So here is the problem. You have an enthusiastic employee who is full of ideas, loves to learn and is eager to contribute to the growth of your business but their line-manager finds them a bit of a pain. The manager has done the job for a long time and knows how things work and what needs to be done. He has a heavy workload and could do without suggestions on how to improve things from a more junior member of the team. Despite being a real problem for your manager you know that this employee is just not going to do anything that is going to make it easy to get rid of them. What can you do?
The answer is simple: send them on training programs.
This will have two key benefits. In the short term, you remove them from the team environment for periods of time. When they are not there they can’t bother their manager. More significantly and in the longer term, every training program will be a step closer to their choosing to leave. You may have heard it said that it is better to train somebody and then see them leave than not to train them and for them to stay. You have probably never considered that sending people on training is a simple way to get rid of them.
Let me explain. Good training will enthuse participants about their work and leave them with some clear things to do that will improve their productivity. It is this very strength of quality training events that you can use to your advantage. When your enthusiastic employee returns from training, reinvigorated and with new skills and new ideas, make sure they are received back into the workplace with a cold stone wall. Ensure that their manager is prepared to avoid every opportunity to discuss the training and will quickly quash all thoughts of change, no matter how minor. Keep the manager’s focus on how things have always been done and bolster his confidence in his own expertise in his team’s function. I mean, what could a training program teach an employee that their line manager hasn’t already understood and rejected? Do this and you will see immediate results and can start quietly planning to replace your problem employee with a more work-a-day employee who will do things the way they have always been done until retirement or death-you-do-part.
The simple steps above will increase employee dissatisfaction in leaps and bounds. The more training courses you send your over-enthusiastic employees on the faster you will get the result you are looking. Dissatisfaction will increase exponentially and before you know it you will have that resignation letter on your desk and can get back to being the average company that you always set out to be.