Avoiding one difficult conversation can create a much bigger problem. Poor performance rarely affects only the individual concerned: it changes workloads, standards and trust across the whole team.
Most managers know when someone is not performing as they should. The missed deadlines are familiar. The quality concerns have been quietly corrected by someone else. Colleagues have started to work around the problem.
What is often less obvious is the effect on the employees who are performing well.
My view is that leaving poor performance unaddressed is not a neutral choice. It sends a message about what the organisation is prepared to accept, and the people most likely to hear that message are the ones already carrying their share of the load.
The work does not disappear
When one person repeatedly falls short, their work usually moves somewhere. It may be picked up by a conscientious colleague, absorbed by a manager or corrected at the last minute by the wider team.
At first, good employees may step in willingly. They want the team to succeed and they do not want a client, patient, customer or colleague to be let down. But goodwill has limits. If the extra burden becomes routine, it can turn into frustration: why am I being relied upon to compensate for a problem nobody is addressing?
That frustration can show up as reduced engagement, reluctance to volunteer, increased absence or, eventually, resignation. The organisation may then lose the employee it most wanted to keep while the underlying performance issue remains.
Standards become negotiable
Employees take their cues from what managers do, not only from what policies say. If objectives are described as important but there is no response when they are consistently missed, the practical standard starts to shift.
This does not mean every mistake needs a formal process. People have difficult weeks, need training or may be working with unclear priorities and inadequate resources. The key point is that a genuine performance concern needs an appropriate management response. Silence is also a response, and rarely a helpful one.
Management credibility is at stake
Managers sometimes delay a conversation because they want to be kind, hope the problem will resolve itself or worry about saying the wrong thing. Those concerns are understandable. However, repeated avoidance can look like inconsistency or favouritism to the wider team.
There is also an important confidentiality point. Colleagues will not usually be entitled to know what steps are being taken with another employee. Managers should not try to prove they are acting by sharing private details. They can, however, manage workloads fairly, reinforce expectations consistently and show through their actions that concerns are not simply being ignored.
Addressing performance should be constructive
Good performance management is not about building a case against someone from the outset. It is about identifying the gap, understanding why it exists and giving the employee a fair opportunity to improve.
A drop in performance may be linked to unclear expectations, insufficient training, excessive workload, health, disability or difficulties outside work. Employers should listen before reaching conclusions. Where disability may be relevant, reasonable adjustments must be considered. Support may resolve the issue more quickly and protect the working relationship.
If informal steps do not work, a performance improvement plan or formal capability process may be appropriate. Any formal process should follow the organisation’s policy and the basic principles of fairness in the Acas Code. Dismissal for capability should be a last resort, supported by evidence of the performance concerns and the steps taken to help the employee improve.
A practical way forward
- Set the standard. Explain what good performance looks like using specific, role-relevant examples. Vague instructions to ‘do better’ are difficult to understand and even harder to assess fairly.
- Raise concerns early. Have the conversation while the issue is still manageable. Describe what you have observed, explain the impact and ask for the employee’s perspective.
- Identify the cause. Check whether expectations, training, workload, health or disability are relevant before deciding what action is appropriate.
- Agree support and review points. Set realistic objectives, timescales and check-ins. Confirm the key points in writing so both sides know what has been agreed.
- Be consistent. Apply the same underlying standards across the team, while recognising that individual circumstances and any required adjustments may differ.
The conversation you avoid does not disappear
It usually becomes a more difficult conversation later, often after morale has dropped and positions have hardened.
The best way forward is to deal with concerns promptly, fairly and with a genuine focus on improvement. That gives the employee a proper opportunity to succeed, protects the colleagues around them and shows the whole team that good work is recognised rather than simply rewarded with more work.
Don’t let a performance issue become a bigger people problem. Speak to us for clear, practical advice before matters escalate.
