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The modern professional world is competitive, and companies often expend significant resources to attract top talent. It is profoundly bewildering and frustrating when an employee or contractor, who passionately and aggressively ‘sold themselves’ during the interview process, swiftly devolves into a difficult, underperforming, or even absent figure once they have the job. The employer sees a star recruit, a person who demonstrated drive, ambition, and skill, transform into a source of management headaches, missed deadlines, and a palpable air of resentment.
This perplexing transformation erodes team morale, wastes valuable training resources, and ultimately damages the company’s bottom line through lost productivity and the high cost of rehiring. The employer’s natural reaction is one of anger and confusion, asking how someone so eager to join could become so determined to fail. This article will look at reasons or causes for the behaviour and offer coping strategies or solutions to deal with the behaviour.
5 Reasons for the behaviour
Underlying psychological defence mechanisms
The aggressive pursuit of the job and the subsequent collapse in performance can be two sides of the same psychological coin. The candidate was driven by the immediate goal of securing the role, a clear and finite challenge. Once the job is secured, a different, more complex set of challenges emerges, often triggering deep-seated, fear-based psychological mechanisms.
These mechanisms, such as an unconscious need to control a future outcome or a fear of exposure, compel the new employee to underperform. They are essentially creating an immediate, externally justifiable reason for failure such as ‘I didn’t really try’ to avoid the greater, more painful possibility that their best efforts were not enough.
The shock of job disillusionment or ‘shift shock’
In the competitive hiring market, both the candidate and the company often present an idealised, somewhat inflated version of themselves. The candidate is enthusiastic, while the company promises a supportive culture, challenging work, and opportunities for growth.
When the new employee arrives, they may experience ‘shift shock’, where the reality of the role diverges drastically from the expectation. This disillusionment, finding the work to be menial, the culture toxic, or the manager unsupportive, rapidly extinguishes motivation and replaces it with cynicism, resentment, and a subconscious withdrawal from effort.
Triggering of imposter syndrome
For a highly skilled individual with Imposter Syndrome, securing the coveted job confirms the external perception of their competence, but deepens their internal fear of being a “fraud”. The act of successfully landing the role raises the stakes dramatically.
This feeling can lead to a defensive strategy where the employee’s strange behaviour or lack of effort becomes a pre-emptive strike against being ‘found out.’ By underperforming or acting out, they create a reason for their potential failure that protects their self-image: “I failed because I didn’t try,” rather than “I failed because I am not good enough.”
Mismatch of core values or culture
The high-pressure pursuit of a job can sometimes override a candidate’s careful assessment of a company’s culture. They may have been desperate to secure employment and simply overlooked or rationalised fundamental differences in ethics, values, or work style.
Once embedded in the company, the employee may feel like a constant outsider. This lack of alignment between their personal values and the company’s operating culture leads to deep dissatisfaction. The resulting cynicism and resentment manifest as disengagement, reduced effort, and passive-aggressive behaviour because they feel fundamentally like a bad fit.
Undiagnosed mental health struggles
The stress and structure of a new, demanding job can often exacerbate or reveal underlying mental health issues that were successfully masked during the interview process. Conditions such as anxiety or depression do not always present as sadness or quietness; they can often manifest as irritability, anger, extreme procrastination, and a failure to show up.
The employee’s strange behaviour is not a deliberate slight against the employer, but a symptom of a psychological struggle. The demanding environment of the new role becomes too much to bear, and their performance drops significantly as they struggle to manage their internal challenges.
The key to coping with a struggling employee is to reframe the situation away from a simple disciplinary problem and towards a complex behavioural puzzle. Employers must shift from solely focusing on the outcome (poor performance) to investigating the root cause (the psychological drivers).
This involves creating a culture of psychological safety where a struggling employee feels comfortable discussing issues without fear of immediate penalty. Open and non-judgmental dialogue, supported by managerial training, is essential to uncover whether the issue is fear, disillusionment, or a medical concern.
Solutions for the employer
Implementing a structured ‘reality check’ onboarding
Employers should proactively mitigate ‘shift shock’ by providing a transparent and realistic view of the job and culture post-offer but pre-start date. This involves moving beyond the glossy presentation and providing a frank, warts-and-all description of the daily realities, challenges, and cultural nuances.
This honest approach manages expectations from the outset, allowing the employee to self-select out if the reality is a significant mismatch, saving both parties considerable time and pain. It also builds trust, demonstrating that the company values transparency over simple recruitment.
Offering confidential access to employee assistance programmes
Recognising that mental health issues can be a significant cause of strange workplace behaviour, companies must ensure robust and confidential Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs) are readily available. The communication of these programmes must be explicit and non-stigmatising.
Managers should be trained to refer employees to EAP services when behavioural issues arise, framing it as a supportive tool rather than a punitive measure. This external resource provides a safe outlet for the employee to address underlying mental health or psychological factors without the fear of internal judgement.
Establishing clear performance metrics and feedback loops
In many cases, strange behaviour stems from a sense of being overwhelmed, particularly for those struggling with Imposter Syndrome or Perfectionism. Implementing clear, small-scale performance goals and a frequent, constructive feedback structure can help to ground the employee.
By breaking down large tasks and offering immediate, specific praise and guidance, the manager reduces the perceived high stakes. This helps the employee focus on manageable successes, chipping away at the fears of failure or inadequacy that drive the self-sabotaging behaviour.
Encouraging value and cultural alignment check-ins
Managers should be trained to conduct regular, informal check-ins that go beyond task performance to discuss cultural fit and alignment with personal values. These conversations should focus on how the employee feels about the work, the team, and the company’s mission.
If a values mismatch is identified, the company can explore lateral moves or adjust the employee’s responsibilities to better align with their motivations. If no alignment is possible, an amicable separation is a better solution than tolerating prolonged, resentful underperformance.
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Conclusion
The transformation of a motivated, high-achieving candidate into a resentful, underperforming employee is a complex issue rooted in psychological defence mechanisms, disillusionment, and underlying personal struggles. For the employer, understanding this is crucial.
The solution does not lie in stricter disciplinary action, but in a more nuanced, psychological approach: fostering a culture of transparency, proactive expectation management, and accessible mental health support. By reframing the problem from one of “bad attitude” to one of “underlying cause”, employers can effectively mitigate self-sabotage, retain valuable talent, and maintain a healthier, more productive work environment.
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