How to Handle a Difficult Employee at a Construction Site?

Working in the construction industry means meeting challenges on a regular basis. Managing your workforce is often the most difficult of them all. Now, people in the construction industry are some of the toughest, hardest-working, wittiest people that you’ll ever meet. They can also be quite stubborn and argumentative. Here are a couple of things you need to do when you encounter a worker who you would describe as particularly difficult.

Now, with the push to help more people become homeowners, the solidity of the construction industry becomes even more important. With that in mind and without further ado, here are a couple of tips to help you keep things together at a construction site.

Never Reward Poor Behavior

When someone displays bad behavior, the worst thing you can do is turn a blind eye. You see, everything that goes on at the construction site is a public matter. By turning a blind eye to their bad behavior, you’ll encourage this behavior from others, as well.

Even those who are not prone to acting out might get discouraged. Sure, this is not outright schadenfreude, it’s also setting an example. There’s nothing that discourages hard workers and team players more than seeing the opposite behavior go unpunished.

Still, your answer needs to be proportionate to their misbehavior. Being too harsh may seem like the best way to deter future problems, as well, but it will also portray you as a tyrannical leader. This is something that you definitely want to avoid.

Stay Within Your Legal Rights

Mobbing is a huge problem in the business world, especially in construction, seeing as how it’s, for the most part, seen as a testosterone-infused industry. So, being constantly on the line with your construction lawyers might be a good idea. You need to understand what you’re allowed to ask of them and which orders are pushing it too far.

Undergoing some sensitivity training is something that a lot of people do only after they’re mandated to do so by already making a mistake. However, this should not be the case. Taking some sensitivity training in advance can help you get the gist of how to act to avoid legal issues in these disputes.

Keep in mind that it’s not always about what you say but how you say it, as well. This is why it’s so important that you learn how to predict a backlash without having to cause it, in the first place.

Reduce Idle Time

People with a task are less likely to cause trouble. This is true in construction, especially due to the added peer pressure. You see, one person needs to fetch the material that the other person is about to use. If that person slows down the process, the other person can’t work either. Moreover, as the saying goes “idle hands are the devil’s workshop”.

The most dangerous thing about engaging in a dispute with an employee is the idea that the rest of the crew will take their side. They don’t have to be open about it but if they seem like the sensible ones, you’re the irrational party. Soon, they’ll adopt this view on you and use it on multiple occasions.

Construction workers are hard-working people and when they see someone slacking, they’re automatically taking their opposition. This means that, no matter how sound their argument sounds, if they’re being lazy while everyone else is hard at work, they will never be able to rouse the site.

Take their Perspective

If the meeting is taking place in private and they file a complaint, ask them for some time to think it through. Now, this can sound a bit dismissive so give them an exact timeline by which they’ll get the response. This is a rational thing to do and it will buy you time to take their perspective and try to figure out whether you’re in the wrong.

Emotional intelligence is incredibly important when it comes to working with people and you definitely need to practice it more. Even if they are wrong, you need to find out why they hold this stance, in the first place. This way, you’ll be able to tell if they’re being difficult or if they’re just wrong (which can happen to anyone, really).

This also helps you appear as someone who values the opinions of their employees. Just think about it, even if you do dismiss their claim, they’ll still walk away with the impression that you gave it a serious thought. This is vastly different from just dismissing them outright without listening to the word they have to say.

In Conclusion

Arguments in the workplace are a normal occurrence but there’s a difference between a person who disagrees with you on something specific and someone who’s just looking for a reason to start a fight. So, when dealing with a difficult employee, your first task is to figure out whether they’re really being difficult or if this is a standalone issue. Then, you need to check what’s the morally and legally right thing for you to do in this situation. Seeing as how each argument is different, you want to customize your approach (and your arguments) and build the kind of leadership style that can help you in different circumstances.

Guest Contributor: Frank Robertson