[spaghetti]

In my mind the labels "brilliant" and "jerk" contradict each other. When someone is truly bright they will realize how much can be gained from learning to interact with other people, building rapport with coworkers etc. These skills can be practiced and the payoff is immense. I'd bet that even Bill Gates and Steve Jobs had to build rapport with at least their immediate reports.

There are certainly corner cases. For example a company developing a particular technology might need some savant for a while to build the proof-of-concept product. However once that's done this employee's abrasive nature can have a negative impact on other employees and company culture. In this rare case I'd choose compassion for the employee. This could involve working with them, giving them projects they enjoy that don't involve working with others or even recommending them to another company with a note about their talent and people skills trade-off.

There's also the case where an employee is regarded as brilliant but lacking people skills and is just plain dysfunctional. The technical skills are lacking but people are afraid to confront the person because they will yell or become angry. In this case the person should be fired ASAP.