Interesting case study. In my experience, it is better to promptly terminate or reassign people with personality disorders that affect their work, rather than to take time and resources to rehabilitate them. But the problem typically arises that those who get good service argue against termination and give high marks when reviewing the employee. This creates a record that contradicts termination and can give rise to wrongful termination claims and, typically, exhorbitant settlement demands.

Firing someone who is both excellent and horrible requires both strength of character in the boss, as well as documentation of the perfomance factors that justify termination. Clearly, in today’s world, this requires at least 2-3 specific warnings, and citations to specific examples of poor job performance including names of offended parties, etc. It also may require in some states an effort to accommodate the employee in another position to see if the employment can be preserved. In today’s world where discrimination is on every terminated employee’s mind and lips, the paperwork has to be timely and substantively specific.

To avoid problems from weak paperwork, weak bosses frequently end up paying substantial severance packages and citing RIF in a “layoff notice” (enabling unemployment benefits) instead of firing the bad performer on the record. Thus, the employee is taught to game the system, that bad performance can pay nicely, and that there is no need to correct his/her behavior, etc.

Likewise, the next employer is not told the real reason for the termination, so the cycle begins anew, unless the next interviewer has the skill and experience to discern the personality disorder to the extent it may affect the next job’s requirements. And therein lies the secret of great personality matching to each job!

Many thanks for a great blog, Bob!

Ed Hunter
Attorney and Corporate Governance Expert
Irvine, California