The Counterpoint: What If It Still Doesn’t Work?
Sometimes, no amount of coaching, mentoring, or Performance Improvement Plans can untangle a toxic knot—especially when the issue runs deeper than poor behavior and veers into personality disorders.
I once saw this up close: a former colleague of mine, once in charge of a team, was quietly reassigned to a role with no subordinates—no meetings to lead, no team to manage. He now only reports to a boss, stripped of influence but not completely discarded. This isn’t punishment—it’s containment.
Research supports this strategy of transferring difficult individuals to solo projects or remote setups, not to exile them, but to insulate others from harm while giving the employee space to function without triggering more damage. It’s not ideal, but sometimes, this halfway house between tolerance and termination buys time—and peace.
But in some cases, even that isn’t enough. When behaviors persist despite feedback, isolation, and repeated intervention, it’s not cruelty to terminate—it’s courage. Especially when dealing with individuals who may exhibit traits of narcissistic personality disorder, where science itself tells us change is highly unlikely, and therapy often fails to land.
These are not easy calls to make. But letting toxicity fester is costlier—morale plummets, good employees leave, and entire teams fracture. Protecting the culture sometimes means having to let someone go, humanely but decisively. And after that, the real work begins: restoring safety, rebuilding trust, and showing the rest of the team that the organization chooses them over dysfunction.
From Ras-le-bol to Redemption
It’s poetic, in a way, that a moment of emotional exasperation in France captured the sentiment of countless employees back home. “Ras-le-bol” may be French, but the feeling is heartbreakingly universal. The real difference? What leadership does next. Because toxic workplaces don’t heal through luck or passive time—they heal through deliberate repair. That healing starts with recognizing the silent damage done by unchecked behaviors and ends with rebuilding through ethical clarity, emotional intelligence, psychological safety, and policies that don’t just exist on paper. I think back to that sun-drenched afternoon in Nice, the couple mid-argument, and how her voice cut through the salt air with that raw, human truth: enough is enough. We owe it to every Filipino worker carrying the quiet weight of a toxic workplace to listen to that same cry—fed up, yes, but not beyond hope. Because if we’re brave enough to do the hard work of repair, even the most disillusioned places can find their way back to dignity, respect, and maybe even joy.
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Columnist Bio
Nicasio A. Pimentel III is a UK-certified human resources practitioner and educator with over 15 years of experience spanning HR strategy, analytics, systems integration and talent management across several Fortune Global 500 companies and public sector institutions in UK, Australia and the Middle East. He holds an MSc in Management and Human Resources from the prestigious London School of Economics and a BA Psychology from the University of the Philippines Diliman. A former Christian missionary to marginalized ethnic minorities in Cambodia, he now teaches psychology at the University of Antique and continues to serve underserved communities in Western Visayas through grassroots ministry and education advocacy. He is also an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (Assoc CIPD) in the UK. For questions, e-mail nicasio.pimentel@antiquespride.edu.ph./PN
