I’ve written about the impact on an organization of giving positive feedback to poorly performing employees. Today, I am writing about the effects of making constant threats. Not only do they damage your authority — they also make you an incompetent manager.

Take paperwork, for example. 

“Carl, you’re late again with that report. I’ve told you a thousand times if you don’t get it in on time, I’ll have to write you up!”

Sound familiar? For many managers, this scenario is frequent and repetitive, sometimes for years. It can feel frustrating and drain you. However, consider how the employee feels. It’s hard to be productive when you feel criticized continuously or even depressed. Or when you dread meeting with your manager because you know your failure with paperwork will be the focal point.

When an employee performs well but can’t get paperwork done, don’t wring them out over it. It diminishes his or her sense of accomplishment about doing other things well. Instead of fixing the problem, hounding them over and over results in decreased performance, productivity and disengagement with the job. And let’s not forget the increased resentment between the paperwork-impaired and the people who get their paperwork done.  

So what other options are there, other than constant berating and threatening to write them up? The obvious first choice is to stop talking about it and write them up, accompanied by a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP). If the employee doesn’t improve according to the parameters defined in the PIP, then termination follows.

You can’t afford to lose a valuable employee, right? The truth is you can. If you invest in the employee, or a new one, rather than insisting on a change that might be impossible, the ROI will be higher than you think. The question then becomes: Can you afford not to terminate the valuable employee?