CEO Says Companies Should Figure Out The One Employee That Makes Their Co-Workers The Most Unhappy & Fire Them
He explained that CEOs should be taking the initiative to have one-on-one conversations with their employees.
insta_photos / Shutterstock One of the biggest complaints that various working-class adults have with their management is the feeling that their concerns, complaints, or criticisms aren't being properly heard and solved. Whether it's their unhappiness with a work colleague or their boss, some companies turn a blind eye. Gary Vaynerchuk, the CEO of VaynerMedia and various other organizations, revealed why that shouldn't happen anymore.
Vaynerchuk advised companies to figure out the employee who's making their co-workers unhappy and fire them.
In a TikTok video, Vaynerchuk strongly advised that companies start listening to their employees whenever they speak about a specific colleague who has collectively made them all unhappy. He pointed out that it shouldn't matter if this person is the number one salesperson, the cofounder, or the best developer bringing in mounds of revenue. If they're creating negativity in the workplace, they should be fired.
"Cancer spreads. With cancer and politics comes a lack of speed. Your company will get much slower because people are sitting around debating how miserable they are or worried to have meetings with other individuals," Vaynerchuk said. "Your company will get slow in a world where the speed of product of output features and how you interact with your customers has never been greater."
Vaynerchuk talked about how, in his company, the number two person is not the CFO or CEO but a woman named Claude Silver, who is the head of the HR department. Vaynerchuk pointed out that having a person who acts as a liaison between management and employees has been one of the biggest variables to their success and that it's always important to care about the internal feelings of those who make up a company.
So many people talk about the right way to build workplace culture. Vaynerchuk insisted that it doesn't come with having free snacks in the cafeteria for employees or having a foosball table in the common area. It comes from actually building a culture of talking to people one-on-one and getting to know their concerns, understanding how they feel about their role in the company, and addressing anything that makes them uneasy or makes it hard for them to be productive.
Photo: KIVILCIM PINAR / Canva Pro
"What you will learn is some people want money, some people want time with their family, some people want title, and some people want creativity," Vaynerchuk continued. "It is your job to know every single one of those things about every single person, every single day."
Vaynerchuk remarked that it's time companies start paying attention to the human element of their employees.
In many workplaces, there are inadequate channels for employees to provide feedback or concerns, which leads to many individuals feeling as if they're better off seeking employment elsewhere.
According to the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), 63% of workers feel their employer has ignored their voice, and 75% don't feel heard on critical issues, such as safety, benefits, and time-off requests. As a result, 34% of employees would rather quit or switch teams than voice their genuine concerns to management.
In an interview with CNBC, Jim Harter, chief scientist of workplace management and wellbeing at Gallup, stressed the importance of managers and CEOs having routine conversations with their staff members if they want to address the issues that exist in the workplace.
"Their first job is to make sure the work-related things are right — people know what their role is, they get recognized when they do good work, they feel cared about at work and have a chance to develop in the future, they can see where they’re headed in the organization. If you can get those sorts of things right, you start building trust. And when you have trust, you can open the door for having broader discussions around wellbeing," Harter said.
"They need to know about their goals, discuss their goals, and be involved in setting their goals. They need to know something about each person’s strengths to shorten the distance between them, and they need to know something about what’s going on in that work-life blend."
Failure to address these concerns will only backfire on companies, and staggering levels of dissatisfaction will ensue if companies refuse to listen and problem-solve. Because the reality is that more and more people are choosing to quit jobs that don't serve them instead of staying and being unhappy.
Nia Tipton is a Chicago-based entertainment, news, and lifestyle writer whose work delves into modern-day issues and experiences.