Managing difficult staff at work is a big burden for managers. Particularly, if your business depends on staff intellect/talent. I was wondering if such situations can be resolved through employing psychologists as there are diverse situations to be handled by managers alone?

These days it looks that people want easy money(salary) without putting effort into their job. Talking of problems expecting others to solve for them becomes fashionable. They feel their job is complete by verbally reporting on barriers/issues to what they set out to deliver.

How do you advise on such situations? I am really struggling and don’t know how to address. Please assist. I am much interested to know of the general experience, which I could contextualize to the circumstances I am in.

I know you have a piece to offer. Please assist me. Thank you.

There are people who are employed as workplace psychologists. See extract below

What does a workplace psychologist do?

Industrial-organizational psychologists use psychological principles and research methods to solve problems in the workplace and improve the quality of life. They study workplace productivity and management and employee working styles. They get a feel for the morale and personality of a company or organization.

I have a feeling that if you confronted one with a problem you may get a general, rather than a specific response, and not actual advice as to how to handle a particular issue. A theoretical, rather than a practical approach. But I may be under estimating them.

I do believe it is the job of the manager to tackle such issues. These are their staff, they should manage them. That’s not to say some theoretical advice wouldn’t help. A psychologist may be able to suggest approaches the manager has not thought of and be of assistance by mediating in conflict situations.

Conflict management

I have written extensively about conflict management on our sister site. Anyone interested is welcome to follow the link to register free.

Management Skills Courses

This is the link to the Conflict management modules, there are a few, so navigate to the next one by clicking on the title at the top and bottom, on the right.

Managing Conflict

You can find all the relevant posts by opening any lesson and then typing conflict into the search bar.

I believe the manager must address the problem to avoid the situation deteriorating with the inevitable loss of morale and poor performance

Before taking action, they should consider whether the person realises their behavior is causing a problem, and consider how they can get the person to alter their behavior. They should also think about how the problem has arisen -is it down to poor training or communication? How can we make sure this situation doesn’t arise again?

Then the manager needs to gather some factual evidence of the problem, and arrange to discuss it with the person in question in a non-confrontational way, and offer them positive feedback to try to defuse the problem.

Barriers/issues preventing effective delivery.

I agree that people tend to talk about problems rather than take responsibility for resolving them. It is understandable in a way because most people tend to avoid conflict, and it is so easy to make a situation worse.

I’m not sure specifically` what you mean by this remark, but if people feel their job is completed by reporting barriers to delivery, rather than dealing with them, I think it is up to the manager to raise the issue with them and get them to confront the problems and deal with them.

It is part of their job to address and remove those barriers as far as possible, and enlist the help of their management to deal with ones they can’t address effectively.

It is their job to achieve the task, and if that means that problems outside their department need to be addressed, then so be it.

Address them. Remove the barriers, make it happen.

Perhaps people are lazy, or maybe they are not sure they have the authority to work outside their direct remit. It is up to their management, perhaps by example, to show them that is the case.

I hope this addresses your points effectively