Editor’s note: This article was first published in October 2013. The statement that nowadays practically everyone is afraid of losing their job because of the constant news and the economic situation reflects the 2013 Spanish crisis.
There are many types of people and personalities in companies. The perfect employee doesn’t exist, so a company becomes a varied mix of personal skills and flaws working together.
As in any marriage, we will never find individual perfection, but knowing our spouse’s flaws and accepting them could be a good start towards a more or less perfect marriage.
The problem in a company (unlike a marriage) is that it’s not a matter of two people but sometimes of hundreds, so it’s very likely that one of our colleagues fits one of the profiles we’re about to describe.
In the end, whether a company has 7 employees or 5,000, they end up splitting into two groups: those who are going to succeed and those who aren’t, those who do a good job and those who don’t, those who are useful and those who aren’t… We’ll focus on the ones leading the second group: the people who shouldn’t be in the company.
We’re talking about toxic people who do the company no good
(Read: 6 things at work that motivate no one)
1. The groupthinkers
If you’ve ever started at a new company and noticed a group of employees, always the same ones, complaining about the same things and singing the same tune every day, that’s not necessarily a bad thing in itself, unless you notice that their criticism never reaches the company’s management.
Thinking is fine, and so is constructive criticism. If a group of people is unhappy about something, a CEO’s job is to listen to them and try to keep employees motivated and happy at work. The thing is, this group’s aim isn’t to improve the company but to infect, day after day, every employee who comes onto their radar.
The problem for a new employee who has to deal with this group is that if they reject them, they may feel left out. But if they join them and get involved… they’ll become just another idiot.
2. The one who’s afraid of being fired
Although nowadays practically everyone is afraid of losing their job because of the constant news and the economic situation, that’s not the kind of fear we mean. We’re referring to the fearful person who is afraid of being fired because they know they aren’t fit for the job and are deeply insecure.
You might think this person is hard to spot, but no. In fact, it’s very easy. Their fear of being fired for incompetence leads them to point the finger at colleagues when something goes wrong, blame anyone to save themselves, and constantly suck up to the boss.
This person knows they won’t earn merit or medals for their skills, so they’ll try to gain visibility by bringing everyone else down. This kind of employee can become a cancer in the company.
(Read: 7 psychological traps that hold back your success)
3. The loser
This type of person has a loser’s mentality by nature, although the good news is that it can be treated. Every time a colleague succeeds at something, such as being top salesperson five months in a row or getting promoted after pulling off a project, this person will never believe you earned it on your own merits. Either it was luck, or it’s because you’ve always been lucky.
They will never admit that someone earned something because they’re better than them. And yes, some will say that companies are full of promotions for the least deserving, that management posts are held by a section head’s nephews or cousins, and so on… all quite true.
But the person we call a loser is the one who, instead of admiring and learning, prefers to console themselves by thinking it was luck, and so never learns. Examples:
- “Well, Amancio Ortega manufactures in India. Anyone could become a millionaire like that.”
- “Sure, if I’d been born on Wall Street, I’d be like Warren Buffett too…”
- “… Steve Jobs was lucky. If the iPhone hadn’t fallen on his head from a tree, he’d never have invented it.”
See also: 4 mistakes you could be making in your career this year
4. The gossip
There are two kinds of gossip:
Harmless gossip, which is very common and which almost everyone indulges in because we’re curious by nature, and then there’s malicious gossip, which usually comes from a gossip acting with all the ill will in the world or, worse still, from a compulsive gossip and liar who isn’t aware of the harm they do simply to get attention.
As a rule, the malicious gossip claims you said things you never said, or takes your words out of context. Other times, nobody said anything at all. This kind of person is toxic and harmful, and every minute they spend in the company increases the chances of serious problems, because they can start outlandish rumours, such as so-and-so sleeping with so-and-so while both are married, and the gossip may spread outside the company (which it usually does).
And what’s even worse: for some reason, the gossip says that you said you saw it. Then you’re screwed.
5. The one who thinks below the belt
While many companies don’t have defined policies on formal romantic relationships at work, when it comes to casual flings they do seem to agree that they won’t tolerate them inside the business.
Some bosses don’t like these people because they think they get distracted more easily. Others are even clearer about it: this character, who “chases any prey that lets itself be caught”, is a problem both for the prey who accepts and for the one who doesn’t, and, obviously, tends to get distracted more often.
(Read: 9 simple, extraordinary things to say to the people at work every day)
6. The psychopath
Some time ago, following Babiak’s study, we explained how to identify personalities with psychopathic tendencies since, according to the author, most psychopaths are not in asylums or prison but running companies.
The psychopath’s profile is perhaps easiest to find in a middle-management position, although we could also find it in a colleague who tries to step on you to climb the ladder. Either way, it’s a personality type we should avoid in the company. (Read: Signs that a colleague could be a psychopath)
7. The bad boss
If, as a business owner who doesn’t deal directly with the staff, you let a bad boss in, you’ve wrecked the company. As Richard Branson says, beware of hiring the wrong person at the “top” of the company, because they can destroy everything that has been built in a very short time.
Sometimes the most toxic employee in the company is the boss themselves, who for some reason enjoys the trust of the owner or their own superiors, who don’t know what’s going on in the company.
A bad boss can demotivate every employee and even fire someone who contributes ideas, on the grounds that they seem unhappy with the current ones. This really is the hardest toxic employee to detect, because some companies have a system very similar to the army’s, where going over someone’s head is frowned upon. (Read: 10 ways you, as a manager, may be making your employees less productive)
See also: 9 types of toxic people you should avoid like the plague
Featured image: Charles Haigh-Wood, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
