An Archive Blog by Bob Sutton

Porcupines With Hearts of Gold Over at BusinessWeek.com

Porcupine

As I wrote a few weeks back, BusinessWeek is trying an experiment where they are using blogs and comments on blogs to produce material for a forthcoming double-issue on the workplace.  So I have been blogging a bit in the section on toxic bosses. My editor there, Michele Conlin, tells me that the blogging part of this experiment is winding down and they are now moving toward selecting and editing the content. She especially liked the story about the “Asshole Boxing” methods used by the salesman with an asshole boss. I also put up a new post over there yesterday on “porcupines with hearts of gold,” which argues that it is wise to be slow to label people as assholes, in part, because some people have rough exteriors but are great people once you get past the initial impression. I am very curious to see how the special issue comes out, and in any event, I have to give BusinessWeek credit for having the courage to experiment with something new.