Why People Suck in Your Business (Truthbomb: It’s Probably More Related to You Than You Think.)

Meet Joe

Every business has a Joe. Great at his job, been there for years, closes the numbers, knows where all the bodies are buried. Also, kind of a nightmare to work with. Dismissive in meetings, short with anyone who asks a question twice, and has perfected the art of the sigh that makes junior staff want to quit on the spot.

Nobody says anything, because Joe gets results, and “that’s just Joe being Joe” has been the official policy for about three years. Then one Tuesday, Joe loses it at someone in the lunch room over a coffee mug, in front of six witnesses and a security camera, and suddenly it’s a formal complaint about offensive language and behaviour.

We use this exact scenario in our workshops because it’s not a one-off. It’s basically every business we’ve ever worked with, just with a different name.

Here’s the bit that stings

The instinct is always to make this about Joe. Get rid of Joe, problem solved. Except Joe didn’t get like this in a vacuum. Somebody let it slide for three years because the revenue looked good. Somebody never had the reset conversation the first time it happened. That somebody was probably you, or one of your managers, and that’s the uncomfortable bit nobody wants to hear.

People don’t roll into work each morning planning to be a dick. Something changes, and it’s usually one of two things: nobody told them clearly what was expected, or somebody’s been ignoring the problem so long it’s now the norm.

So what actually causes performance to go off the rails?

Before you write someone off as a bad egg, run through this list. We’d bet money that at least one of these is the real story.

• No clear expectations, because there’s no proper contract, policy or job description telling anyone what “good” looks like
• Inconsistent rules, where one person gets away with murder and another gets pulled up for being five minutes late
• Culture, meaning whatever actually gets tolerated day to day, regardless of what’s written in the handbook
• Flat-out ignoring the problem until it’s too awkward to raise without looking like you’ve been asleep at the wheel. Yikes we all been there!
• No real performance process, just a once-a-year feedback dump nobody prepared for
• Leadership that moves the goalposts and calls it “raising the bar”
• Expectations that were never realistic to begin with
• Zero training, then genuine surprise when someone doesn’t know how to do something nobody showed them
• The wrong person in the wrong seat
• A genuine skills gap that was never going to close on its own

Sometimes it really isn’t about work at all

Financial stress, relationship breakdown, health issues, mental illness, bullying, and isolation. All of it shows up at work looking exactly like “poor performance,” because humans don’t leave their lives at the door. This is where a decent manager stops and asks what’s actually going on, before reaching for a whacking stick.

What managing performance actually means (not the scary version)

It’s not about catching people out or building a paper trail so you can fire someone with a clear conscience. It’s about having a process that holds everyone to the same standard, keeps the workplace safe, and means your policies actually mean something instead of sitting in a folder nobody opens.

Stop “the dump” and start actual feedback

The dump is saving up twelve months of feedback and gripes and unloading them in one review while the employee sits there absorbing it. It’s a one-way conversation with no chance to respond, and it’s still how most businesses “do feedback.”

The alternative is time consuming, but it works: regular, two-way, balanced conversations. Good news and redirecting feedback, delivered like an actual human talking to another human. Most employees genuinely want this. A huge chunk of the workforce says recognition for their actual performance is what they value most, and a solid third want a proper one-on-one every single week. Feedback isn’t the harsh part of leadership. Avoiding it is what makes things harsh later. Noodle this. Saying well done or thank you costs nothing. Not one cent and this is the thing that will boost performance way more than a weekly employee award or voucher.

Human-to-human connection is missing in so many parts of our life. Work should be a place where great gets noticed, rewarded and recognised.

The four questions to ask before you do anything

Before you escalate, discipline, or quietly start building a case against someone, run it through this checklist:

• Me vs them: is this actually the employee, or is it a gap in training, expectations or support that’s on you
• Reset or formal: does this need one honest conversation, or has it gone far enough that it needs a proper process
• Fairness: are you being reasonable, kind, and giving them a genuine chance to respond
• Documenting: are you writing this down as you go, not just scrambling for evidence after it’s already blown up

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the most common reason performance goes wrong?

Unclear expectations. Nine Joees out of ten, the real problem is a missing contract, policy or job description, not a bad attitude.

Should I address a performance issue straight away?

Yes. Letting it slide is as good as approving it. An early, honest conversation is far easier than the formal process you’ll need if you wait.

Is performance management just code for discipline?

No. Done properly it’s an ongoing, two-way habit of feedback and recognition, not a once-a-year correction session.

Where to next

This is exactly the kind of scenario we work through, live, in our Managing Performance and Feeback workshop, using Joe and a few of his equally chaotic cousins.

Get your leadership team booked in, or ask us about running it in-house.

And if you’re already on an HR Gurus retainer, this workshop’s could already be included. No extra invoice, no scrambling to find a trainer. That’s the whole point of us being in your corner, we cut through the BS so you’re dealing with the Joe of your business a lot sooner than year three.