Author: supermoxie

 I’ve got a lot of news about assholes in the workplace, so I thought I would do a
quick round-up of events over the past few weeks.

1.
I wrote earlier about the no
asshole rule at Baird, a Midwestern financial services firm that is led by
Paul Purcell, and that is #39 on Fortune Best Places to Work list. A had a lovely telephone conversation with
Mr. Purcell, who is a charming and smart guy. I will use some of the material for a new chapter I am writing for the
paperback version of the book (which won’t be out for at least a year), but
there is one thing Paul said that I found intriguing. I asked him how he defines as an asshole. And
he said something like, it is someone who does three things:

1. Persistently puts his or her interests ahead of co-workers
2. Persistently puts his or her interests ahead of the company’s interest
3. Engages in ethically suspect actions 

Paul
noted that people who do the first two things are especially prone to unethical
action, a good point. Now, this isn’t
how I define an asshole, as I think of them as people who leave a trail of
demeaned and de-energized victims in their wake, but definitional issues aside,
I agree completely with what Paul is trying to accomplish. And the key of
course is that Baird isn’t just trying to select “good” people, they work very
hard to create a culture and systems that support such unselfish and ethical
action.  

2. I love all the comments on the Japanese
title of the book. I am glad to hear
that people generally think it is an accurate and culturally appropriate
one. As one example, here is a great one
from Christine Yokoi:

I’m
Japanese/American & lived in Japan 20 years & have done lots of
translation (but with a lot of struggle ;-)).

In
Japanese, there are not really swear words ("dirty" words) that are
used in everyday situations. So you often see/hear the word "baka"
being used as a translation for the many colorful variations of swear words we
have in English, in movies & TV.

I’d say this whole title translates quite closely to "the jerk in your
workplace," and comes at least closer than using "baka" which
literally means stupid and can but doesn’t always mean jerk. I don’t think
there is a Japanese word that means or has the same connotation as
"asshole." (So you need to insult people in other ways if you’re
speaking in Japanese 😉 )

There are other interesting considerations that have seemingly gone into this
translation, which involve the selection of the characters used for the words
(it is possible to write the same phrase using different sets of characters,
such as Chinese characters, or different versions of the Japanese phonetic
alphabet) — which will nuance the impact (visual interpretation by readers) of
the phrase.

For
example, the selection of katakana (phonetic Japanese often used to represent
foreign words) for the Japanese word ‘iya’ (translated by others here as
‘nasty’) tends to emphasize it within the title.

3. There is a new column out on law.com called No Jerks
Allowed: How and Why GCs Can Stop Angry, Rude and Demeaning Workplace Behavior,
by Michael Maslanka. He talks about The
No Asshole Rul and discusses some new research that I find especially
interesting:

“Having practiced employment law
for nearly 27 years, I can say with absolute clarity and total conviction that
abrupt e-mails, rude comments and angry directives fail — always have, always
will. Confirmation of my subjective feelings comes from two business
professors, Christine Porath and Amir Erez, whose revealing study of rudeness
and its toxic effects is illuminating. They subjected two groups of study
participants to varying degrees of rudeness, and they asked a third group to
only imagine they were the object of the rudeness. All groups were then asked
to perform tasks requiring cognitive functions. The result? In all three groups
the ability of the participants to think was severely impaired. Why? They were
unable to use their cognitive processing power to perform the tasks, wasting
their brain wattage on mulling over and ruminating upon the rudeness, or
parsing the comments and figuring out how they should have responded. This
included the bystander group, asked only to empathize. Talk about collateral
damage.”

4. I had a lovely
time as a guest on the local NPR station in Washington D.C. talking about the
civility movement in Maryland. I was
especially impressed with the good humor and wisdom from Valerie Gross, CEO of
the Howard County Library — one of the leaders of the civility movement in
Howard County. You can listen to the
broadcast at here the
WAMU 88.5 website.

5. I worked with
Guy Kawasaki and Linked-in awhile back to develop a checklist to help determine
if you are about to go to work for an asshole boss. In that spirit, check out this useful article
on How
to Spot Bad Employers. I love this list of red flags:

· Your
interviewer is more than a little late and doesn’t feel it necessary to
apologize.

· It’s
clear that your interviewer has never looked at your resume or application.

· Your
interviewer is constantly called from the meeting to handle an office crisis.

· Your
interviewer takes phone calls during your meeting, rarely makes eye contact,
and shows little interest in you or what you bring to the table.

· Other
workers enter the screening room with pained expressions.

· Your
potential boss talks only about his/her accomplishments, and discusses the
shortcomings of other staffers.

· The
interviewer never focuses on direct skills, but your potential boss says you’ll
receive specific directives once you’re on the job.

· Your
interviewer is rude to you and brusque to existing employees. Or, worse, stress
sizzles off of subordinates on the interview committee.

· Your
interviewer insists on asking personal questions that are not job related about
your home or family life, your age, your health or potential disabilities, your
race or national origin, or your court and financial records.

 

6. Finally, Marty Kihn’s funny and somewhat
scary book A$$hole:
How I Got Rich & Happy By Not Giving a Damn About Anyone And You Can Too
is out. It is an intriguing book
because, one hand, it isn’t just funny to read, it is actually a pretty useful
guide for anyone who wants to become an effective asshole at work. On the other hand, it shows many of the
downsides, and in fact, that is part of the joke. Check out Marty’s blogging on the book, which
is find funny and often rather touching. He has a blog on his Amazon page (I tried to post something but the censorship there killed it… I didn’t
even use the world asshole, but I Ahole seems to forbidden even though I
noticed they were saying that on CNBC the other day.) I especially love this post from yesterday,
as it betrays what a nice guy that Marty is despite the title of the book and
the experiences he describes:

[T]he A$$hole
appears today on Fox News Channel’s “Your World
with Neil Cavuto.” Not content with just one beat-down, my new best friend
Neil also had me on his Fox
Business Channel show two hours later. Sparks flew. Love was made and lost.
In all, a tremendous eruption for the A$$hole! The Neil-ster (new b.f.f.)
betrayed an uncanny grasp of the True when he said: “People who know
you say you don’t believe a word of it.”

7. Finally, the picture to the left came from a post on  Australia-based Management Blog.   I had not seen it before, but I think it summarizes that feeling I get after I’ve had a run-in with a certified asshole or a pack of them.

I know this post
is long, but a lot has happened recently! I love the asshole stuff, of course, but I am looking forward to
focusing my posts, and my writing, on other topics in the coming months
including leadership, turning knowledge into action, and innovation.

I received this heartfelt and disturbing note from an obviously loyal but concerned Costco employee. To give you a bit of context, in The No Asshole Rule, I talk about how placing an over-emphasis on status differences among employees at different ranks is one of the root causes of asshole poisioning in organizations (see this post on how giving power turns people into jerks), and I talk about Costco CEO James Sinegal, founder and CEO of Costco who does things to reduce status differences between himself and other employees by doing things like taking a far smaller salary than most CEOs of big companies ($350,000.00 in 2003, which is only 10 times more than a top hourly employee and twice as much a store manager), how he visits hundreds of stores a year, and despite lots of negative feedback from stock analysts that he is "wasting money," Costco provides far better pay and benefits than other big box stores.  Costco long-term financial performance has been impressive, and treating people well has some clear financial benefits (e.g., Costco shrinkage rate — lost and stolen inventory — is about 1/10th the industry average, a sign that employees are stealing a lot less and also preventing customers from stealing). 

And this does seem to translate into how they treat customers. I’ve always found Costco employees to be remarkably helpful, for
example, more helpful and emotionally engaged with customers than the
employees at Draegers, my local high-end grocery store that sells many
items at double the cost you can get them at Costco.

Nonetheless, despite these impressive efforts to treat people well and reduce status differences, maintaining an no asshole rule isn’t easy in organizations that have even the best of intentions, especially when they face extreme profit and performance pressure.  See the email I got below from a Costco employee who claims that asshole poisioning is spreading in the company, and one of the main causes is that known assholes keep getting promoting to managerial positions.

I would be curious to hear any reactions to this email. I wonder of this is similar to the experience of other Costco employees. What about those of you who are customers: Are you seeing any signs that the place is turning nastier?  And, finally, I would love to hear from Costco senior management, as I understand that this is just one employee’s view, and do admire what you’ve accomplished, especially given what happens at other big box stores.

Here is the note:

Mr. Sutton,

I just finished
your book, The No Asshole Rule, and it’s brilliant!  My friends and I have
had many discussions until late into the night about the very issues that you
discuss.  Thank you for writing this book!  I have to admit that
pages 76-78 initially made me cringe a bit, since I have been a Costco employee
for over five years now.  I’d like to explain further and I hope you’ll
indulge me.

First allow me to
concede to the positive.  We are paid very well at Costco and receive
excellent benefits.  We have a lot of great members and I have become
friends with some of my clients!  I also admire Jim Sinegal’s vision of
the company and the limitations he sets on his own salary is a wonderful
example to set as a leader.  Unfortunately, I believe that Mr. Sinegal has
become too far removed from the "store level" to see what’s really
happening on a daily basis.  Yes, he has visited my location at least 8
times in recent years, but each time has been a quick "walk through"
with almost no interaction. 

The culture that I
and my colleagues have experienced is one of micro-management by
intimidation.  I have worked with a couple of general managers and dozens
of area managers and I have found that with regard to hourly employees’
behavior, they unanimously assume negative intent.  Simply implementing
#13 on your list of things you believe would alone make a marked difference in
this environment.  When instructions are given about completing a task,
these instructions are always coupled with a criticism.  Employees are
often told to be team players but management doesn’t exhibit a team attitude
themselves.  I have endless examples of this but I don’t want to lose you
now, if I haven’t already.  I know you must get endless emails.

So how might any
of this affect the bottom line?  I have noticed a trend over the years
that I’ve been with Costco of employees demoting themselves.  I have
personally known of 6 individuals who have taken up to a 15,000/year pay cut to
"step down."  In some cases the other management at
the store described this self demotion as a "personal failure on the part
of the employee."  I have not experienced these individuals
to be failures and some of them are the most intelligent and productive
workers that I have had the pleasure of working with, and they are also
Nice!  On the flip side of this, managers that have had numerous complaints
made about their behavior are continuing to get promoted.  One such
individual had no less than 10 people about his unprofessional, condescending,
and almost downright abusive behavior.  Upper management’s response was
that they would speak to him, but that he will continue on in his current role.

Finally, it’s
important to note that I’m not basing this on only my experience or on the
experiences at one location.  I’ve networked with Costco employees in
Seattle, Florida and Indiana to name a few and I have found similar
environments and similar stories.  So why am I still here?  Why are
some of my colleagues still here?  The pay and the benefits no doubt play
a part, but so has the idea that we can change things.  I must admit to
you Bob, for most of us, that idea is wearing thin.

The Saturday Wall Street Journal has an intriguing article called "Be Nice, Or What?"
It is all about a civility movement that John Hopkins professor P.M. Forni has sparked in Howard County Maryland.  He has written a book called "Choosing Civility: The Twenty-Five Rule of Considerate Conduct." Here are some of the rules, according to Amazon:

* Think Twice Before Asking Favors
* Give Constructive Criticism
* Refrain from Idle Complaints
* Respect Others’ Opinions
* Don’t Shift Responsibility and Blame
* Care for Your Guests
* Accept and Give Praise

I just ordered a copy, and am reading about the movement, as I am going to be one of the guests talking about this movement on a Washington D.C. NPR station this Monday.  It will be from noon to 1PM Eastern time on The Kojo Nnamdi Show WAMU, 88.5 FM. 

All this sounds pretty reasonable to me, and in many ways,it is an "accentuate the positive approach" in comparison to the "eliminate the negative" approach in The No Asshole Rule. I do worry a bit, however, about the side effects of forcing people to be nice, and have tried to take pains in The No Asshole Rule to emphasize that it is not argument against toughness, competitive behavior, moving quickly, and constructive conflict.  And I also worry slightly — as I do about the no asshole rule too —  that if we are too zealous about becoming civility Nazi’s that it will stifle creativity and individuality, and we will end-up with a society of overly polite clones who are prone to passive-aggressive behavior.

Despite such fretting, however, I was wishing that there was a civility movement in Palo Alto yesterday.  I stopped to pull in a parking space just before a driver — a wife with her husband — parked almost exactly as you see in the picture to the right (indeed, the main difference was they were another few inches over into the next space).  They did this nasty deed as my daughter and I were waiting to pull into the next parking space just to the right of the one they had had taken.  These two lovely people stopped, looked at their parking job for a second, glanced at us waiting to pull in next to them, and then shrugged and walked off without re-parking.   I wish I had a copy of Professor Forni’s book to give them, and I confess that I did rummage around my car to see if I had a copy of The No Asshole Rule to give them — alas I did not (I wonder, would giving them the book had broken Professor Forni’s rules?)

So — despite my concerns — I am most curious to learn more about this new civility movement. It just might be a good idea!

P.S. The above picture comes from this post called Why Hugh Hefner Likes the No Asshole Rule and is the first image that popped-up when I put "no asshole rule" in the "image" search engine on Google. So I am not alone in viewing this as a sign of an urban asshole.

I just learned that my Japanese publisher, Kodansha, is officially releasing a translation of The No Asshole Rule on April 10th and that it should be in bookstores throughout Japan this weekend. Here is the cover. If you speak Japanese, I would be very curious to know how you would translate the title into English.  I had a lovely dinner in Frankfurt, Germany about 18 months ago where I sat next to three people who worked at Amazon Japan, and they spent a good hour arguing over what would be the appropriate translation.  They seemed to agree on a word, I think, they called "bakka," which meant "stupid" but had connotations similar to the word asshole.  But they weren’t involved in the title discussions with people from Kodansha — and neither was I!

I was on CNBC’s Squawk Box this morning along with the author of this month’s Wired cover story on Steve Jobs, Leander Kahney. He argues that Apple has succeeded by "breaking all the rules" and that Jobs is an "evil genius." I am on record as describing Jobs as an asshole, and in fact, he leads-off my chapter on "The Virtues of Assholes."  I didn’t want to write this chapter initially, but realized that I ought to because there are times and places when assholes do get ahead — even though most times they are more trouble than they are worth.  As I looked more closely at Mr. Kahney’s story, however, I became annoyed because it was such an oversimplification. 

First, it didn’t talk about how Jobs has changed over the years.  Many of the stories about the worst of his behaviors go way back to his first tour of duty at Apple (before he was fired, in essence, for being an out of control jerk) and at NEXT, his failed computer company.  It is pretty clear that — although he is still very tough and does have some nasty moments now and then — the humility that came from these failures, growing older, raising children, and battling cancer have mellowed him.  Indeed, when I look back at my long list of "Steve Jobs as an asshole stories" (many told me by people who experienced them first hand, and who quickly told me something like "if you use my name, I will kill you"), most happened when he was a young man. So I thought that it was an oversimplification to mush together the old and the new Steve Jobs. Indeed, I hope there is statue of limitations of some kind for all the times I lost my temper before I was 35.  I also confess that I didn’t make this distinction in The No Asshole Rule either; but an argument can be made that Jobs’ early career suffered because he was too much of an asshole; and his later career has been more successful because — by toning down his act — his genius could shine through.

Second, Mr. Kahney seemed to view Steve Jobs managerial toughness as a sign he is evil, and to argue that his style is different than most other Silicon Valley firms.  I would argue quite the opposite; that toughness is the hallmark of many firms out here including Intel, Oracle, and even HP as it operates now. Jobs and his team are geniuses when it comes aesthetics and to understanding what people want and will buy. But Apple operates a lot  like many other companies out here in other ways. And being tough isn’t the same as being an asshole.

I was sufficiently annoyed by the article that — to my surprise — my reaction was to take Mr. Kahney to task for his oversimplified argument.  As you can see here, he actually seemed to agree with most of my arguments, which surprised me further.  I am still a bit shocked by my behavior, as I never thought I would be on national TV defending Steve Jobs and Apple.  I was also amused when one of the announcers commented afterwards that she didn’t expect "a smack down from the author of the no ahole rule."

Well it is only 7:00 AM and way too much has happened already. Time to get my kids up and off to school.

P.S. I am still not willing to let Apple off the hook for everything; I was really annoyed by Apple’s recent rather sleazy move: When you updated your iTunes account, they tried to sneak in a copy of their new version of Safari (their web browser) for windows.   Check out Mozilla CEO John Lilly’s comment on this bit of evil  (note he got almost 500 comments) and what happened on the fake Steve Jobs web site in this post: Dear John Lilly of Mozilla: You are a Craven Hypocritical Vagina and I Hope You Get Crabs.   

I got this email from Ashutosh Tiwari on Nepal this morning.  I guess that assholes are a problem everywhere:

Dear Professor Sutton,
Greetings from Kathmandu, Nepal! I enjoy you
blog postings.Here’s a review I wrote of your book in Nepali Times,
which is Nepal‘s premier
weekly newspaper. Thought I’d share
this link with you. Your book’s been selling fast in Kathmandu.

http://www.nepalitimes.com/issue/381/StrictlyBusiness/14331

Regards, Ashu

P.S. That is a picture of the Nepali Times front page.