Fred, the head of production for a tape duplication company in Southern California, was well-liked around the office. But when customers returned an excessive amount of cassettes because of poor recording quality, an internal review revealed that Fred was not properly monitoring the tape duplication machines because he was distracted by talking with fellow workers. After several failed attempts to get him to pay better attention to quality control, management gave him a chance to put his socializing impulse to work in sales and customer service.
Still, Fred never sold anything because he seemed far more interested in having personal conversations than in selling. When he failed to respond to repeated (and well-documented) coaching and training opportunities, it became clear that Fred wasn't going to be productive in any area of the company. The problem was not so much that Fred wasn't doing his job as much as the fact that everyone else in the company knew Fred wasn't doing his job. Management had no choice but to terminate, despite their liking Fred very much. To not do so would have shown disrespect for the other employees who were working hard and contributing positively to the company.
SOURCE: First Break all the Rules by Marcus Buckingham (Simon & Schuster, 1999).