What about difficult people?

“Becoming a manager/leader doesn’t sound so tough, Curmudge. According to our recent discussions, I just have to be a humanist with technical competence and organizational smarts. But you said weeks ago that there might be 10% of the people out there who would resist change, wouldn’t want me to succeed, and would be just plain ornery.”

“The subject is difficult people, Jaded Julie, and there are courses offered and whole books written about how to deal with them. However, no matter how much their manager/leader has learned, she is in an unenviable position.”

“Why do people act that way, Curmudge?”

“I guess it’s like we talked about on May 8. Their mothers helped them with potty training, but they forgot to teach them how to be nice.”

“Did you ever have to deal with people like that?”

“I sure did, Julie. I had just joined the company and had been appointed lab manager. Within a short time I leaned that one team member ‘would but couldn’t’, one ‘could but wouldn’t’, and one hated several of the other team members. In fact she told them so to their face screaming with language that would make a drill sergeant blush. It was, to say the least, a turbulent staff meeting.”

“So what did you do?”

“The books would advise firing the lot of them, but there were some extenuating circumstances. Two of the ‘bad actors’ were looking for an excuse to sue the company for discrimination, and the company had deep pockets and didn’t want to be sued. So I worked closely with the local HR person and kept my boss—located in another state—apprised of the situation. Everyone else in the building, unless they were hard of hearing, knew all about it.”

“What about the guy that ‘would but couldn’t’? It sounds as if his issue was performance rather than behavior.”

“He was a great person, so we worked with him—and documented our efforts—for a full year. Ultimately he was terminated. It was very sad. We documented every conversation with the other two as well, and we required participation in the Employee Assistance Program. The whole process was like walking on eggs.”

“How was the lab’s performance during this period, Curmudge?”

“Surprisingly, it was quite good. There were other, excellent people in the lab, and even the problem people didn’t do too badly. Of course, I had to check their work very carefully; it made for some very long days. Things were better when we could keep everyone focused on their work and not on personalities.”

“So how did this end?”

“The company was consolidating their laboratories, and they closed ours. Some of our people retired, and the problem people went elsewhere. Perhaps they—but not their bosses—lived happily ever after. I was transferred back to the Midwest.”

“Golly, Curmudge, your hair is white, your beard is grey, your back is bent, and you walk rather slowly. Other than that, you don’t show much wear and tear from your experience with those people.”

“Right, Julie. But the problem is that I’m only 39 years old*.”

Affinity’s Kaizen Curmudgeon

*Of course, the Curmudgeon is kidding about his age.