Ethics: He’s My Best Employee, but People Don’t Like Him. What Should I Do?

“He isn’t rude–just direct.” Our Ethics columnist tackles an entrepreneur’s workplace dilemma.

EXPERT OPINION BY MINDA ZETLIN, AUTHOR OF 'CAREER SELF-CARE: FIND YOUR HAPPINESS, SUCCESS, AND FULFILLMENT AT WORK' @MINDAZETLIN

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A Reddit member writes: Have a small and growing company. One of our top performers in ops has over 30 years experience and is customer facing pretty regularly. He completes all his tasks faster and more accurately than anyone I met. Problem is, not a whole lot of people like the guy. I have gotten complaints from customers that he sounds annoyed on calls and comments like “I don’t like that guy, I don’t want to talk to him.”

These complaints have mostly come from our larger customers, unfortunately. I have been on the all the calls and while he is direct–that is kind of his job. For some of the relationships, I have had to remove him from interacting with customers directly which slows things down and [creates inefficiency].

When we met 20 years ago we were a deal team–same as now. I would handle the sales and he would handle the credit and ops. So he has the experience. He just turned 60 and I don’t know if [our company’s] growth has stressed him or if he’s just getting old and cranky to be honest. Had probably four clients bitch about him recently, and one internal person, as well as a partner/supplier. Prior to the last 18 months, [there were] maybe only two to three complaints over his tenure.

“He will tone it down temporarily.”

Have had conversations. He will tone it down temporarily, then revert. In stressful situations, he has a tendency to raise his voice, which I believe is the rubbing point.

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I have been thinking long and hard exactly what the issue is and how to correct it and not coming up with anything. He isn’t rude–just direct. Another employee said he comes off kinda arrogant. Regardless, he is 100 percent different culturally from the rest of the company.

What do I do? This is a combined version of a post and comments.

Minda Zetlin responds:

As one commenter on Reddit points out, raising his voice to anyone is unacceptable. That’s a simple rule that he is certainly intelligent enough to follow.

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