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Conversations about employee misbehaviour and misconduct are typically not handled well, or avoided altogether, because they're "hard", but this only causes issues to escalate, a communications expert warns.

While more extreme instances of misbehaviour or misconduct do tend to get addressed, "because they are more black and white" and can't be ignored, it's the "lower-range behavioural issues" that leaders often hope will resolve on their own, Leah Mether tells an HR Daily Premium Q&A.

But failing to address these issues usually results in a need for even more serious conversations, she warns.

"For a really long time a lot of leaders have treated behavioural misconduct as separate to someone's performance," she says, and this needs to change.

In this video, Mether discusses how to effectively manage and communicate with 'negative' personalities in the workplace...