Handling employee insubordination

Conflicts in the workplace can be manageable at times but when you have too many conflicts, it's going to lead to firing of employees. Small businesses thrive on the personalities and good attitudes their employees come into the office with. If you have a "sour apple" in the office, it will ruin it for everyone else. So what do you do? Do you offer a warning or do you just fire this employee straight away? Employee insubordination has always been a challenge for businesses to deal with. These rogue employees make it hard to work, especially if you want to focus on keeping relationships with your staff. In the end, it comes down to you being the boss and putting your foot down.

Rules
Employees must know that the same rules that apply to the rest of the staff also apply to them. They need to learn the rules and respect them or they are out. You need to properly educate your employees about these rules in order to be seen as a respectable business manager.

Cause
What is behind the employee insubordination? Are you causing this to occur or are the employees generally unhappy and making up their own rules and path instead? You need to do your research and find out what is really going on here if you are going to properly discipline employees for their behaviors.

Disobedience or disregard
As you notice that the employee is acting out of their own free will, you need to analyze what they are doing. Are they being disobedient once and awhile or are they acting out of sheer disregard to all of the rules you have laid forth for the company?

Behaviors
Do the employees still respect you? If you have an employee that is treating your rudely and using foul language, this is insubordination. You should not tolerate it no matter what the circumstances are. When a person becomes combatative like this, it's time to let them go on their own separate path.

Allowing an employee to stick around after they have failed to adhere to the rules and continue to belittle you and everything that your company is about need to be let go. The time has come for you to put on your Donald Trump hat and make it a clear-cut "your fired" message to the employee. Trying to beat around the bush by being too nice is going to frustrate you and it's not going to make it any easier. This person has wronged you and the company, who care about leaving on a good note now? You are the manager, this is your company and you need to protect it.

If you don't fire the employee, what message are you sending to the rest of your staff? They now see that they don't have to follow the rules and they can get away with anything they want as well. It's not going to bode well for your company by any means and it can take a long time for you to rebuild your company as word will start to spread about the company and the type of ethics you don't have.

Look for ways to build a construction working environment after the employee is gone. People are always going to have some mistrust with the company when a person is fired. By taking the time to sit down with the rest of your staff and reassure them that as long as they obey the rules, they will be fine, they will let down their guard. Team building exercises can also help you with trust issues that come after an employee has been let go.