A few weeks ago my office had a call from an employer who wanted advice on how to handle an employee who repeatedly made mistakes and who when corrected said “Everyone makes mistakes. Nobody is prefect”. He was frustrated. He was thinking of firing the individual but decided to make one last attempt to rescue the employee from him/herself. He was willing to make the effort because he said that the person was fairly young and may not have had much experience in the world of work. This is not a unique experience.

Why Do They Behave Like This?
Many persons are in jobs that they do not like and definitely do not enjoy, and so their general attitude to their tasks is less than satisfactory. Basically they are there because they can’t do any better. Our advice to these people – Do what needs to be done to the best of your abilities. There are many people who can tell stories about taking a job that they did not like but who performed their tasks so well that someone else came, saw them at work and offered them the job of their dreams. As the Jamaican saying goes “tek wah yu get, til yu get wha yu want” but remember that if it is worth doing, it is worth doing well. And let’s face it, the job you can’t stand is paying the bills.

Some people think that they are sabotaging the employer when they behave in this way but they are really sabotaging themselves. With that approach, they will not be able to keep a job for very long and that has implications for their resume and for reference checks. If this is you, then check yourself. It does not sound right to keep hearing that the reason you had to leave a job was because “the boss neva like mi”. And if you are tempted to lie, don’t. The truth usually gets out and you will only look worse.

Are You Guilty Of this Attitude?
While it is true that everyone makes mistakes, to take this attitude and be content is to be foolhardy. O.K. You’ve made a mistake and you feel embarrassed about being corrected. Deal with that but with your boss/supervisor, discuss ways to improve your performance or the systems to reduce errors. If the error did not matter, it would not have been brought to your attention. If the task was not important to the business, you would not have been employed to do it. Look at the error as an opportunity to learn.

What’s An Employer To Do?
Here is the course of action that we suggested.

Explain why that attitude is untenable in a context that the person can relate to. You will need to help the employee understand the potential damage that this attitude can do by showing the far-reaching implications of that approach. For example, we all assume that food producers do not make mistakes when processing and packaging food. If employees in that setting routinely made mistakes, we would be afraid to eat lest we be poisoned. Road-users and operators of motor vehicles assume that mechanics service vehicles correctly and that the brakes will hold when called on. Sometimes the employee does not understand what could happen if everyone accepted errors.

Put systems in place – In other words, make it easy for your employees to do the right thing. That is where SOPS and adopting Best Practices are beneficial. Work out step-by-step procedures for all tasks. Make it easy to get it right the first time and every time. Incorporate quality control mechanisms such as Team effort. This works in real life. Here is a Jamaican example. By moving to the checks and balances built in to team sewing, Sportswear Manufacturers was able to reduce waste and spoilage from 30% to 5%, and to increase everyone’s income.

Assign a Coach – Identify someone to help the person use your company’s system(s), and/or the SOPs correctly. This should be someone who is him/herself doing the right thing. This will be someone they can turn to for clarification and who can monitor their work and provide immediate feedback

Behaviour has Consequences – If all else fails, make sure that employees understand that punitive action can/will be taken. If behaviour has no consequences, people learn that it does not matter if you do the wrong thing and some people will take as many miles as you allow.

Depending on the nature of the post and the business, consistent errors despite the steps given above may indicate attempts to conceal theft. Forewarned is forearmed!

Dr. Semaj is a frequent facilitator for Strategic Planning Retreats, Cultural alignment and Organizational Restructuring. He conducts Staff Selection and Development Programmes for different business sectors across the Caribbean.