An Archive Blog by Bob Sutton

BusinessWeek Issue on Trouble at the Office

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The brand new BusinessWeek is on "Trouble at the Office."  As I wrote here a couple months back, much of the content for the issue was created in collaboration with readers, including a series of blogs that BusinessWeek established with the primary aim of developing content for this issue.  The issue is now out online and it has everything from an interview with the Office's Rainn Wilson on jobs from hell to Jim Collins on Good to Great Expectations.  I contributed an essay on forces that will turn you into a jerk and how to overcome them — called "Are You Being a Jerk, Again."   This essay reflects themes that I've talked about in more depth in this blog including power (see here and here) and emotional contagion. It is a fun issue and I have to give BusinessWeek credit for trying something so different.

P.S. The weirdest part for me is that the story contains a huge artists rendering of me, which makes me nervous, in part, because that is the kind of attention that turns people into self-centered assholes.  Please do not hesitate to let me know if you notice that I start acting like a jerk.