Obnoxious VIP’s rule badly restricting employees at first (9)
I believe the answer is:
repulsive
'obnoxious' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'vip's rule badly restricting employees at first' is the wordplay.
'badly' indicates anagramming the letters (letters in the wrong order).
'restricting' is an insertion indicator.
'at first' suggests taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'employees' is 'e'.
'vips'+'rule'='vipsrule'
'vipsrule' is an anagram of 'rpulsive'.
'rpulsive' enclosing 'e' is 'REPULSIVE'.
(Other definitions for repulsive that I've seen before include "Offensive" , "Obnoxious" , "Disgusting" , "Abhorrent" , "Loathsome" .)