Dealing with Rude People in Your Staff

[Forces of Steel]

Several months ago, we had to deal with a long-time global moderator who was being inflammatory towards other members, albeit in a non-serious manner. Some members were offended, causing one of them to constantly confront him in heated threads that received harsh replies from him. We didn't demote him at all, but we tried to ask him many times to lay off certain members who were known to take things personally and possibly fire back. Eventually, he gave in and became more passive. He's just one example of a staff member who had the potential to improve.

Anyway, how would you deal with a rude person in your staff? I think that it should be a case-by-case call, because if a person has shown that they can improve, then they should be given more chances. If they're set on insulting certain members and without remorse, then they're not going to last long.

 

[drucrazy]

Well if you have someone continuously doing this they should be removed, even if they show potential it's for the best.

I was a moderator on a forum before that had a community team leader who was starting stuff with everyone and was put back on the team several time's. Just to be nice I wont release the information on who it was and what forum this was on.

My best advice for handling a rude and out of control staff member, just get rid of them. They are going to keep starting trouble and eventually end up in another staff member or even a user leaving.

 

[Sam]

I'd probably warn then on the second or third incident remove. If they were holderhost staff, there's no room to be rude. Rudeness = lost clients.

Edit: In saying that- everybody has bad days. I became extremely frustrated when I had to deal with 2/3 abusive / spamming clients one morning. I might have been a bit short with them. So I'd probably look into the reasoning as to why they were rude.

 

[Cierra]

They've ultimately gotten fired, after many chances. We had one staff member in the past who when we brought him on everything seemed fine and well, but after a while his true personality came through. It seemed like he had no people skills-- he would try and ban members just because he didn't like what they said or how they spelled his name, etc. Later on there was another staff member (admin this time) like this too. He retired. There was a moderator who took it upon herself to edit members posts whenever there was a spelling/grammar error and then issue them a warning... in the end due to other things she did, she had to be permanently banned. None of these cases were just bad days either, unless everyday was a bad day for them. 😛 We now have a solid staff team so I am not worried about rudeness anymore. We tried to handle it by talking to them, giving examples of how to handle things, etc but none of it really worked.

 

[Geoffrey]

I'd talk to them at first, and if it doesn't improve very quickly, I'll fire them. With a rude member, I might be a bit more lenient (before banning) but with staff, you should be setting an example and getting along especially with fellow staff.

 

[LadyAnna]

I have been lucky to not have to deal with this so far, I guess it would be a case to case scenario and not really something set in stone. Of course repeat "offenders" would get sacked, they'd give the forum a bad name otherwise.

Being staff does require you to have patience with some annoying users (I'm sure we all met that type at some point), especially if you do any kind of support, not everyone understand what you try to tell them on the first attempt, could be as simple as a language issue, so you would need to rephrase what you said and tell them again.

Staff that lack that patience does more harm then good, so they should not be put in that position, they could still be great staff when it comes to other aspects, so might be a case of giving them the right task only.

 

[Tucker933]

It would depend on the level of rudeness, but I wouldn't give more than two chances; usually it's just one.

 

[Deleted member 17779]

I like to hire people that I am already friends with or I've already known for a while before they've been promoted to staff on my forum. So generally, I know they aren't the kind to be rude to others. However, I am more like Geoffrey. I may be a bit more lenient with members than with staff about rudeness. Only because I expect staff to have a mature attitude when on the forum.

 

[Thomasss]

I have a pretty small tolerance level for rude staff, so they usually just get fired on the spot. I do sometimes issue a suspension however that's quite rare. I put up expectations for the staff and if they slip up it's fine, they just need to tell me. If I find out that they have been rude from someone else, then it's usually worse.

 

[Allenafaith]

I send them a message first before I do anything. I try to help them be nicer to people and let them know what they need to do when things happen. If they continue after the verbal warning they are demoted. I really don't like rude staff. It makes the whole team look bad and they scare members away.

 

[Ashley z]

I think the best way to avoid this problem is to take steps to prevent it as early as possible. Address the concerns before they become larger issues. If a moderator is insulting members, they should be prevented from posting until the issue is addressed directly. If not prevented entirely, the moderator's new posts should be put into a moderator queue.

If you are long time friends with the moderator and don't feel comfortable preventing them from posting freely, have an open conversation with them. Find out why they are being insulting, or what their side of the story is. Maybe the first offense is justified, but allowing multiple offenses results in the following...

If your buddy stays a moderator, even after multiple offenses of being insulting, it is a bad reflection on YOU - the Admin. If you don't take action, you are allowing the behavior to continue and are taking responsibility for it. Both the Admin and Mod are equally at fault in this case.

I cannot justify keeping a lousy or offensive Moderator around for long. Members should prove they are worthy of being a Moderator while they are ordinary Members. By the time someone is promoted to Moderator, they shouldn't need time to mature or change their ways. If they do need that time, they should be demoted and told to prove their worthiness (of Mod) as an ordinary member. Don't promote them until they've done so.

 

[Sharon]

I think the best way to avoid this problem is to take steps to prevent it as early as possible. Address the concerns before they become larger issues. If a moderator is insulting members, they should be prevented from posting until the issue is addressed directly. If not prevented entirely, the moderator's new posts should be put into a moderator queue.

If you are long time friends with the moderator and don't feel comfortable preventing them from posting freely, have an open conversation with them. Find out why they are being insulting, or what their side of the story is. Maybe the first offense is justified, but allowing multiple offenses results in the following...

If your buddy stays a moderator, even after multiple offenses of being insulting, it is a bad reflection on YOU - the Admin. If you don't take action, you are allowing the behavior to continue and are taking responsibility for it. Both the Admin and Mod are equally at fault in this case.

I cannot justify keeping a lousy or offensive Moderator around for long. Members should prove they are worthy of being a Moderator while they are ordinary Members. By the time someone is promoted to Moderator, they shouldn't need time to mature or change their ways. If they do need that time, they should be demoted and told to prove their worthiness (of Mod) as an ordinary member. Don't promote them until they've done so.

I completely agree with Ashley. Every staff member represents the team as a whole. Remaining diplomatic is key to being a staff member in my opinion. This is why reputation is such a big deal to me when hiring staff. Sure, people can change but if you have a bad reputation from jumping from forum to forum or quitting projects or personally issues with other people...I expect you to try harder than anyone else if you truly are interested in being part of my staff team. Dedication is what impresses me and I expect more from those with no reputation or bad reputation.

 

[Sapett]

If a staff member is regularly displaying rude behavior, I would nicely ask them to improve it. If I didn't notice a change, or got more complaints about the staff member, I would ask them to resign. Rudeness is something I will not tolerate. It's not professional and is damaging to a websites image. You can't let one person define your entire staff team.

 

[MasterA]

I would talk to them and give them one or two chances. If they still fail to act professionally, then it would have to be a dismissal. If it was a forum then, I would probably give them two chances depending on the severity but if it was a business then no more than one. I may also go for straight dismissal as there is no reason to be rude in a business environment.

 

[CM30]

I tend to avoid hiring rude people to begin with, since anyone who's a bit of a jackass with the members was probably about the same before their promotion.

If a staff member starts acted rude? Then I guess they get a few chances before they're 'fired'.

 

[Teapot]

Of course, like most people, I would talk it through with them
The staff essentially are the face of my community so I can only hope that everyone keeps a great deal of professionalism. If their attitude fails to improve after our said discussion I would, in most cases, let them go.