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"Brilliant" employees who behave like jerks can no longer be a "protected species"; it's time to stop promoting them and start exiting them, a workplace lawyer says.

In her new book, Broken to Safe: Tackling toxic workplace cultures and burnout, Hall & Wilcox partner Fay Calderone, who has spent years warning organisations and leaders that "dysfunction perpetuates", says that when it comes to tolerating bad behaviour, the tide has "well and truly turned".

"It is now more critical than ever that policies are consistently and indiscriminately enforced, no matter who the perpetrator is and regardless of their perceived 'value' to the organisation," Calderone writes.

"You can no longer tolerate jerks who create toxic workplace cultures and perpetrate unlawful conduct including bullying and sexual harassment, no matter how brilliant they try to convince you they are...