Employee sabotage: causes, signs, methods of neutralization

No matter how much effort and time the company spends on attracting customers, employees and promoting the business - if it does not have a well-established HR management system or saboteurs, all efforts may be in vain. If you notice that the work in your store has significantly deteriorated, try to identify the root of the problem. In particular, determine what reasons led to the reluctance of employees to perform their duties.

In this article we will talk about the causes and manifestations of sabotage and methods that will help to get rid of conflict situations in the team.

Sabotage is understood as a deliberate refusal of personnel to work, opposition to the execution of work orders, a conscious, negligent attitude to them or a protest of employees against the rules and norms of conduct adopted at the enterprise.

Experts often refer to the sabotage of employees to the type - "personality-group", as the conflict arises between the manager and a group of saboteurs. However, it often occurs between one employee and the manager or the system in general. Sabotage is not easy to identify by external signs, it is mostly manifested in negative business performance.

The reason for sabotage can be changes that violate the usual way of life in the company, or the subjective needs of the employee. 

A new leader in the team comes with his/her own views, goals and ideas, which employees are not always willing to share and support. The process of getting acquainted with the new boss and his infusion into the team can be compared to the relationship between a child and an adult. A child, if allowed to do everything and forbidden to do anything, will eventually sit on his head. So it is here: if the new manager does not set the boundaries of acceptable behavior in the team, employees may resort to sabotage.

First, they study in detail the reactions of the new boss to their "emissions": absence at the workplace, hidden ignoring of orders, lack of initiative, etc. And later, the silent form of protest can turn into an active one, when employees openly ignore the remarks addressed to them or the norms of behavior with their superiors. The reason for this attitude is the unwillingness to obey the new owner and his rules. 

Evolutionarily, people are afraid of change. Because changes hide uncertainty and the need to spend more internal resources. Resistance of the staff to innovations is almost natural. In the change of a stable working rhythm and order, employees see a threat to personal stability and do their best to neutralize it.

One of the most typical examples of innovations that teams often openly sabotage is the introduction of automation of trade accounting.

Let's look at a common situation. For years, the store worked manually, the sellers weighed the goods on scales with arrows, the money was counted on a calculator, the results of the recalculation or inventory were recorded in a notebook. Probable commodity and financial errors were also corrected manually.

And then came the era of digitalization. At the disposal of employees were computers, scanners, barcodes, fiscal registrars, databases, product cards, and an accounting program to work with. Work for people, especially those unfamiliar with technology or who are over 50, can cause rejection and as a result - sabotage.

Such employees show inability to master changes in the organization of their work and generally question the need for such innovations.

The reason for the resistance to automation may also be widespread abuses by the staff: theft, weighting, fraud. After all, automated accounting can deprive unscrupulous employees of illegal, albeit stable, income.

Another reason for sabotage is a conflict between the head of the department and its formal or informal leader. Such a leader may be a person who seeks to get a higher position, to achieve additional privileges or to disguise the traces of his own abuses. And maybe vice versa, when the most qualified specialist of the department seeks promotion, and his experience and achievements are ignored.

Often the actions of management - mistakes, unfair distribution of remuneration, undeserved punishment or encouragement, questionable personnel appointments - are easily recognized and painfully perceived in the team. These actions become the cause of conflict aggravation, which leads to sabotage of employees who believe that they deserve more, whether it is fair or not.

Injustice of superiors can become a weapon in the hands of manipulators among informal microgroup leaders who are just waiting for such mistakes. They incite their subordinates to sabotage and go "to the dark side" for selfish purposes.

It also happens that the true reason for employee sabotage lies in the lack of incentives or unwillingness to develop in a particular position or company. The company has no system of staff motivation, the work of conscientious subordinates is not evaluated in any way and all employees are treated as ordinary performers. 

Signs of sabotage

How to deal with sabotage?