Difficult Employee? Look Below the Surface

Recently my client came into our meeting completely exasperated. My client is typically upbeat, positive, and has a liberating can-do attitude. Today, something was terribly wrong.

He spoke of a brilliant new hire. A creative genius who brought magnitudes of potential to the company. However, other employees were complaining about the difficulty of working with this genius.

“She doesn’t show up for meetings!” employees said. “She doesn’t respond to my emails, and I don’t know what to expect!”  Employees continued to air their frustrations and vent about what it was like working with this person.   My client wondered whether he had made a grave mistake in hiring this employee. Would he now need to fire her?

As we continued to talk about the situation it occurred to me that most of the complaints revolved around time. There were no complaints about the work that was ultimately delivered. The work was professional, brilliant, and creatively packaged. Then, what was it about time?

We talked a bit more about the cultural dynamic of the team – American, German, and Brazilian. Ah. There it was. “How do they each value time?” I asked.

Different cultures have different norms and values around many things, including the time dimension. In some cultures, time is of the essence and there is tremendous pressure to make every moment count.  Other cultures prioritize being punctual therefore being on time means showing up five minutes early.   Last, other cultures value time differently.  In fact, it might be true that the more successful someone is, the later they show up.

So, the next time you wonder about a difficult employee and team complaints that are getting in the way of the work, think again, and probe deeper.  The real issue may lie just below the surface.