Perhaps you’re the manager, or even owner, of a rehab or recovery house and must manage addictions staff. If so, here are the types of employees that you don’t want on your payroll.

People You DO NOT Want on Your Addictions Staff

•  Someone with irrelevant skills – Now, you may wonder why you would have a person like this on staff in the first place but it does happen.  At some point in time, we are hoodwinked in the hiring process and find ourselves with an employee whose skills don’t happen to match up to either their position or the industry that they’re in.  This isn’t someone that you want to keep around for long, for both of your sakes.
• The Troublemaker.  Again, this may be someone that did great in the interview process or has simply changed into a “different person” over time due to other circumstances.  But if you have an employee who is constantly undermining authority, having to play the devil’s advocate in every meeting and is the town gossip, this isn’t a good fit in this industry.
• The Dissatisfied Employee.  This is someone who simply has no job satisfaction, or life satisfaction, no matter what is thrown at them.  They want a better position and more pay and are consistently envious of those who have these things.
• The Slacker – We all know who this is.  They don’t show up for work on time, call in sick frequently, leave early and don’t do much when they are present.  Their appearance may leave something to be desired and they are full of excuses.  This is not a good person to keep on the payroll and often causes resentment among the others on the staff.
• The Soloist – In these sorts of settings, teamwork is crucial so having an employee that insists on doing things against the grain isn’t going to work.  Everyone needs to be on the same page and in support of organizational policies and goals.  If this isn’t happening, this is a huge issue.
• The Busy-Body – This is someone who takes upon themselves to get into everyone else’s business, play “manager” and tattle to the top dog when things aren’t happening as they feel appropriate.  Management should be left to the actual managers and supervisors in the organization and this takes “acting as-if” to the extreme.

Do you have these people on your staff?  Most have at least one or two and are at a loss at to what to do about them.  Some just fire them outright and others suffer in silence for years.  These are both extremes and, as leaders, there are middle of the road solutions.

If you have people like this already in your organization, your best course of action is to try to modify the behaviors.  Confront the employees about the behaviors and talk to them about your organizations core values and goals.  Give them clear direction as to how behaviors need to change and a time frame in which this needs to happen before re-evaluation.   Once that time period is up, re-evaluation and determine whether or not you will need to let them go to promote a healthy addictions staff.

Tags: addiction career, addiction careers, addiction jobs, addiction staff, addictions staff, career in addiction, drug and alcohol jobs, recovery jobs, substance abuse jobs