should also care for anyone affected by their behavior. Take steps after the fact to engender positive conduct.

Creating a positive workspace requires a lot of knowledge. Read guides about workplace behavior by following our coverage.