I have an employee who reports to me who refuses to behave within accepted social norms, when it comes to respect for their co-workers. The individual in question is blunt, rude, and aggressively argumentative. Some examples of their behavior I'm having a problem with:
- Clipping their nails at a desk (in an open office layout), something many people find gross and inappropriate to do at your desk
- Loudly clearing their throat and hacking up phlegm into their garbage can on a routine basis (no they have no illness around this)
- If the individual doesn't get their away immediately, they will raise their voice and basically yell at whoever they are speaking to, including their manager (me). This includes swearing. Commonly becomes a problem when there are two ways of doing something with no objective winner so I make a decision.
- Will commonly interrupt people if they are just engaging in "small talk" as what they have to say is "more important"
- Will frequently talk down to other employees
I've spoken to the individual about their behavior and made it clear that it wasn't acceptable, however they refuse to change and said that basically everyone else is in the wrong and that they don't care what everyone thinks about them, as long as they do their job.
Now, when it comes to programming, the individual is quite capable and performs well, but there is more to a developer than programming. Interpersonal skills go a long way.
What would be an appropriate course of action for this problem? The individual doesn't seem to care/believe there is a problem. I don't want to fire this individual as they are a productive worker, but for their own sake, I want to fix these interpersonal problems.