Careers Succeeding at Work Top 10 Toughest HR Questions: Asked and Answered Questions Employers Ask About Managing Employees and the Workplace Print Succeeding at Work Human Resources Management Careers Job Search Resources Hiring Best Practices Glossary Employment Law Employee Motivation Employee Management Management & Leadership Employee Benefits By Susan M. Heathfield Susan M. Heathfield Susan Heathfield is an HR and management consultant with an MS degree. She has decades of experience writing about human resources. Learn about our Editorial Process Updated on 05/08/20 Managing others can be inspiring, fulfilling, or bear some resemblance to adult daycare. In companies, human resources departments have noted patterns that emerge over time about the toughest situations that take place in organizations. These are the questions that readers have frequently raised that require compelling answers if you want to manage employees effectively and create a harmonious workplace environment. Following are descriptions of the ten toughest, but most frequent, questions that arise, and links to how-to instructions that answer each question. Click on the links in each section's title to find out how you can resolve these commonly experienced workplace issues. 01 of 10 How to Deal With a Negative Coworker Jose Luis Pelaez Inc / Getty Images Some people exude negativity because they don’t like their jobs and they don’t like their company. Their managers are always jerks and usually bad, bad, bad bosses. They are always treated unfairly by their boss and their organization. They think that the company is always going down the tube and that its customers are worthless. You know these negative Neds and Nellies—every organization has them—and you can best address their impact on you by using these nine tips. 02 of 10 How to Implement Strategic Planning: Vision Statement, Mission Statement, Values d3sign / Getty Images People often ask, "How do I actually make strategic planning happen in my organization? And, how does an organization ensure that once the time was spent on planning, that the planning has an impact?" You can get help in developing your organization's strategic framework. This strategic planning question strikes at the heart of how to make changes of any kind happen in your organization. You can. Find out how. 03 of 10 When Management Systems Fail: Why Employees Don't Do What You Want Them to Do Rachel Frank/Fuse/Getty Images In an age-old dilemma, managers perennially ask why employees don’t do what they are supposed to do at work. While part of the responsibility falls on the choices that individual employees make in the workplace, managers need to shoulder a portion of the blame, too. Employees want to succeed at work and managers are responsible for creating the work environment in which they can succeed. Many of the reasons employee responsibility fails are due to a failure in the employee management systems. Start with the failure of the manager to provide a clear direction. 04 of 10 How Do You Know When It's Time for You to Go? Bloom Productions / Getty Images Ask yourself the following series of questions: Are you feeling increasingly unhappy about your job? Are you listening to yourself complain more as each day passes? Are your friends at work avoiding you due to your complaining? How about your family? Employees rarely leave unhappiness at work. Do you find yourself daydreaming about the other things you could do with the time and energy you now expend at work? Do you dread the thought of going to work on Monday mornings to the point of spoiling Sunday evenings with the feelings of dread? If so, then it is probably time for you to quit your job. Take a look at ten possible reasons why it's time to quit your job. 05 of 10 Personal Courage and Conflict Resolution at Work jackSTAR / Getty Images Practicing personal courage is necessary if you want to resolve conflicts at work. Why doesn't successful conflict resolution occur more frequently at work? Many people are afraid of conflict resolution. They feel threatened by conflict resolution because they may not get what they want if the other party gets what they want. Even in the best circumstances, conflict resolution is uncomfortable because people are usually unskilled and unpracticed. They are afraid to hurt the other party's feelings, and they are afraid they will get hurt, too. See how you can gain more personal and professional courage. 06 of 10 Workplace Conflict Resolution: Managing Your Human Resources portishead1 / Getty Images As an organization leader, manager or supervisor, you are responsible for creating a work environment that enables people to thrive. If turf wars, conflicts, disagreements and differences of opinion escalate into interpersonal conflict, you must intervene immediately. Conflicts do not resolve themselves, and they rarely disappear without some form of intervention. Conflict resolution, with you as the mediator, is essential. Conflict resolution is an immediate priority for your organization. 07 of 10 Achieve Your Dreams: Six Steps: Accomplish Your Goals and Resolutions Nora Carol Photography / Getty Images Don't let your goals and resolutions fall by the wayside. Chances are that to achieve your dreams and live a life you love, those goals and resolutions are crucial. You can focus on accomplishing goals. Goal setting and goal achievement are easier if you follow these six steps for effective and successful goal setting and accomplishing your resolutions. 08 of 10 Rise Above the Fray: Dealing With Difficult People at Work poba/Vetta/Getty Images Difficult people exist in every workplace. Difficult people come in hundreds of variations, and no workplace can claim that difficult people don't exist. How difficult a person is for you to deal with depends on you: your self-esteem, your self-confidence, and the amount of professional courage you are willing to exercise to confront problems and poor behavior. Dealing with difficult people is easier when the person is just generally obnoxious or when the behavior affects more than one person. Dealing with difficult people is much tougher when they are attacking you or attempting to undermine your professional contribution and good name. 09 of 10 Bad to the Bone: Dealing With a Bad Boss or Bad Managers Brad Killer/Getty Images You're weary. You're frustrated. You're unhappy. You're demotivated. Your interaction with your boss is beyond unbearable. Your boss is a bully, controlling, picky, and petty or an easily manipulated good old person. The boss takes credit for your hard work and never provides positive feedback. Moreover, the manager misses every meeting that is scheduled with you so you never have a chance to share your thoughts. Your boss is a bad boss. Dealing with less than effective managers, or just plain bad managers is a challenge too many employees face every day. These ideas will help you deal with your bad boss. 10 of 10 12 Tips for Team Building Paul Burns / Digital Vision / Getty Images People in workplaces talk about how to build a team, how to get a group working as a team, and my team. But, the problem is that most of them do not understand how to create the experience of teamwork or how to develop an effective team. These twelve tips cover the concepts necessary to build a successful work team. Use these twelve tips to build successful work teams.