What You Tolerate

The client review arrives.

The job has been closed out. Scores are high. Minimal remarks.

“Good.”You smile. “This was a big, high-paying project.”

But—

In the Further Remarks, an issue…

At times a lack of respect — Haughty Attitude — Can Be Incorrigible

You smile,

“My Ace Project Manager. They get the job done. That’s all that matters…”

Yeah, yeah—they have an attitude. But there has never been a…real complaint.

The client is happy enough. The project finished on time. Within budget.

You’ve joked about it before…

What is this, the fifth, sixth, seventh time someone has grumbled?

But—

The Assistant Project Manager mentioned the New Hire said something about feeling uncomfortable with some of his…tactics.

Whatever.

This particular client wasn’t the firm’s ideal customer.

This type of customer doesn’t always get it. They’re just a…paying customer.

And—

The New Hire will have to adjust.

That’s how you get work done. That’s how you get your client to say Yes. That’s how you protect The Brand.

And if this client complains? Doesn’t matter. He’s grumbling to someone who will never be the ideal client.

Birds of a feather…

Wait—

That meeting last month. The Head Designer. That was a complaint, right?

The Ace Project Manager was being—what was the word—duplicitous.

Another overreaction.

“Do it right the first time and he wouldn’t have to intervene.”

That was kinda a joke, right?

The Head Designer smiled. Didn’t seem to mind.

And besides—creative people are sensitive. Operational people are blunt. That’s the balance. That’s why the work gets done. That’s why the firm wins.

Except.

Do they?

You check…

Not because you’re worried. Just…curious, right?

The last three projects The Ace Project Manager touched?

Closed. Paid. Delivered.

But no follow-up work. No referrals. No…warm notes.

Just paid invoices. And quiet completions.

Still…

That happens. Not every client becomes a relationship. Not every project turns into another project.

Some people say they want excellence until excellence has a—tone.

You almost write that down…

But then—

You remember the Assistant Project Manager asking to be moved off his next assignment

You remember the New Hire stopped speaking up in check-ins

You remember the Head Designer stopped copying him on early drafts

You remember the client’s face on the final call

Polite. Flat. Finished.

You remember how many times you said:

That’s just how he is.

Not once. Not twice.

Enough times that it became…policy.

Enough times that everyone else learned the policy.

Don’t challenge him

Work around him

Warn new people quietly

Keep him away from certain clients

Let him handle the hard ones. Let him pressure the designers. Let him clean up the mess…

Let him make the mess.

Because he delivers.

Because he closes.

Because he is expensive to…

Confront.

And suddenly the issue is no longer The Ace Project Manager.

The issue is you.

What you called performance was permission

What you called directness was contempt

What you called personality became operating procedure

No one endorsed it.

They just made room for it.

Then created language for it.

Then formed rules around it.

The team learned.

Not the values…

The rules.