I
wrote a post a couple weeks back about a column that Jack and Suzy Welch
published in BusinessWeek called Send
the Jerks Packing. Now you can read
it online or listen
to the related podcast. Jack and
Suzy described what I call an asshole, and they would call a “Type 4 managers,”
as follows:
Then there’s a fourth kind of employee,
the one who delivers the numbers but doesn’t live the values. You know the
type–who doesn’t? They exist at every level in almost every organization.
These high performers can be mean, secretive, or arrogant. Very often they kiss
up and kick down. Some are stone-cold loners, while others are moody, keeping
those around them in a kind of terrorized thrall.
As
I said my earlier post, I know Suzy from her years as editor of the Harvard Business Review, so I dropped
her a note about her column and shared some of the reactions I have received to
The No Asshole Rule. Indeed, they seemed to have tapped into the
same pool of pain. The responses that Jack and Suzy got their “jerks” column were much like the deluge I got from my 2004 Harvard Business Review on the rule, called Not Worth the Trouble. Suzy wrote me, “Well, if the response to our column is any indication, your
new book will get a ton of attention. We received hundreds of emails after it
ran — mostly from people who said they were working for "Type 4"
managers. (We even got a letter from a person who identified himself as a Type
4 — but claimed the company made him do it!).”
Suzy
also added that several lawyers wrote them to warn that it was unwise to fire a
jerk in public for acting like a “Type 4” manager; indeed, more broadly, the
lawyers I know (and have read) warn that public firing for any kind of offense –
including racial and sexual harassment – can backfire because the humiliation
can open a company up to counter-claims.
Suzy’s
comment brings up the legal challenges of driving bullies out of
the workplace. Check out this interesting article by lawyer Paul Buchanan that
addresses the question “Is
it Against the Law to be a Jerk?” His answer seems to be that it isn’t against the law to be what I would
call an equal opportunity asshole, but being a jerk does increase risk for the
demeaning employee (and his or her company) if there is any hint of racism, sexism, or
sexual harassment. As Buchanan points out, U.S. law here is evolving and may
change in the future, plus laws in some states may provide recourse for
employees who can demonstrate that they are in a “hostile work environment.” The UK appears to be different. Companies there that condone “bullies” have suffered some major loses in court lately. Check out
this 2006 UK
settlement where a bullied worker was awarded 800,000 pounds. Also, the Wikipedia entry on Workplace
Bullying has a useful overview of pertinent laws in several countries.
My
view on all this is that if you have to check with a lawyer to make sure you or your company are dishing out the "right" kind of abuse to employees, you are probably an asshole, or are at least knee-deep in a swarm of assholes. The best recourse for companies (and people who pick
places to work in) isn’t to rely on laws against psychological abuse, but to state and enforce workplace policies against being a
workplace jerk – to make it a standard for hiring, paying, promoting, and
firing people. Examples include Southwest Airlines, IDEO, and the software firm SuccessFactors.
In
fact, if you run or work in an organization that enforces some variation of the
no asshole rule (this is usually done in more polite language), I’d love to
hear from you. I am always looking for more examples — and nuances — of how the rule is applied.
P.S.
Polly LaBarre, co-author of
Mavericks, put up a nice post called Bob
Sutton’s Weird Ideas, where she shows links between The No Asshole Rule and my earlier book on Weird Ideas That Work. The
notion that there are any similarities between the two books – except that they
are evidence-based and reflect my background as an organizational psychologist –
never occurred to me until I read Polly’s post!
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