“Hi Horst, I have a colleague who is very efficient, hard working but she is very rude and insensitive. She shouted at me until now 4 times, even when all people can hear that. Besides, she has conflicts with all senior colleagues here. I think I will cancel her working contract. But I am afraid that means I cancel the working contract with the hardest working person in this office. What do you think?”
Yes, I know this problem. I was confronted with this kind of conflict before too – more than once.
During my past I mostly decided in favour of continuation of working with that person. It mostly meant the continuation of the tense situation.
Today I would most probably decide differently and terminate cooperation.
It is because - very much like a tree - success has many roots; more than just the single person's good and hard work. In the end the team has to succeed. You all have to thrive as a group, as a collective with mutually accepted positions. As more manual and routine work will be automated, companies will undergo a shift towards knowledge based and communication bound working processes. And the way we interact – if among each others or to the outside world – expresses our common corporate values, hence is at the core of our corporate culture.
Therefore, if interaction is disturbed, in the end each one better should follow his / her own way. Enforcing this process means quit the contract, fire the person in focus.
But as this implies a critical change, it needs a clear and careful communication to send the right signals to those whom you want to keep. Also you should keep in mind, that the leaving person will spread some messages about these unpleasant events in the public. So we prudently shouldn’t charge the situation with emotions beyond the damage, which is already done. But rather cool down and take a rational, professional approach by arguing from the enterprise perspective and the cultural alignment.
In any case, regardless how you may decide, it will cause some pain for all of you.
Well, this is my opinion. What is yours?
