Antisocial co-workers: Minor inconvenience or ticking time-bomb?

Most companies are forced to tolerate some antisocial behavior from problem employees, but there are some very compelling reasons out there to do otherwise.

From taking credit for others’ work to spreading nasty, unfounded rumors to excluding co-workers (or promoting cliques), chances are your finance department isn’t immune to workers who show these tendencies.

Many managers shrug it off as an unfortunate reality every company has to deal with. But the effects of antisocial behavior on its victims can be devastating.

Harvard Business Review’s Christine Porath and Christine Pearson studied office incivility for the past decade and came to some startling conclusions.

According to their research, targets of antisocial co-workers have responses ranging from anger to vengeance — plus their job satisfaction and productivity drops dramatically.

Also, while some good employees jump ship because of troublesome co-workers, the ones that stay actually cause the most damage.

According to the research, based on responses from several thousand managers and employees from a broad spectrum of industries, victims of co-worker incivility exhibit:

• decreased work effort (48%),
• less time in the office (47%), and
• diminished quality of work (38%).

Figures like these make a strong case for taking some type of action against the worst culprits — especially if you’ve been lax in the past. Click here to read proven strategies for dealing with problem employees.