Out With the "In" If you want happy, harmonious employees, it's time to kick those workplace cliques to the curb.

Without a doubt, you value your longtime employees. You knowthem, and they know you. When it comes down to it, your longtimeemployees are like family.

But families can be dysfunctional. New employees coming in canfind there's an impenetrable "in" crowd: a close-knitgroup of longtime employees who have a clique, as well as the earof management. "You can see which team members are together,who turns to whom, and who is left out," says Arlene Vernon,owner of HR and management consulting firm HRx Inc. in EdenPrairie, Minnesota.

The office "in" crowd is a subtle but deadly threat tomorale, productivity and retention. The exact cost of this problemis hard to quantify because employees don't raise the issueduring exit interviews. After all, who wants to say they'releaving because they don't think they fit in?