Employment Testing Blog

Bad Is Stronger Than Good

  

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Here's a link to a Wall Street Journal article from this week that makes this case:

The negative atmosphere that bad hires bring to a company are stronger than the positive impact that superstars provide.

So evil does win out over the good, at least in this context.  So says Robert Baumeister, a psychologist at Florida State University (and his colleagues):

"The negative thoughts, feelings and performance they trigger in others are far larger and longer lasting than the positive responses generated by more constructive colleagues."

The bad vibes from a hiring mistake are "contagious" and easily drag down the efforts of other successful employees.  Whether through true incompetence or just a bad attitude, the work environment can quickly turn poisonous (hint:  that's one of the reasons companies use our pre-employment tests).  And when a manager lets the bad behavior go unpunished, it's easy to sense the frustration of the other team members. 

But the real challenge comes the bad apple is also a top performer.  What to do then?  There's no hard rule but this article suggests that even if you are forced to remove the team's misbehavin' superstar, the team can improve their performance beyond the star's contributions.