Every now and then you will have employees who try to make a name for themselves by attaching themselves to every project in sight, but without really doing any work.

Do not encourage this.

Their plan is simple: they want to get their name out in front of their bosses as much as possible so they become one of “those people” whom everyone knows. And so, they volunteer to “help” with a lot of different projects.

Now, with all the “quotation marks” around “various phrases” in “these paragraphs,” you can infer that I am being a little “sarcastic.” These people are not really trying to help anything, of course, other than themselves. They do not really do any work, but they make a lot of noise to make it look like they are. And in the end, when credit goes out or further opportunities arise, they are hoping to be in there with the people who really did put in the effort.

You need to shut these people down, because they are not just annoying, they can actually be detrimental to individual projects and to the organisation as a whole. At the same time, you need to get them to channel their energy into real work, or else leave the company.

Why are these freeloaders such a problem? Well, they get in the way of people who are doing the real work, and end up slowing things down. They often insist on getting reports from everybody else so they “know what’s going on” and supposedly can contribute, but it’s all for show. Not only do they slow things down, they may actually knock things off course when they feel the need to contribute ideas in order to look important, ideas that are based on only the most shallow understanding of the project, and thus probably are not that useful, but may end up getting incorporated. And yes, they can cause a morale problem that will have long term effects on your other employees. Nobody likes to see a slacker getting credit for work they did not do, so if you reward (or even just ignore) this behavior, you are making more trouble for yourself in the long run.

What do you do with them? Actually, maybe you can get some value from them by putting them on a positive path. First, you need to pull them aside and tell them that, while you appreciate their motivation and enthusiasm for working on so many projects, you need them to focus their energy on something more specific. Assign them to something that they are qualified to do, be clear about your expectations, then step back and let them do it. If they can do what you asked them to do, try to keep them focused on their own work and not everyone else’s. If it turns out, though (as it too often does) that they are not really prepared to take responsibility for their own work, then you need to look at letting them go. People like this get in the way of talented, motivated employees, and you really do not need them around.

In the end, you have people who want to work, and people who only want credit for work. The first kind of employee offers you a lot of benefits, the second kind brings nothing but pain. In order to focus your attention on the first kind (which is where you make your profits) you need to either fix, or get rid of, the second kind. Whatever you do, don’t let them get away with it.