Can anyone who is a manager answer me this?

Question

Why do you praise bad employees? What is it about them you favor more than the good ones who bust their ass and does everyone’s job? Why do you let them get away with so many things that the good employees will get in trouble for? I want to know. Why punish the good employees? Why play favoritism?

DaveJord · Accepted Answer

Because of lawyers honestly, that the bottom line and simple answer.

Because back in the day bad employees you could just fire no questions asked. They sucked at their job, so you could just get ride of them. But now there are wrongful termination lawsuits, unemployment that you have to pay a percent on, and then of course the litany list of possible HR complaints they will try to come up with.

So honestly, good employees do not need the constant positive reinforcement. The bad employees tend to know who they are even if they are willing to admit it. So, they tend to insecure about it and are constantly looking for other excuses to justify to themselves what the real problems are, instead of just taking personal responsibility for their on short comings.

So as the manger it comes down to the carrot or the stick... and since the stick will almost certainly own you or company up for legal liabilities... all you got is the carrot to offer. Because even though you want to fire them and replace them, you can't. So, you got to do all this fake ass positive reinforcement BS to try to get the most your possibility can out of them.

ohsheeT · Accepted Answer

Okay so first of all you have to understand the word manager and the word supervisor and how they become that they are basically just chosen out of the blue

It's not because they know what they're doing otherwise they wouldn't have been chosen

If they would just stop and think about what's been handed to them they would want to become a leader and not a manager of people not a supervisor of people if you become a leader people will follow you anywhere and do anything you ask that you have to know how to lead people number one is you treat everybody the exact same way number two is you show them by doing the job yourself is called communication it's called becoming a team and you create that atmosphere by moving everybody around each and every day so each and everybody gets to learn every job and you're right there with them doing it

A manager or a supervisor as soon as they get that title it goes to their head and they can't get any more oxygen to their brain if you notice most of them don't know what they're doing because they're so hung up on that title and being in charge of nothing really

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

I wouldn't change what you're doing, but managers all too often need to work on this.

There's a saying that 10% of a manager's problem children will take up 90% of a manager's time, usually not for good reasons. Invariably what happens is reliable, low-maintenance and conscientious employees get taken for granted because managers know who has it together and who doesn't. They take up the slack, make up for problem employee deficiencies, and seldom (if ever complain). It's up to managers to counsel substandard employees by pointing out where the problems are and, more importantly, what they need to do to fix them. Likewise it's up to good managers to counsel the good ones, recognize who gets the work done, but since high-maintenance employees take up a disproportionate amount of time, this often gets overlooked.

I'd recommend voicing your concerns to your manager (s). I don't recommend taking the stance that becoming a "bad employee" will improve your lot in work life because then you become one of the 10% problem employees and begin taking up a lot of time - for all the wrong reasons.

CupcakeTheDestroyer · Accepted Answer

Speaking as an employee rather than an employer, people get praised based on how it looks. If they know how to make it look like they’re working hard when they’re not, easily done. If you want to stop being reliable, then you need to set boundaries for yourself, stop being a people-pleaser and stop begging foe validation from outside sources. Your manager’s manager’s manager’s manager doesn’t care if you drop dead tomorrow, the company just sees you as a number, not a person. Don’t put in 100% of yourself to a job that doesn’t pay you even half of what you’re worth.

Brokenheartedx · Answer

Because the bad employees usually are friends with the boss, if they aren't friends they are related.
The bad employees are the ones clyping to the boss on the good ones to curry favour.
There's always a pattern with bad employees, they are lazy and stupid. An example, imagine on an even weighted scale, the bad employee will mention everything bad about the company throwing the colleagues under the bus all the while praising themselves and how it should be done, so the scale tips, they have shot up above you and you end up sunk to the bottom.

Plus they have unions and lawyers on speed dial

OddBeMe · Answer

That is an issue. But like body positivity, it’s easier to change human behavior with kindness. And as I speak with other business owners, I can tell you the BEST employees receive the least attention from managers. And that’s not right, but it’s economical.

exitseven · Answer

I try to be fair and at the same time get all the work done. I have to take into account which one of my technicians can perform certain tasks better than others.

dudeinohio · Answer

Unfortunately, it seems poor performers are rewarded by having to do less work. The productive employees are expected to do more and more work.

jahaims · Answer

Basically bad employees are so useless they have to abuse the good ones because the good ones are less likely to quit.

DerekC321 · Answer

Because those people have mastered the art of Kissing Ass.

Can anyone who is a manager answer me this?

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