[eridius]

Except his coworker didn't offer a complement. His coworker offered an admission that what she thought was a personality flaw ended up working out. It was, in fact, a rather impolite and off-putting delivery. I see no problem with his description of his coworker as being impolite. The important bit about that interaction was that, because he was a polite person, he didn't immediately treat the impolite remark as being off-putting or insulting or any other way that another not-so-polite person might take it, but he understood that this was just his coworker's way of offering a complement, and that he should take it as a complement despite the delivery.

In other words, a polite person forgives other people for inadvertent impoliteness and recognizes the intent behind the words.