Firing The Prima Donna

From CIO.com.au:

For example, one IT shop had a fellow who was, by 10 times, the best programmer/developer in the group. Unfortunately, the guy was a total jerk. He helped no one, criticized and insulted everyone, and behaved as if the organization couldn't afford to lose him. He was, by far, its best-paid IT person. His designs and code were uniformly excellent and unusually well-documented. The cherry on top was that the CFO publicly described him as the company's most productive employee.

He was fired. How and why? Knowing how "valuable" he was, the gentleman procured a job offer from a competitor and used it in an effort to jack up his already considerable compensation package. Management caved.

Then, the CFO (I'm reliably told) had an epiphany. The business was growing too dependent on the man's undeniable skills. The group's morale was miserable; everyone else's productivity was flat; and the internal clients were exhausted by a prima donna who always delivered the goods but did so in the most condescending, "geez you're a moron" manner.

Yes, he was offered counselling. He rejected it. He left in a huff of severance. And for a while, the team's productivity suffered. They simply couldn't do as much without him. But morale skyrocketed. Everyone else's productivity improved. Problems are solved with less rancour. Reliability without volatility has become the new norm. The CIO and CFO no longer fear blackmail.

Comments

[Roz]

That's a great example of how sometimes an employee (or even a customer) can become more expensive then they're worth. Unfortunately, it's usually someone besides the jerk's immediate management who ends up bringing about the change, because few managers feel they can handle the downturn in productivity that comes before things get better.

I find that workshops with titles like "Managing Difficult People" are always well subscribed.

[Deborah Krueger]

This is very interesting to me because I am a Medical Management Consultant hired by various hospitals, nursing homes and physicians offices to collect unpaid balances. I find that it is because of these "can't do without" employees that they are in financial distress. These employees are so comfortable and will do all they can to help you but, bottom line, have held up a smoke screen to problems that can prevent a company/facility from going forward.