How to Help Handle Passive-Aggressive Employees

Do you have an employee whose behavior is negatively affecting the team’s productivity? Maybe this person is subtly aggressive in communication. Is this person hostile and do they prefer to complain behind people’s backs instead of addressing the issue in a productive manner? Does this person procrastinate or fail to show up when everyone else is depending on them? When this person is confronted, does the employee blame others and play the victim?

If the above sounds familiar, you just might find you have a passive-aggressive worker on your hands.

Passive-aggressive people may have been discouraged from a young age from expressing and communicating their anger head on. So instead of dealing with their anger, they hide their discontent and instead find indirect ways to act out their anger.

This type of behavior can lower morale and create a toxic workplace. Fortunately, managers can learn to recognize the signs of passive-aggressive behavior and take steps to end it.

Signs of a Passive-Aggressive Employee

Below are the common behaviors that passive-aggressive people use as a way to silently resist against authority, or retaliate against something they feel has wronged them:

• Fails to follow through. Passive-aggressive people will initially agree to a task or responsibility but may express their discontent by procrastinating and missing deadlines. This causes headaches and makes others’ jobs more difficult. If they do complete their work on time, it may be full of intentional errors. This is a way of undermining the team or embarrassing the person in charge.
• Refuses to be accountable. When passive-aggressive people are confronted, they will usually play the victim and refuse to take responsibility. They may blame their mistakes and shortcomings on technical problems or shift the blame to others.
• Sabotages others. Passive-aggressive people may use strategies to make their colleagues or boss look bad. For instance, they may perform well when they’re not working with the team or under the boss that they’re angry at, but they will deliberately perform poorly otherwise in order to hurt the credibility of their team or reflect badly on their boss. They may also try to undermine others by spreading harmful rumors.
• Has a negative attitude. Instead of communicating their feelings properly, passive-aggressive people act out in other ways to express their unhappiness. This could include being sarcastic as a way to cover contempt or hate for someone. They may sulk when they’ve been passed over for a promotion, and downplay others’ achievements.
• Not being a team player. This includes all of the above, but also includes needing to be in control instead of working with their colleagues in a productive manner. They may end up doing other people’s work but only so they can complain about it later.

"When dealing with a passive-aggressive employee, your best bet is to focus on what you can do to improve the situation rather than try to change the person’s attitude."

How to Deal with Passive-Aggressive Employees

Since passive-aggressive behaviors can be subtle, what are the best ways for managers to deal with a passive-aggressive employee?

1. Deal with passive-aggressive behaviors right away.

As soon as passive-aggressive behaviors are identified, managers need to deal with the situation immediately before it affects the rest of the team. Communicate how the behaviors have impacted morale and the work environment.

2. Carefully document the specific behaviors being displayed.

Be very clear about the passive-aggressive behavior you've observed. You can gather input from others on the team to make your case. The facts you’ve gathered should be behaviors that negatively affect the team’s efficiency, not personal annoyances.

3. Focus on the facts.

If the employee has been late multiple times, make note of the exact days the person arrived late. If that person hasn’t been making deadlines, point to the times this has happened.

4. Control your own emotions and anger.

Stay calm and collected when pointing out the behaviors to the employee. While this can be difficult, getting upset can make the situation worse. You may inadvertently drive the passive-aggressive employee further into withdrawal or make the person harbor deeper, angry feelings toward you. If the person makes excuses for the behavior or shifts the blame to someone else, don’t be accusatory.

5. Try to determine why an employee is behaving this way.

Sometimes people exhibit passive-aggressive behaviors because they feel they’ve been passed over for a promotion. Identifying the root cause of the problem could help end it, but you very likely won’t discover that without opening up the channels of communication. 

6. Suggest ways to fix the behavior.

When dealing with a passive-aggressive employee, your best bet is to focus on what you can do to improve the situation rather than try to change the person’s attitude. For instance, if the person is constantly missing deadlines, suggest making a timeline that could help the employee stay on schedule.

7. Open up channels of communication.

The most important tool managers have is effective communication. If you don’t have this, problems will come at you from all angles and, seemingly, from nowhere. But if you’re able to foster feedback and healthy communication with your employees, you'll encourage them to come to you as soon as problems arise.

8. Set clear standards and consequences, and monitor the employee going forward.

State what’s expected moving forward and make a plan on how to get there. Then make sure you’re continually checking in with the employee to see how things are going. Be sure you're not micromanaging the person when you check in, but rather you are there to help the person reach his or her goals. 

The Takeaway

The actions of a passive-aggressive person are complex – their behavioral patterns are often deeply rooted and a way of coping with stress, anxieties, and insecurities. So while the above strategies are a step in the right direction, there's no guarantee the person will accept and digest what you’re trying to get across. Only when they become self-aware or mature in understanding their own thoughts and actions can the person change.

On the other hand, many passive-aggressive behaviors can be avoided by proactively focusing on employee experience and engagement. Taking a proactive approach can prevent many of these problems from happening in the first place.

A version of this article was originally published on October 13, 2014. 

Photo: Getty Images