Hatboro’s M&S Centerless Grinding Inc, the precision metal-working firm, has calculated the benefit of removing employees that were creating a toxic working environment, writes Jane M. Von Bergen for Philly.com.

By removing one key employee and two co-workers who were making the working environment less than pleasant, the company found that productivity across the board increased by around a third.

“He and the others were culturally cancerous,” said owner John Shegda. “Instantly, the mood of the entire company lifted.”

The company took the move despite the key employee in question being one of the most productive. However, his bullying attitude and ability to get under other people’s skin was affecting productivity as a whole.

The move was not taken overnight as he had been working there for more than a decade. Instead management tried to focus the staff back to company values and took the troublesome employee aside for one-on-one coaching.

“If you can’t coach them out of the behavior, at some point you have to evaluate whether they are worth having on staff,” said Kate Nelson, who teaches human resource management at Temple University’s Fox School of Business.

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