A Survival Guide to Managing Employees from Hell: Handling Idiots, Whiners, Slackers, and Other Workplace Demons

Chapter 5. Cultural Chasm

Sometimes the basic problem is that an employee just can’t fit into the culture with the rest of the employees, thus creating a tension in the office. The person may do a good job otherwise, but there just isn’t a fit and the person isn’t about to change. This is a problem that has been growing as the workplace gets more diverse. While the trend has been towards appreciation of diversity and making adjustments to get along, sometimes the chasm may seem unbridgeable.

That’s the problem Alvin faced at his car repair shop. He had about a dozen employees, half of them working in the shop on the cars, half of them office employees including an office manager and others involved with sales, estimating, and administration. His ...