The New Employee - This employee starts his or her job not knowing what is expected and usually takes a while to reach job standards.  It is important that you provide guidance and support for this person so he or she will become competent in the new  position.  Without your support, a minor problem can become a major one.

The Inconsistent Employee - The inconsistent employee performs sporadically, over time.  He or she performs well some times and poorly at other times.  This person is usually very competent in performing the job but cannot be counted on to produce results on a regular basis. You can expect this employee to perform well before  performance appraisals and then slip back after a good rating.

The Unbalanced Employee - This type of employee is strong in one aspect of the job, usually the technical, but quite weak in other areas, such as interpersonal behavior.  The employee may be a good worker, but has a hard time getting along with co-workers or the boss.  The unbalanced employee may be categorized in three ways:   those antagonistic towards others; those preferring to do their own thing-not  following company rules; and those who are cynical of anything management does.

The Mediocre Employee - This person only performs the basics of his or her job and usually doesn't produce high quality work.  This employee seems to lack initiative in terms of exceeding performance expectations.

The Marginal Employee - This employee fails to meet the minimum expectations of the job.  This person often slides by, especially in larger departments where his or her individual performance is not as noticeable.  He or she commits "time theft" by not working productively.

The Intolerable Employee - Work is usually unsatisfactory or not done on time; the worker is frequently absent or tardy; he or she engages in behavior disruptive to co-workers.  In many cases, the manager allows this problem to grow into an intolerable and severe problem before dealing with it.  These are the situations which often lead to employee termination.

It is important to address performance problems as soon as they arise.  The longer you wait to deal with them, the worse they become.  Most employees do not start out being marginal or intolerable.  They get that way because corrective action was not taken when it was appropriate to do so. To be continued in Part 3.