Managers often face situations where employees have an absurd level of entitlement, leaving managers correct entitlement behavior. In those situations, what should a manager do in order to avoid destroying the managerial relationship?

1. HOW TO DEAL WITH
ENTITLED EMPLOYEES – A
FOUR STEP PROCESS

2. “I AM SORRY, YOU HAVE ONLY BEEN HERE THREE
MONTHS, YOU ARE NOT QUALIFIED FOR A
PROMOTION.”
Managers often face situations where employees have
an absurd level of entitlement, leaving managers correct
the entitlement behavior. In those situations, what
should a manager do in order to avoid the destroying
the managerial relationship? The subject of entitled
employees has not been studied nearly as much as it
has plagued employers with constant annoyances.
In The Gainesville Sun, the author summarized
employers frustration with entitled behavior as
“shockingly high expectations for salary, job flexibility,
and duties but little willingness to take on grunt work or
remain loyal to a company.”

3. Is it constantly wanting to take selfies? Asking for a
higher raise? Not wanting to get their hands dirty?
Researchers typically define entitlement as “self-
righteousness, harboring grandiose thoughts, and being
overly demanding in their personal relationships” (Bishop
& Lane 2002).
Usually, managers face entitlement with younger
Millennial or Generation Z employees which usually
stems from their constant “taking selfies” culture. This
type of entitlement culture has been debunked many
times, but interestingly enough, employers usually face
entitlement with older employees. However, regardless
of what age group, how to manage entitled employees is
becoming a burning concern.

4. STEP #1: IDENTIFY AND SET
WORKPLACE EXPECTATIONS
Entitlement in the workplace, boils
down to one truth, there is a difference
in expectations between the manager,
and the direct report.The goal is
to close the gap to where both parties
are within an appropriate range.

5. For instance, a common area where
entitlement comes up is when
someone feels they are ready for
promotion. Many younger
employees may ask for a promotion
much sooner than their older
coworkers because of their lack of
industry experience. On the other
hand, older coworkers might think
they because they have been at the
company for a certain amount of
time, that they are entitled for a
promotion, while their performance
does not meet the standards.

6. 1
Tell them, that’s the way it
is or
2
Support your answer with a
viable reason.
As a manager you have two options
when asked that question:
The drawback by answering the first way, is that you risk their engagement dropping and
undermining your ability as a manager as a leader in the workplace. You haven’t provide them a
reason, but rather gave them the infamous ‘it’s our way or the highway.’ If you decide to go with
option two, then you can proceed to the next step.

7. STEP #2: SUPPORTING YOUR
POSITION & ALIGN INCENTIVIZES
When an entitled employee believes they deserve something
that does not match the expectations of the workplace, there
is a small possibility that they could be right. For instance, a
group of hard workers deserving more pay. However, most of
the time, their desires need to be aligned with workplace
expectations. Managers need to support the reason why
something happens in a fortified way. If you are unable to put
the reason into reasonable logic, then you will need some
place written to explain the reasoning behind why the
company operates that way.

8. Once the entitled employee is aware of where they stand in relation to the workplace
expectations, a manager will need to state a repercussion. If the employees behavior
is destructive, then putting a deadline and continuously check in on progress. For
‘Contingency-management’, managers can set benchmarks correlated with job
performance and keep the employee accountable to their performance. Having the
benchmarks documented, is the act of drawing the line in the sand.
STEP #3: DRAWING A LINE IN THE SAND

9. STEP #4: CONTINUOUSLY
UPHOLD EXPECTATIONS
During one-on-one meetings, it’s
important to return to their current
performance against company
expectations. By continuously coming
back to baseline, the employee will
constantly be reminded of where they
stand in the workplace hierarchy. If they
choose to be proactive and alter their
performance, great. If not they don’t, you
have already set clear guidelines in the
previous step.

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