He's accused of more than being a jerk in social situations, but being a jerk in social situations is by itself absolutely grounds for being fired. The list of things you can do that aren't illegal but will reliably get you fired is long.
I'm not sure I can think of a team I've worked on with more than 10 people on it where someone didn't get let go for noncriminal bad behavior that wasn't simply work incompetence. Obviously, it happens all the time. That there are extreme assholes that manage to retain (or even improve) their positions isn't evidence against my argument, because it's not my claim that there's a consistent standard; in fact, the lack of such a standard is part of my point.
I’m saddened by the pushback against the notion of firing assholes. There are some people I just did not want to work with, and on a few occasions management came to the same conclusion.
And I wouldn’t want to work for a company that wouldn’t fire people who were acting terribly in public. Who wants to sit next to someone awful all day?
