So the bottom line with where this is all going with AI is another reason to shore up your documentation of problem employees before they file in court.

So I'm going to talk about our next two archetypes of challenging employees, the bully and the gatekeeper.

Let's talk about bullies first.

And let me be clear, true bullying that rises to the level of a hostile work environment has no place in the workplace whatsoever and requires immediate investigation and, quite frankly, discipline up to and including termination.

But when we're talking about the bully as a challenging employee, we're really talking about someone who engages in improperly dominating behavior, who is pushing around their coworkers, not physically, but often verbally or emotionally.

And to the extent that the conduct they're engaging in is short of actual hostile work environment harassment, it's still unacceptable, and it's still something that we need to address.

Bullies are often driven by ego or insecurity.

So the naysayer needs to ultimately understand that if they fail to meet their goals and deadlines, they're going to be performance managed out and discharged.