Disrespectful and arrogant employees are a common problem in the workforce. In some cases, these employees can be dealt with through verbal counseling by a supervisor. However, in other cases, the situation may be more severe and warrant a written warning or even termination. In order to handle a disrespectful or arrogant employee, it is important to understand the signs of these behaviors and to take appropriate action.

If you have ever had to work with a disrespectful and arrogant employee, you know how infuriating it can be. These employees think they are better than everyone else and have no problem letting everyone know it. They often talk down to their coworkers and bosses and can make the work environment incredibly uncomfortable.If you find yourself in this situation, here are a few tips for dealing with the situation:

Remain calm and professional. Do not let the employee get under your skin.

Address the behavior head-on. Let the employee know that their behavior is not acceptable and that it needs to stop.

Set clear boundaries. Let the employee know what is and is not acceptable behavior.

Seek help from your supervisor or HR if the situation does not improve.

dealing with disrespectful and arrogant employees can be frustrating, but following these tips can help make the situation more manageable.

Be Patient:

Have a serious talk with the person about your team. Tell him that you are a co-founder and he is not. After that, listen to what he has to say, but if he says something like “I don’t care about your team”, it is important that you tell him that you care. If this is the person who insults his/her colleagues (even though they are not on your team), then they will be motivated to find someone else to harass and insult. I believe that this is a common problem in the startup world (and you should be aware of this). The best solution for this kind of problem is to replace the person by another more qualified one. If you do not have an option for such a replacement, then it is better to dismiss the person and give an ultimatum: either accept my decision or quit. Do not take any other action on it as this will make them unhappy. You should also treat this situation as a learning experience: keep telling yourself: I am better than them and I will prevail over them in the future too!

Be Clever:

A few days ago I had a discussion with a colleague who was telling me how he was trying to give his employee a good recommendation for the position he is about to offer her. The employee had just come out of an 8-month-long maternity leave and she was very much in need of something to do and so the company needed to help her get back into the workforce as soon as possible (after all, she will take it from there, not from him). The co-worker said that he wanted to give her a long enough period of time for her training sessions in order for her to learn how to work effectively without losing her trainability and/or addressing some of the issues she was experiencing at that moment. He said that this is part of the reason why he wants his employee to stay on their feet during their maternity leave while they are away. As a co-worker or team leader you need to be clever in dealing with this problem. Approach your employee with utmost courtesy – don’t allow them any sense of power over you – and say  “We have been talking about this, but I am aware that you have been very busy during your maternity leave. You have not had time during this period to get yourself back into shape, therefore we are giving you an extended period of time for your training sessions. We will resume our usual working schedule once you return from your leave. You can use this additional time however you want by following these 4 steps: 1) Go home before 8pm (or close the office after 8pm) 2) Go home 2 hours before your shift starts 3) Start your regular work at 9am (instead of 10am) 4) Please let us know when you are ready for our next meeting which will happen at 10am. Please don’t ask us what we mean by “regular work”. This is meant as an informal discussion so make sure that you don’t take it too seriously. We do not want our employees completing extra tasks or assignments during their maternity leave! That’s it! Your new employee should have no reason whatsoever not to hang up their coat and get themselves back into shape as soon as possible after having found out they are expecting their first child.

Give Him/Her a Chance:

The most important thing you can do as a co-worker or team leader is to give the person with whom you have a dispute a chance to prove his/her case. This is not just about finding out what the problem is and giving the person a chance (this can be done in quite an effective way) but also about getting them to understand why their behavior might be problematic and what you’re trying to accomplish. If they fail to appreciate your seriousness or take your concerns seriously, it will be hard for you to win them over. The following are some of the things that make it difficult or impossible for co-workers and team leaders to deal with a colleague who is rudderless: • You can’t force him/her into doing anything; he/she will say no even if it’s something that could literally save their life • Even if you set up meetings and so on, he/she doesn’t show up • He/she works in isolation; nobody else knows what he/she says or does • He/she has no trust in colleagues or superiors • He/She has no respect for any one else’s opinion (especially if there’s an obvious conflict of interest) Consequently, these are some of the things that can be done: 1) Go through his/her email, file and notes and see if there are any misunderstandings, contradictions between what he/she wrote before and how he/she now writes. It helps if they have a good memory but even then it will be useful to find out what was said before and whether there were any jokes around that could signal humor at work. 2) Seek feedback from people he/she worked with previously (teams, vendors etc.). 3) Ask him or her directly. If this fails and seems unlikely, try asking someone who knows him (the older people tend to know him best). This probably won’t work very well as most people would rather talk than sit down time after time but it’s much better than nothing. 4) You can’t arrest your colleague’s behavior: The only possible way of stopping this kind of behavior is offending the person by saying something like “Hey! Stop acting like an asshole! That’s not cool! I’m going home now!”

Observe his/her changes:

– Does this person’s behavior indicate arrogance? – What is his/her power level? – Is the team dependent on him/her? – Can you trust him/her? If yes, then you need to be very careful in handling this person. If no, then you can do one of the following: 1. Do not escalate it to management. But don’t be afraid of confrontation. You can always walk away if things get out of hand or a conflict escalates beyond your control while no one is around to defend you. (If they are the boss, in which case, bring them up to the management team). If they are not the boss and things go that far, you could even file a formal complaint with HR (they should be used to dealing with such matters). 2. Tell them that you have noticed their behavior and told them that it does not represent your company culture or any value that we as employees should carry around for our future career growth and success. Find out whether there is a disciplinary mechanism in place for this kind of behavior and make sure that it is used before dismissing someone like this from the company. If there isn’t, suggest that you take action yourself rather than risk losing your job by taking an issue further up the chain. 3. Say something like “I am interested in learning more about how my colleagues may express their frustration with this person, so I will be happy to follow up with a discussion after a little bit of time has passed so we can understand how he/she behaves better” or “As I mentioned previously, I am interested in learning more about how others feel when they are being mistreated by my colleagues (or myself). It would be very helpful if we could have some time after speaking together so we can discuss it further and see if there is anything we may have missed” etc etc… use your best judgment here… 4. The most effective thing would probably be for you not to make any proactive attempts at disciplining this guy/gal (which would likely backfire on both of you because people won’t want to work under someone who gets fired — the point being; why should one try?). It might work better if they create an internal document where they explain why certain behavior has been problematic (or even just say why they don’t want to follow what someone else said at a certain point)

Never Stop Learning:

So much of what we do is about building skills, and being self-aware. The best way to develop a better understanding of yourself is to have a personal growth journey. One of the most effective ways to do this is through learning about yourself. That applies not just to your own personal development, but also the development of your team. So far in my career I’ve had two fundamental experiences that helped me understand myself better: 1) I was on a project where I was bitching and moaning because I didn’t like the way things were going (a $500k project with no real feedback). After an epic day of complaining, I turned around and said something like: “I’d rather make $500k than make more work for you guys!” (to which my boss responded “I don’t want to hear it, you’re not worth $500k.” This made me realize that pride in work is what allowed me to get past my initial anger when I had found myself there.) 2) The other experience for which I am most grateful happened when I was working on a big high-end marketing campaign with a high-ranking executive from another company. He came up to me one day and said, “I really want you on our team.” We did the usual stuff we do in an effort to win his favor: he bought us lunch (we were working out of a pizza place) and he decided that some higher up guy at his company would be perfect person for our agency (and so he wanted me). But then he said something else: “You know what? You’re not as bad as everyone says you are.” In other words: “You are good at this! You’re smart! You’re hardworking! You take pride in your work! You know how much it costs us to hire people like you!” That moment changed everything for me; it gave me confidence that no matter how much you may dislike the people who disagree with you or how much they may be rude or uncaring, if you can come up with some good reasons why they will be better for your team than other people, their manager will listen. It also reinforced that even if someone is right all the time — even if they’re right 100% of the time — they’re not going to be listened to all the time either. Even if they’re right 90% of the time.

Contact the Department Head:

You are the leader of a team of people and you are responsible for their work. One day, your employee comes in to inform you that he/she doesn’t like his/her work and that he/she has decided to leave the company after a disagreement with his manager. While this can be a very difficult news for you, it is also a very important news for the team: • When it comes to your employees, you can’t always control what they do; they are free to quit at any time. • What you should do is ensure that all other employees on this team understand their responsibility towards them (that they have their own personal responsibility too); and have a willingness to do something about it. • It may not be easy or pleasant but sometimes, it’s better to talk about problems openly and resolve them before they get worse. Keywords: arrogant employee, disrespectful employee Text: An arrogant employee is someone who thinks that he/she knows much more than everyone else and acts accordingly when this person’s opinions don’t match those of others in the team. The following questions will help look at how you can deal with an arrogant employee: Questions 1-6: Should I fire him?  Friends should always support each other no matter how powerful or people think they are . . .  and sometimes there’s even some help for some people out there! – Proverbs 3:2 (NIV) Now let’s see what Proverbs does to answer these questions…. Question 1 – Should I fire him?   Answer : Yes! Should I fire him? Really! Does this sound silly or lazy? Of course not! But that’s exactly what I say in my business book ‘A Guide For business Leaders’. Should I fire him? Seriously let me ask you one thing first though – Are you so sure about his behavior and attitude towards your office environment that firing him would be the right thing? Oh yes! And here we go – which one is right! If he never gives any reason then it’s probably best just to let him go – what could possibly happen next anyway?! Question 2 – Friends should always support each other no matter how powerful or people think they are . . .  and sometimes there’s even some help for some people out there! – Proverbs 3:2 (NIV) Slap a square on his forehead.

Acknowledge the Problem, Don’t Just Ignore It:

This is one of my favorite blog posts on the subject. I recommend reading it to learn the basics of how to deal with this kind of employee. The first thing you should do is acknowledge the problem by taking a hard look at your HR department and yourself. You need to see if there is something you can do to improve this situation, even if it means some compromise on your pay or perks. The second thing you should do is get rid of that person and find a better replacement, if possible at the same salary (and more money). The more casual and friendly they were with their co workers, the more likely you are to find another one. The third thing you need to do to make sure no one else in your organization has this problem (or worse) is to create an environment that prohibits such behavior from happening again. This includes: 1)  stick together when doing work together 2)  don’t allow distractions or frivolous talking from each other during work time, including emailing and texting (if possible) 3)  let people know who’s responsible for a particular policy/task so that everyone knows what’s expected of them 4)  help form a culture where people expect behavior like this will not be tolerated by others in your organization.

Conclusion

Being a co worker/team leader can be an extremely stressful and challenging job. If you are not careful, you will end up in a very stressful situation with this employee. So, what to do? The best thing to do is to handle it calmly. You should keep all your emotions in check and remain patient and friendly but firm with this employee. If you are being rude and even hostile, that’s just unacceptable, don’t forget that it is not the easiest job for any employee to do.