Beware the Employee Freeloader

In what is perhaps a sign of the times in my roles as a business owner, a corporate board member and advisor to numerous enterprises, I’ve noticed a trend. There is an increasing prevalence of what I will call the employee freeloader — one who continues in the employ of an organization, collects a paycheck and provides little or no effort in return. Remote work environments, a trend that was significantly accelerated by the pandemic, have made it easier for these people to hide, have encouraged their behavior and, I believe, increased their number.

In each case, the employer suspected the employee might be exhibiting freeloading behavior, but the freedom and independence offered by the employer made it difficult to know for sure.  In several instances, a post-employment review of prior email activity revealed what had been suspected. To borrow a phrase from character Peter Gibbons in the 1999 cult classic Office Space, these people worked “just hard enough not to get fired” before departing their employer for another opportunity and leaving their employer with little or nothing to show for the investment made in the employee. 

The employee freeloader’s behavior is especially hurtful to small companies, abundant in the finishing industry, where the employee freeloader’s actions have an outsized impact on performance and profitability. Consider, for example, a small business owner who puts a substantial amount of their net worth at risk in pursuit of business growth only to invest in an employee who collects a check but offers minimal effort.

To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with using a job as a stepping stone to something better. I freely admit to having done so myself at various stages of my career. An employee is not an indentured servant and when their current position is no longer aligned with their professional interests or their life goals, they should pursue a better opportunity. What is wrong, however, is short-changing an employer of appropriate time, effort or commitment while pursuing another job, completing a degree, reaching retirement age, waiting for a non-complete to expire or, for that matter, doing anything else. To take advantage of the independence or freedom afforded by an employer by putting minimal effort into one’s work, at the expense of the employer’s interests, all the while happily banking a paycheck is to act without integrity.

To guard your company from the employee freeloader consider these steps.

First, don’t punish great team members because of the actions of a few. If yours is a culture of freedom and independence where team members are trusted to manage their own time, by all means don’t ruin a good thing for everyone.

Step up your interview game by asking deep questions and ensuring that potential team members mean what they say when they tell you they will be 100% committed. A candidate who seems overqualified, or without solid reason is willing to accept a lower salary or less responsibility than what they have been accustomed to might be looking to use your job to bide time until the right opportunity comes along.

Clearly communicate expectations, set goals, measure performance and trust your instincts if you feel that subpar performance might be due to freeloading. In at least one case I wanted so badly for an employee to be successful in their role that, in hindsight, I realized my desire had blinded me to all kinds of signs that something was off.

Keep an eye on their priorities. Faith, family and health should always come before (but not necessarily at the expense of) work in my opinion, but if an employee’s social life or personal development endeavors seem to always rank above work priorities, that’s an indication that a team member might be freeloading.

I abhor the idea of over-managing team members, but suspected freeloaders should be micromanaged, at least until suspicions are proven correct or incorrect. Understanding exactly where, if and how potential employee freeloaders are adding value and investing their time will smoke them out much sooner.

Finally, as an old friend once told me, hire slowly and fire quickly.  Once you’ve identified an employee freeloader ignore the temptation to “fix” them.  Get them out of the way and replace them with someone who deserves to work for your great company. Employee freeloaders don’t.