Phil Johnson has a great post in Ad Age’s Small Agency Diary; The Joys and Sorrows of Dealing With Clients. He has a couple of interesting theories, one being that

large corporate structures breed and allow a level of bad behavior that would be unacceptable in almost any other social environment.

I have seen this play out on multiple occasions and it’s not pretty.

I think many companies would be appalled by the behavior of some of their employees. These bad behavior types are literally misrepresenting the company. From the Account Service side this is not something we can necessarily change because we can’t cure their bad behavior. What we can change is how we respond to someone else’s bad behavior, and that in turn can impact their behavior. Notice I said impact.

I don’t believe it’s our job to cure the behavior of someone else, instead it’s our job to respond appropriately to their bad behavior. Frequently that means being direct, honest and confrontational in a kind and fair way. Occasionally it just means choking down the words you’d like to say in response. And, response is the key word here. Always respond, never react!