babysitting grown men

I have two jobs but I feel like I babysit during both of them! As an Assistant Manager for Property Management, I know that overseeing the maintenance staff is one of my main job responsibilities, which I am glad to do. Most of the time I truly enjoy it! But when managing the staff turns into refereeing squabbles between grown men, it becomes very exhausting. Let's just say I will be much more thorough during interviews with candidates in the future!

Without getting into too many details, let me just tell you that I'm working out of a different office today to avoid a potential conflict with a suspended employee who has figured out that he will likely be separated soon, due to multiple cases of his threatening behavior toward employees. I can usually keep my cool around angry people, but there's no way I'm putting myself in a situation with him without having a witness in the room! I just don't understand why some of these grown men who have worked for our department can't conduct themselves in a way that is appropriate for the workplace. Really? You'd rather act like that than keep your job? After we've coached you through behaviors that need to change and given you multiple opportunities to improve, you still can't keep it together? I don't get it.

I still have a generally optimistic view of the world and a belief that people are basically good. However, some of these staffing issues have taught me to be more wary of individuals and their faults and/or limitations. Having faults doesn't make someone a bad person; we all have faults. However, their individual issues might make them unsuitable for this particular job in this particular department. I need to start tuning into that more as I interview people to join our team. Hopefully, if I hire the right people, I won't have to babysit so much.