Some interns fetch coffee. Others… bite their colleagues.
When a summer intern started at the prestigious Sidley Austin law firm in New York, she made quite an impression, by biting another employee.
But despite her strong chomp, she didn’t get fired. Not after the first bite. Not after the second. Not even after the third or fourth. It took five separate bite victims before the firm finally let her go.
According to Inc. magazine, the hesitation was because she was “otherwise personable” and there was “reluctance to elevate the matter.” Which is corporate-speak for, “We really didn’t want to deal with it.”
Now, unless her official title was Junior Vampire Associate, this is absurd. Even employment attorney Dan Schwartz weighed in, noting that even if the biting was tied to a disability, “The ADA does not protect an employee at the expense of another employee.”
Psychological safety disappears the moment you tolerate harmful behavior, even when the harm isn’t physical.
In Dance Floor Theory, we know that engagement only thrives when people feel safe. If someone thinks they might get “bitten”, literally or figuratively, they’ll retreat down the Engagement Pyramid fast.
The physical biter in this story is extreme, but in most workplaces, the more common culprit is the Negative Nelly.
A Negative Nelly is that person who constantly complains, shoots down new ideas, and drips cynicism into every conversation. They may not leave visible marks, but they take bites out of morale, trust, and enthusiasm. And just like the biting intern, their damage compounds every day leadership avoids addressing it.
When leaders keep a Negative Nelly around because they’re “otherwise good at their job,” they’re making a dangerous trade of short-term comfort for long-term engagement loss. Everyone else sees it. And everyone else adjusts their trust, their openness, and their willingness to contribute accordingly.
Action Steps: How to Handle a Negative Nelly Before They Sink the Room
- Spot the signs early – Look for patterns of constant criticism, idea-killing, or undermining others.
- Address the impact, not just the attitude – Explain how their behavior affects the team’s ability to feel safe and contribute.
- Offer a clear path forward – Give them a chance to shift by outlining specific, measurable behavior changes.
- Follow through consistently – If they refuse to change, remove them. Protecting the group’s psychological safety has to come first.
The biting intern’s victims had something in common with teams stuck with a Negative Nelly in that they didn’t feel safe.
A healthy, engaged workplace isn’t just about keeping people in the room. It’s about protecting the room from behaviors that erode trust.
So if you’ve got a Negative Nelly taking a bite out of your team’s energy, don’t wait for a fifth “victim.” Address it early, address it directly, and protect the space where engagement can thrive.
