IIARD International Institute of Academic Research and Development

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND MANAGEMENT RESEARCH (IJSSMR )

E-ISSN 2545-5303
P-ISSN 2695-2203
VOL. 8 NO. 3 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.56201/ijssmr.v8.no3.2022.pg59.68

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Identifying and Managing Toxic Employees for Sustainable Development of Polytechnics in Nigeria

Leson James Foster, Esq

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Abstract

This work attempts to draw up noticeable standards for identifying and managing toxic employees in tertiary institutions in Nigeria. It describes toxic employees as workers who contribute to decay in the school system by engaging in unethical activities which could endanger sustainability of the tertiary education system. The work identifies characteristics and mode of operation of toxic employees as sabotage of work processes, insensitivity to coworkers, negativity and being judgmental; engaging in activities such as blackmailing coworkers, opposition to authority, rudeness to parents, bullying and gate-taking such as hiding or withholding vital information. Toxic workers adopt character assassination, stealth, workplace politicking as their mode of operation. Within the education sector, they can be identified and managed through use of prevention at three levels: primary prevention at the point of job interview to possibly prevent entry; secondary prevention in the early period of employment in event of applicant breaching the first stage, and tertiary prevention: of outright termination of appointment if it is proven that an employee is toxic. Toxic employees are seen in the study to be capable of causing employers financial loses, embarrassments, withdrawals of good workers from the system, and lawsuits for abuses. For posterity sake, and the fact that prevention, they say, is better than cure, it is strongly recommended that proper assessment be conducted to fish out toxic workers from the school system for appropriate action, and furthermore, that government (through the respective Governing Councils and Management of these institutions) puts an end to employing unqualified personnel as a way of solving unemployment problems.

keywords:

Toxic employees, Sustainable development, Polytechnics.

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