Dealing with Long-term Employees Who Resist Change: How Do You Manage Aggression Over New Policies?

Handling Aggressive Employees Over Trivial Matters

Kindly suggest how to handle employees who become aggressive over trivial matters. Some employees, with nearly five years of tenure in the company, consistently interpret new rules and policies as personal attacks, believing these changes are aimed at them. My role involves structuring the business and enforcing discipline, necessitating the implementation of various policies to instigate positive change within the company. Despite my best efforts, I encounter numerous setbacks due to these employees, who not only resist change but also influence others negatively. I would appreciate any suggestions and solutions you can provide.

Thanks,

Kavita

I understand your situation. You need to make them accept your presence in the office. Instead of talking to the aggressive employees, first allow them to talk and listen to them. You will surely get a clear idea about what is running in their minds when you allow them to speak. Listening to others is indeed a difficult task.

Formulate your policies in line with the goals of the organization and explain the benefits of adopting the new methods to the employees very carefully. When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

Regards,
S Rangarajan

Involving Departmental Heads in Policy Development
First, when developing policies, ensure that other departmental heads are also kept in the loop.

Handling Aggressive Employees
If any employee becomes aggressive, first try to hear them out and understand what they want to convey. In anger, the real message may be lost. Misunderstanding a policy can also cause a person to become angry.

Maintaining Calm and Involving Leadership
Always remain calm and tackle the situation with composure. Involving Heads of Departments (HODs) and top management will indicate that it is a company policy and not just your policy.

Dealing with Resistance to Change
One cannot keep everyone happy, and there will always be some people who are affected by change and react adversely. Whenever an employee reacts aggressively, make it a point to inform their HOD and your HOD. Many people do not like changes and are accustomed to a set way of working, so resistance is natural. Once people realize that the change is for the good, uniformity, and the overall benefit of the company, they will see reason and align with it.

Counseling and Disciplinary Actions
Those who remain aggressive and out of control can be dealt with through counseling from the HOD and/or disciplinary measures, if necessary (as a last resort).

Regards,
Kavita

There are two very effective responses shared, and I would urge you to implement the suggestions provided by them.

I would like to add the following:

Avoid Piecemeal Changes

Do not make piecemeal changes. This means that you must study the entire system and make all the changes you propose in one go. Most of the changes you propose would likely focus on increasing productivity, which may involve tightening the system and possibly curbing the lax behavior of employees. If you make piecemeal changes, existing employees, rightly or wrongly, may feel that you are deliberately targeting them. When there is a consolidated change being introduced, it would be viewed as a top management-commissioned and supported policy.

Get the Buy-in of Operational HODs

Ultimately, the HODs would be responsible for their team members adopting the new measures suggested. Getting their buy-in would make them partners in your plan, and you can also receive valuable feedback, suggestions, and alternative ideas to explore. More importantly, they would assist you in effectively implementing the system.

Highlight the Benefits of Change

As far as possible, highlight the benefit/advantage/usefulness of the change for the employee. This could reorient the thinking from a system being deliberately imposed to a system being reviewed for the betterment of all stakeholders. You may have to be creative and stretch your imagination a bit to sell the new system to the employees, but it will be well worth your effort.

Listening as a Key Strategy

Listening is the key to cooling off an aggressive person. It is best done along with another senior person, preferably the employee's HOD. Allow the aggressive person to vent. Then respond using a combination of logical arguments, subtly deconstructing the fallacies or misunderstandings in their concerns, and by putting your point across from a perspective not originally visualized by the aggressive employee. Include points that make the listener feel less threatened by the changes proposed and possibly show them how the change will actually benefit the employees in the long run.

Best Wishes

I can understand your concern as it is really difficult to handle people hiding deep-seated anger. Confronting an aggressive person can be tricky, but you can have an open discussion on the issues bothering them. Firstly, whenever you inform them about new policies or rules, remember to keep their reporting manager in the loop. Conduct meetings to understand their point of view. Let them complete their side before you speak. It is not YOU who is making new policies; make them understand this by showing necessary documents or emails. Do not take it personally and control your anger when you are in a meeting with passive-aggressive employees. You cannot change the person; therefore, it is better to focus on what you can do to improve the situation. Try to be positive throughout your discussion so as not to add to their aggression. Hope you will deal with them calmly. All the best!

Regards, Monika

You have received very good inputs from many of our members, and I am sure you are considering them. However, I believe that there are always two sides to a coin. It is possible that some changes may be brought with good intentions but not executed properly. Secondly, make sure that there is no genuine grievance that is left unheard. The third point is the feedback that has to be given from your side to the policy makers/apex management team. This will ensure that matters do not worsen.

Regards, V.Raghunathan