Book of the Week: The No Asshole Rule

12 Apr 2016

the_no_asshole_rule It started with an article in Harvard Business Review and ended up as a book, The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t. Tons of people wrote to Bob Sutton about their own personal asshole stories. Turns out there are a lot of assholes in the world. I aspire to smart enough to be one. Bob has been known to be an ass and make women cry. Assholes Before you start talking with assholes, we need to precisely define what is an asshole. Some people can be assholes, but some people are assholes. Asshole Test Test One: After talking to the alleged asshole, does the “target” feel oppressed, humiliated, de-energized, or belittled by the person? In particular, does the target feel worse about him or herself? Test Two: Does the alleged asshole aim his or her venom at people who are less powerful rather than at those people who are more powerful?

the difference between how a person treats the powerless versus the powerful is a good measure of human character as I know.

I like treating people equally since it is good karma. I can totally picture myself or someone I know as one of those powerless people. Are you an asshole? Take this test. The Dirty Dozen Common everyday actions that assholes use

  1. Personal insults
  2. Invading one’s “personal territory”
  3. Uninvited physical contact
  4. Threats and intimidation, both verbal and nonverbal
  5. “Sarcastic jokes” and “teasing” used as insult delivery systems
  6. Withering email flames
  7. Status slaps intended to humiliate their victims
  8. Public shaming or “status degradation” rituals
  9. Rude interruptions
  10. Two-faced attacks
  11. Dirty looks
  12. Treating people as if they are invisible

Total Cost of Assholes The total cost of assholes (TCA) is a metric defining the impact of assholes on an organization. One company went as far as to calculate it for one of their top sales people and deduct the $160,000 from his salary. These costs included recruiting new sectaries, anger management classes, and time spent by other people to deal with the asshole. Assholes can bring down effectiveness of an organization. After Men’s Wearhouse fired one of their top guys for being an asshole and not sharing credit, the net sales of the store went up since everyone else helped each other to sell more. Status and Power Differences

These actions are consistent with findings that powerful people construe others as a means to one’s own ends while simultaneously giving themselves excessive credit for good things that happen to themselves and their organization.

Status and power can go to someone’s head. It doesn’t have to be a big difference to cause someone to act like an ass. Americans like to shower their winners with accolades, but this leads to assholes like Johnny Manziel who physically abuse women. A flatter organization maybe a little better at keeping assholes at bay.

“The more often you are right and the more often you win, the bigger jerk you can be” - some VC

Enforcing the No Asshole Rule

  1. Say the rule, write it down, and act on it.
  2. Assholes will hire other assholes.
  3. Git rid of assholes fast.
  4. Treat certified assholes as incompetent employees
  5. Power breeds nastiness.
  6. Embrace the power-performance paradox.
  7. Manage moments—not just practices, policies, and systems.
  8. Model and teach constructive confrontation.
  9. Adopt the one asshole rule.
  10. The bottom line: link big policies to small decencies.

Dealing with Assholes The book describes ways for dealing with assholes. I’d just work at a place that doesn’t have assholes. I haven’t encountered any assholes in the few years I’ve been working. A good interview question would to be ask people if there were any assholes working there. You don’t want to work with assholes, but there might be some benefits to being one. Virtues of the Asshole

We all die in the end, and despite whatever “rational” virtue assholes may enjoy, I prefer to avoid spending my days working with mean-spirited jerks and will continue to question why some many of us tolerate, justify, and glorify so much demeaning behavior from so many people.

There can be benefits to being an asshole. I’ve written about how I wished I was smart enough to be an asshole. The chapter on the virtues reinforces that belief.

  1. Expressing anger, even nastiness, can be an effective method for grabbing and keeping power
  2. Nastiness and intimidation are especially effective for vanquishing competitors
  3. If you demean your people to motivate them, alternate it with (at least occasional) encouragement and praise.
  4. Create a “toxic tandem”. Good cop, bad cop.
  5. Being all asshole, all the time, won’t work.

There are three blind spots that lead people to thinking that being an asshole is good.

  1. Most jerks succeed despite being an asshole, not because of it.
  2. People confuse tactics which got them there with the tactics that are best for leading a team.
  3. Defense measures used by victims keep assholes from realizing the damage they inflict.

… we studied a large financial institution where people seemed to get ahead for saying smart things rather than doing smart things.

It is probably easier to stick with the no asshole rule. Purchase The No Asshole Rule from Amazon.com or check it out from your local library.