The Pros and Cons of Silencing Complaining Employees

Are complaints from your workers becoming a frequent occurrence in your workplace? Tackling employee concerns requires a thoughtful approach. Should you aim to silence these grievances, or is it better to lend a listening ear and take proactive steps?

Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of silencing employees' complaints to help you navigate this managerial challenge.

Pros

If you have an employee who is a chronic complainer, they will often attempt to engage coworkers in their negative and unproductive discussions. They view their coworkers as allies and believe they are equally passionate about their issues.

This can lead to a toxic culture, which is the top driver of employee attrition according to survey results published in the MIT Sloan Management Review. A toxic culture is 10.4 times more powerful than compensation in predicting a company’s attrition rate within its industry.

With negativity as the top reason employees are quitting their jobs, management can't allow complaining employees to spread their unresolved negativity. Complaints need to be addressed head on and if an amicable solution can't be agreed upon, the complaints must be stopped.

Imagine a new employee joining your team, eager to start contributing to the success of the company and ambitious to grow their career. This new hire is the perfect prey for the complaining employee and gives them the chance to share their stories of “how things really work around here.” Such complaints result in expensive damage to the organization’s internal reputation, and maybe lose them new employees or make the new employee think, “What have I gotten myself into.”

Cons

When so many employees are quitting, managers should listen to those who may have legitimate complaints and are trying to help the company. By not listening, employers can cause workers to disengage, have turnover issues, and hinder business performance.

While chronic complainers can require a lot of time to investigate grievances, not every employee who complains is merely a complainer. Many employees will go to great lengths to be heard when they believe their concerns are valid, and are likely to have a positive impact on the company if those complaints are resolved.

Taking time to listen is the key to a productive workforce. Managers must get to know their employees well so they know where the worker is on the complaint spectrum. Complaints may span from casual grumbling to expressing concerns born out of genuine care. When managers truly know their employees and employees voice grievances about a colleague's lack of contribution, inefficient processes, or the perception that the boss is unresponsive, they can gauge whether the employee is genuinely invested in the success of the business.