As always, I have to point out - as we know it today, the phrase is "one bad apple spoils the bunch". In it's original form, "a rotten apple quickly infects it

As always, I have to point out - as we know it today, the phrase is "one bad apple spoils the bunch". In it's original form, "a rotten apple quickly infects its neighbor". (Ethyl outgassing from over-ripe apples will encourage other apples to ripen too fast, and mould will spread from one to the next.) The idea has never been that we should tolerate the odd ones out, but that they need to be removed to stop the spread. There's nothing wrong with describing such officers at bad apples. There's something wrong with leaving where they are. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_apples https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_apples