One Bad Slacker Can Ruin The Bunch

By Juliet PitmanSales Management and Talent Insights

Weakest Link

A study conducted at the University of New South Wales Australian School of Business, has shown how just one unconscientious worker can drag the performance of the entire team down, disproving the theory that a strong team can carry and make up for a few slackers.

“It can be someone who isn’t proactive, someone who only does the minimum amount of work, or someone who is just plain disinterested in the job at hand,” the study states.

For team leaders, this has significant implications for how to deal with slackers. As with any under-performer, it pays to tackle the situation head-on:

  1. Document their lack of performance.
  2. Call a private meeting to discuss their under-delivery, drawing on your documented ‘evidence’ where necessary.
  3. Make it clear that you have noticed they aren’t pulling their weight.
  4. Listen to their excuses and explanations.
  5. Clearly outline your expectations and their deliverables.
  6. Set a monitoring period and explain that you will be expecting a significant improvement in their performance during this time.
  7. Be prepared to keep the pressure on when the monitoring period is up.

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About Author

Juliet Pitman

Juliet Pitman is a features writer at Entrepreneur Magazine and ThinkSales Magazine. Trained as a journalist, with an Honours degree in English from Rhodes University, I have spent much of my career in the business publishing space. I have extensive experience editing and writing for corporate publications, including Integrated Annual Reports, Sustainability Reports, Corporate Social Investment Reports, internal staff magazines and websites. After running my own corporate communications and reporting business for many years I took up the position of Vice President: Internal Communications for the global operations in the Gold Fields Ltd group. This includes responsibility for all communication with internal stakeholders at all levels across the mining operations in South Africa, South America, Australia and West Africa.