I argued in The No Asshole Rule that, even in organizations that routinely breed, tolerate, and even celebrate assholes — where run-of-the-mill assholes are barely noticed — there can come a point where a person has become such a flaming asshole or the damage has become so evident, that the rule is applied and the person is sent packing. I wrote the No Asshole Rule to encourage organizations to have higher standards, but it is interesting to see that, in the case of Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Terrell Owens — a superb individual talent, but a selfish and difficult player — that he has been sent packing by his employer. This happened because — apparently — he was undermining teamwork and distracting coaches and the quarterback from the bigger picture. Owens was sent packing by the Philadelphia Eagles a few years earlier for pretty much the same reasons. You can see a kind of similar pattern with Indiana University basketball coach Bob Knight, who got away with a lot nastiness (including, apparently, choking a player at practice). The same thing happened with Steve Jobs, when he was forced out of Apple — although it is interesting that in his second tour there were far fewer signs that he was acting like a jerk (now he is trying to recover from some awful illness of course).
So, it might be that most organizations will eventually enforce the rule if someone is out of control or damaging enough. Perhaps time does wound all heels, but it sure takes a long time before it happens in some places.
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