What Should You Do When an Employee Keeps Causing Problems?

This post is for SME owners and managers dealing with an employee issue that keeps coming back and are unsure what to do next. You’ll leave with a practical way to work out what is really going on before deciding how to handle it.

This post is NOT: a step-by-step disciplinary procedure or legal advice for a specific case.

If you want something more specific, these may help:

Difficult Conversations at Work: A UK Guide for Employers and Managers

Handling Employee Misconduct in a UK Small Business: How to Respond Fairly

Managing Underperformance in the UK: What to Do Before It Escalates

In most businesses, someone is not described as a difficult employee because of one isolated moment. It’s usually because there’s a repeated challenge. The same issue keeps resurfacing, a manager feels they are having the same conversation again or deadlines are missed more than once. Maybe there’s ongoing friction with colleagues, management instructions are pushed back or something about the person’s behaviour starts to feel consistently hard work.

By the time a business owner or manager asks for help, the issue has often gathered a bit of history. Frustration has built, other people have noticed it and the employee may already have a reputation in the team. That is usually the point where someone asks, “What do I actually do about this?”

It’s a fair question, especially in a growing business where nobody has time for issues that keep coming up. Most SME owners are trying to run the business, support clients, maintain standards and make sensible decisions without creating unnecessary fuss. When an employee keeps causing problems, what they want is clarity. They want to know whether this is something informal, something more serious, or something they should have dealt with differently earlier on.

And this is where it helps to stop for a moment and take a breath.

Not because the issue should be ignored or because every employee needs the benefit of endless doubt, but because the right response depends on what the repeated pattern is actually telling you. If you skip that step, it’s very easy to reach for the wrong solution.

The label rarely tells you enough

One of the difficulties with phrases like “difficult employee” or “bad attitude” is that they describe the experience of managing the situation, not the issue itself.

That may sound like a small distinction, but if a manager says someone has a poor attitude, that could mean any number of things. It might mean repeated lateness, rudeness, resistance to direction, sharpness with colleagues, endless challenge without solutions or simply an employee who is asking awkward questions at a time when the manager is already under pressure. Those are not all the same problem and they should not all be handled in the same way.

This is often where employers get stuck. They know something isn’t right, but they’ve not yet separated what is actually happening from how fed up everyone feels about it.

The more useful question is not, “Why is this employee so difficult?” It’s, “What keeps happening here?”

That small shift tends to improve the quality of thinking straight away. It moves the conversation away from personality and back towards behaviour, pattern and impact - always a better place to start.

Look at the repeated pattern properly

If the issue keeps resurfacing, the first job is to describe the pattern as clearly as you can.

What’s the employee actually doing, or not doing, that keeps causing concern? How often is it happening? Who is affected? What does it get in the way of? Has it become more frequent, or has it just become harder to ignore? Has it appeared in one relationship only, or more widely?

This doesn’t need to be a lengthy description, just clear enough that you’re dealing with facts rather than general irritation.

There’s a real difference between “She’s becoming hard to manage” and “She’s missed three agreed deadlines in the last month, has become defensive when asked about them and two colleagues are now having to pick up the fallout.” One is a feeling. The other gives you something practical to work with.

Patterns like this usually tell you more than single incidents do. A one-off tense meeting may not mean very much on its own. A repeated pattern of dismissive behaviour in meetings is something else. One missed deadline might be down to crossed wires or a bad week. A run of missed deadlines points to something that needs understanding and addressing.

In other words, by the time someone is being described as difficult, the label has usually grown out of repetition. The mistake is not noticing the pattern and not looking at the cause of it.

Repeated does not automatically mean misconduct

This is the point that is easy to miss when everyone is fed up.

A repeated issue can absolutely turn out to be a conduct matter. Sometimes an employee understands what’s expected and continues to ignore reasonable standards, instructions or boundaries. Sometimes there’s a clear behaviour problem and it does need dealing with properly.

But repeated behaviour does not always mean misconduct.

It may be performance, capability or a lack of clarity about priorities or responsibilities. It could be unresolved tension between colleagues, frustration about change that is seeping out badly or possibly even a management issue that has been left too long, with the result that everyone is now reacting to symptoms rather than dealing with the cause.

If someone is repeatedly missing the mark because they don’t understand what good looks like, a disciplinary response is unlikely to fix that. If they’re fully clear on expectations and are simply refusing to meet them, support alone is unlikely to fix that either. Different problems need different responses. The key is to avoid bundling all frustrations into one category and only addressing that.

What should you check first?

When a problem keeps raising its head, there are four things worth checking before you decide which route to take.

First, look at the pattern itself. What is actually recurring? Be specific about the behaviour or issue, not just the feeling it creates.

Second, look at what changed around the time it started. In fast-moving SMEs, problems often show up when roles shift, workloads increase, teams change or a manager takes on responsibility without much support, for example. Context does not excuse poor behaviour, but it often helps explain why the issue has developed.

Third, check whether expectations have genuinely been made clear. Not assumed or hinted at but clearly articulated. Does the employee know what good looks like and what needs to improve? Has that been spelt out in precise and practical terms?

Fourth, ask yourself whether the issue is about ability, willingness or something around the situation that is affecting the employee’s behaviour. That one question often takes you much closer to the right answer.

Those checks will not remove the need for judgement but they do improve the judgement. They help you get to the heart of the matter instead of reacting only to the frustration that has built up around it.

Why early conversations still make such a difference

When an issue has been rumbling on for a while, it’s tempting to think you need to have every detail nailed down before you raise it. In reality, waiting too long usually allows the problem to grow and makes the eventual conversation harder.

Most repeated employee problems become harder to resolve when they’re left unaddressed for too long. Often the employee has no real sense of how serious the issue has become while the manager feels increasingly stuck and annoyed. By the time the conversation finally happens, it carries much more emotion than it needed to.

An effective conversation early on is usually straightforward. It explains what has been noticed, why it matters and what needs to change. It also gives the employee the chance to explain what is going on from their perspective. Sometimes that reveals a conduct issue that needs firmer boundaries. But alternatively it might reveal confusion, pressure or a lack of support that can be addressed more constructively. Either way, you’re in a much stronger position once the issue is out in the open and described properly.

This is also why consistency matters. Similar issues should be approached with the same level of care and clarity, even if the circumstances are not identical. Otherwise, a wider challenge of fairness may raise its head.

What this means in practice

If an employee keeps causing problems, the answer is not to ignore it and hope it settles down. Equally, the answer is not to jump straight from frustration to formal action without thinking it through.

The most useful next step is usually to identify the repeated pattern clearly, check what’s driving it and then choose a response that fits. If the issue is really lack of clarity, support or capability, deal with that directly. If it’s performance, manage it as performance. If it’s conduct, be clear about expectations and take the appropriate route.

That approach is usually better for everyone involved. The employee is more likely to understand what the real concern is. The manager is more likely to feel confident about the next step. And the business is less likely to create unnecessary escalation by tackling the wrong problem in the wrong way.

And be honest with yourself, if it’s tied up with wider communication or management issues deal with those appropriately instead.

FAQs

Does a repeated problem always mean disciplinary action is needed?

No. Repeated problems do need addressing but they don’t all belong in the same category. Some are conduct issues, some are performance or capability issues and some sit in poor communication or wider management challenges.

What if I’m not sure whether it is performance or conduct?

Start by looking at the repeated pattern, whether expectations were clear and whether the employee had the support needed to improve. That usually helps you work out whether the issue is about ability, willingness or something about the situation.

Should I wait until I have everything documented before speaking to the employee?

Usually not. If the issue is recurring, an early and clear conversation is often the most sensible next step. You can still keep notes and gather more detail, but leaving it too long often makes things harder.

When should I get HR support?

If the issue is ongoing, affecting other people, becoming more serious or starting to move towards formal action, it’s sensible to get advice.

If you’re dealing with a repeated employee issue and are not sure what category it falls into, that is often the point where a second opinion is helpful.

Disclaimer

This article provides general guidance only and should not be relied upon as legal advice. Specific circumstances vary, and advice should always be taken on live situations where the facts matter.