"Dealing With Unruly Church Employees"

As I stated in earlier blogs, being a leader is quite a daunting task especially in the church. One of the challenges that leaders often face is dealing with unruly employees. One of the definitions of unruly is " Disorderly and disruptive and not amenable to discipline or control" (Google). I would suspect that the latter part of that definition applies to most of our unruly situations (lacking discipline or control). There are 2 kinds of unruly employees. There are those who do all of their dirty work behind the scenes using the telephone, internet and group discussions. They secretly plot against you or someone else and form regimes to either overthrow you or to make your job difficult, unproductive or sometimes unbearable. Then there are those who have no fear in publicly displaying their displeasure's, thoughts, emotions about anything and everything you do with no complete thought in mind as to the effect of their public outcry. In other words they choose to hang themselves.

I know some of you are thinking "I would rather have the public outcry then the private stabbing in the back". Well keep in mind that the public outcry can cause folks to leave ministries, choir stands and pews. It does just as much damage. So how do you deal with unruly employees. If you are a Pastor, or a person who has authority to hire and fire, then you could just fire the person right? Well that only works if the person has no credibility or fan base within the congregation. I've known many Pastors who have fired employees on the spot for valid reasons and suffered consequences because they did not take into account the public sentiment for the individual they fired. Maybe you could sit the person down to talk and pray with them about the situation in the hopes that they will change right?. Well that works sometimes but most of the time it doesn't because the unruly individual does not see their own behavior as a problem. They view you, the employer, as the problem and maybe you need to change rather than them. So here are some tips that have worked for me and others when dealing with an unruly employees.

1. Keep an accurate timeline and documentation of where, when and what was said and done by the individual(s).

2. Try to avoid public confrontations with the individual unless your support system is so strong that it can withstand the possible backlash.

3. Always approach the unruly employee with kindness not letting him know how you really feel or what your possible strategy is in dealing with that person.

4. If your a Pastor, never call out that particular employee from the pulpit. Again you never know the public sentiment for a person and you do not want to gauge it from the Pulpit. If your public rebuke does not work in your favor then you have lost credibility and respect among your parishioners regardless of whether they express it to you or not.

5. Approach the individual with your evidence of their unruly behavior and ask them to stop or face the possible consequences that you have laid out. Most will not stop but they might change their method of attack so keep that in mind.

6. When the dismissal takes place never offer up the reasons why unless someone asks. You weaken your position as leader if you have to over explain your self to any and everybody. Just have the evidence ready if and when they come calling for it. NO ONE CAN ARGUE WITH THE TRUTH.


These are just a few ways to deal with unruly Church employees but there are others that I am sure some of you will mention. I welcome your thoughts, ideas and suggestions and I pray for you if you are in one of these situations.


Peace,

Phillip Carter