Category: The No Asshole Rule

 I just got a nice note from Bram Gerrits, the translator of the Dutch version of The No Asshole Rule. Check out the cover above. Bram also reports that "We spoke before about the Dutch edition of
'Asshole'. It's out – The Dutch title is "De anti-huftermethode" (The
anti asshole method)." I am not sure what that subtitle means — I asked Bram for a translation. But if you speak Dutch, please let us know.  Go here to learn more!

I am not making this up. This guy appears to be a professional asshole. His web site starts out:

My name is Tucker Max, and I am an asshole.

I get excessively drunk at inappropriate times, disregard social
norms, indulge every whim, ignore the consequences of my actions, mock
idiots and posers, sleep with more women than is safe or reasonable,
and just generally act like a raging dickhead.

He is apparently an object of admiration among a certain breed of testosterone poisoned young man.  His books include I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell (which is selling pretty damn well in paperback) and the forthcoming Assholes Finish First. (Note cover above… he seems very proud of being arrested).

One of my favorite Jimmy Buffett lines goes something like "Some things in life are still a mystery to me, and other things are much to clear."  It is a mystery to me why, at least in some corners, people like Tucker Max are celebrated by others and take pride in their sexism and the damage they do to others. It is much to clear to me, however, that he is exactly the kind of vile person that I try to avoid at all costs.  And it is also clear to me that the world would be better off without the likes of Mr. Max.

Also, I doubt Tucker Max has much interest in evidence, but the research seems to be that although there are some conditions when acting like an asshole has advantages (see "The Upside of Assholes"), they don't finish first in most cases.  Rather, it appears that finishing first — or at least being put in power — can make people dumber and turn them into insensitive jerks. The evidence is also crystal clear that people who act like demeaning and self-centered creeps damage the mental and physical health of people around them (as this blog and The No Asshole Rule show), as well as the performance of their teams and organizations.

But I guess leaving a trail of damaged people  in your wake would be a source of pride rather than shame for a self-anointed certified asshole like Tucker Max.

I just got an email from Emily over at Electric Pulp indicating that the ARSE test — the Asshole Rating Self-Exam — recently surpassed over 150,000 completions (152, 234, with a mean of score of 6.4).  So the self-examination continues. A lot of people continue to take the test for themselves and others, as over 5000 people a month are still taking it.

I also have a number of other "ARSE Tools" out there, although none are nearly as successful as the original ARSE Test.

The next most popular is the ACHE, the Asshole Client from Hell Exam, for determining if your client is a certified asshole. This was inspired by this beleaguered fellow at a professional services firm.  We’ve had 12,180 completions, with a mean score of 14.3 (very high, this is out of 20, I guess there are lot of asshole clients out there, or at least people who have asshole clients are attracted to the ACHE.)

The Flying ARSE hasn’t been nearly as popular, this is a self-test to determine if you are the kind of person who makes air travel miserable for everyone. A total of 7582 have completed the flying ARSE, and the mean is 3.82 out of 24, which suggests that most people see themselves as civilized passengers. But, boy, do the bad ones stand-out (I was literary knocked down by an overly aggressive passenger in Newark the other day, who decided that he had to get off the plane first the other day — and I wasn’t the only victim.)

Finally, bringing-up the rear is ARSEmail, a kind of e-card that you can send to apologize for being an asshole to co-worker or to express sympathy to the victim of a workplace asshole. The ARSE mail has always been my favorite, but perhaps that is just a rationalization because it took longer to develop than the others. But it has not exactly caught fire, as only 703 have have been sent. By the way, when Guy Kawasaki saw the ARSEmail, he predicted that it would not be very viral because it was too complicated to complete. I guess he was right, and of course, when it comes to predicting and crafting things that people will spread on the web, Guy has a mighty good track record.

I would be curious if people have any other ideas about why some of these ARSE tools have been so much more viral than others.  And if you have any ideas about other experiments that I might try with different web-based surveys and the like, let me know.  They aren’t that hard to do — at least all were pretty easy (thanks to the people at Electric Pulp) except perhaps for ARSEmail.

As I’ve written, I first saw how abusive hospitals could be — especially surgeons working in the operating room — when my collage Dan Denison spent a week observing a team of operating room nurses in the early 1980’s.  The worst actions we were by a surgeon we dubbed Dr.Gooser.  And I was writing The No Asshole Rule, and since I started writing this blog, I’ve encountered more and more research, and been told more and more stories, suggesting that nurses are among the consistently bullied workers, and doctors are often the culprits.

I just got a long, sad, and quite articulate email from a scrub nurse who feels trapped in one of these asshole infested places.  I suggested that if she could possibly get out, that might be the best thing for her mental health, but it is unclear that she has this option. If not, as I’ve written in my tips for victims of assholes, this might be one of those cases were organized action could help, but she and others have tried that too. Despite my hesitation about recommending legal action, this just might be a case where that is the best option. Read it and tell me — and especially her — what you think is her best course of action.  Here is the email with only the names removed to protect innocent and the guilty — she first presents what I found to be a very thoughtful contrast between Frankl’s classic and The No Asshole Rule, and then gets on to her difficult cas:

I read your book.  You said that we could write to
you, so I am.  Right after reading Viktor Frankl’s book "Man’s Search
For Meaning", I read your book.  There are a lot of similarities
between the two books about how to get along in a bad work
environment, even though the content is different.  Frankl survived
four Nazi prison camps and wrote about it.  I read Frankl’s
book and then re-read it, typing important passages into my computer since it
was a library book.  By the end, I realized that I should have just
bought the book.  Anyway, if you do a quick read of the first half of his
book (before the section on Logotherapy), you will see that the similarities on
how to deal with the SS and how to deal with today’s work bullies are
similar. 

I’ve read most of the how-to-deal-with-bullies-at-work books
and I think yours is the most pragmatic.  You use multiple scientific
articles to back up your ideas.  Furthermore, most of the other bullying
books only deal with what to do if you’re the CEO or middle management.
If there is a section on what to do if you’re a peon, they were obviously
written by non-peons and their suggestions were not practical  (i.e. quit;
go to HR and complain <HR sides with the bully>; explain yourself to the
bully; work harder, maybe it IS you after all; support anti-bullying
legislation).  Your book gets into the psyche of the asshole/bully and is
more helpful to the peons with better suggestions, even though you cover
the CEO’s, too. 

Some of your suggestions overlapped Frankl’s solutions which
were: know what you’re getting into before you accept "the job"; let
fate take its course and learn to tolerate the abuse; appreciate the good
things that happen; escape if you can; avoid the assholes in life if
possible; keep your mouth shut and blend in; always let them see you working
hard; fantasize about other things; become apathetic to your abuse or other
people’s abuse; die with dignity by not succumbing to becoming an asshole
yourself.  One thing he said that you didn’t that I thought might help in
another publication was that the prisoner/worker should develop
relationships with lateral next line up managers.  In his situation, they
were called Capos–inmate prisoner first-line supervisors.  In our day, it
would be considered shmoozing or networking with lateral managers (not
your own) so that some day, you may get to make a lateral move out from under
an abusive boss or maybe another lateral manager that you have befriended will
put in a good word for you.  Frankl thought that contemplating winning the
war was pointless.  I bet he’d think that anti-bullying legislation was a
pie in the sky idea and didn’t help the bullying victim in the ‘here and
now’.

I work with cardiac surgeons.  They are all pretty much
cut from the same cloth.  They’re all certified assholes, except for
one and I’ve worked with many over the years.  I’ve been working with one
really mean surgeon on a daily basis for 20 years now.  He throws things,
calls us names, charges at us like he’s going to punch us or shove us, he
screams incessantly, he makes jokes about whoever is or isn’t there for the
amusement of the team.  The team has exhibited mobbing behavior and help
to laugh at or target whoever is the target of the day, then they go pat the
target on the back after the 8-10 hours of abuse as a parting gift for being
the abuse receptacle for the day. 

Several years ago, the surgeon went absolutely nuts and pushed
a huge table full of heavy instruments.  Someone caught it before it
slammed a nurse into the wall who had her back to the flying table.
It could have killed her.  He physically backed up one of the scrub techs
against the wall and shook his fists at her, his face beet red and his whole
body shaking with anger.  This type of behavior went on for hours as the
case dragged on.  He threw things, he screamed and called people
names.  In his eyes, everyone was incompetent!  He was hoarse from
all of the screaming.  The anesthesiologist (a doctor) who witnessed the
whole thing said that the target should have called a lawyer.  Did he go
to bat for her to administration?  No.  Did he try to stop the
surgeon from ranting?  No.  After the ordeal, one of the other scrub
techs wrote a synopsis of what happened and reported the doctor to Human
Resources for what he did.  Doctors at our hospital are
self-employed.  They are not employees of the hospital.  Furthermore,
they bring in a lot of business.  They are in the asset column, we are in
the debit column.  We are there to serve the physicians.  A case was
built against the girl who filed the complaint.  They looked into her EAP
(work sponsored counseling) files to find out if she had gone for counseling
(against the law).  They looked into her medical claims to see if she had
any counseling and found that she had gone to counseling (also against the
law), and she had, for marital counseling.  They called her into the head
physician’s office and asked her if she was making this claim against the
physician because she was unhappy about the outcome of a surgery that the
physician in question had performed on her nephew (how did they know that?),
but she wasn’t unhappy with the way the surgery went on her nephew.  He wanted
to know why she was getting counseling.  She just reported what happened,
that’s all.

The head of HR had a meeting with the scrub tech that the
surgeon directed his anger at, and three other members of the team.  Other
members of the staff who were helping out that day and not members of the
regular cardiac team, including the anesthesiologist, were not asked to attend
the meeting.  The scrub tech who made the claim was not asked to
attend.  The HR Director leaned over, pointed at the intended recipient of
the question and got in everyone’s face, and asked them one at a
time, "A___ (the scrub tech who reported the incident) writes here
that she thought that Dr. Y. was about to physically attack B___.  Did YOU
think that Dr. Y. was going to physically attack B___?"
"Yes."  "Did YOU think that Dr. Y was going to physcially
attack B____?"  "Yes."  Did YOU think that Dr. Y. was
going to physically attack B____?"  "Yes."  "B____,
you did not report this incident.  Why didn’t you report this
incident?"  B____ said, "I need this job."  She did
not explain that she just bought a house and she found out she is pregnant and
her husband had just been laid off from his job.  He leaned forward and
asked B____, "B_____, did YOU believe that Dr. Y. was going to physically
attack you?"  "Yes."  "Then why didn’t you report
it?" he asked.  She said, "I need this job.". 
He fell back against the back of his seat and grimaced as if to say,
"I don’t believe it.  Who would put up with that?"  And
then she leaned forward, and again repeated the words with conviction, "I
NEED this job."  She got paid a little over $10/hour.  All
this for $10/hour.  The outcome was that Dr. Y was sent to ONE anger
management session.

Fastforward about 7 years.  This type of thing
continued to go on, but we learned that we were expendable so no
one complained any more.  We learned that it didn’t help.
Occasionally when Dr. Y misbehaved because he couldn’t get what he wanted
because of a Department of Health policy and the nurse in the room was
trying to uphold the state policies (the RN gets fired when the doctor breaks
the State Health Department rules), he would call the head physician of the
hospital who would tell the nurses that he has permission to break the rule,
just this once, again.  One day recently, Dr. Y. went nuts on another
unit, not in the OR.  A group of nurses wrote him up,
again, not knowing that it doesn’t matter.  After that, he was told
that he has to attend another (as in one) anger management class and has been
put on probation.  Probation?  That means that we’re supposed to
watch him for poor behavior and report it, right?  Except that they never
told US in the OR that he’s on probation or that he was sent to anger
management.  They are only telling nursing floors that do not interact
with him that he is to be watched.  Therefore, those of us who COULD
report about him were kept in the dark.  Not that it matters, of
course.  They wouldn’t do anything about it.  That same week,
an anesthesiologist punched a new nurse in the arm and then shoved her
into a wall. There were four witnesses.  A non-witness was asked to
write up the incident to report it to the head physician.  The punched
nurse had a big bruise on her arm the next day.  The abusive  anesthesiologist was
sent to the head physician’s office of the hospital by the acting OR nurse
manager.  He was told by the head physician of the hospital that "he
would be watched".   Watched for what?  And by whom?
The partner of Dr. Y, (Dr. X)  heard about this and smiled and said aloud,
"Oh boy!  It’s open season on nurses!"  Dr. X is currently
being investigated by Child Protective Services for beating his own son
repeatedly.  As for the temporary head nurse of the OR, she is replacing a
nurse with backbone who told the doctors that their abuse couldn’t go on.
The former head nurse of the OR had been told by senior management that senior
management supported her efforts to curb the physician abuse
problem.  Then they demoted her.

The irony of all of this is that our marketing campaign for
our hospital is "Great Place To Work, Great Place to Recieve Care and a
Great Place to Practice Medicine".  Yeah.  There are other
stories I could tell you, like the one about an RN with Lou Gehrig’s
disease not moving fast enough for a surgeon so he threw three big, long,
bloody laparscopes at her one at a time, each time hitting her.  She
couldn’t dodge quite fast enough.  It was reported. Nothing
came of it.  That same surgeon shoved a male scrub tech off of his stool a
total of three times, too.  Apparently, if you can go three rounds
with this surgeon, you’ve survived that episode. The male scrub tech
did not report his incident with this physician because he didn’t want to
look like a whimp.    When physician abuse events are reported,
they are reported to the head physician of the hospital.  We think that
the CEO has an active "kill the messenger" program so nobody gives
him bad news, including the head physician.  I am cutting the CEO slack in
my mind because I can’t believe that he would do absolutely nothing about
all of this abuse if he just KNEW about it.  He must be kept in the
dark on these issues.  I thought for sure, that after Dr. Y’s table
throwing incident and threatening to hurt B____, that it finally would be dealt
with.  It was just too big to ignore. But no, nothing happened,
except for the anger management class.  Oh wait a minute.  I just
remembered.  One of Dr. Y’s ex-partner physicians became an
administrator.  He and another administrator presented a business
case (financials) against Dr. Y to senior management showing how Dr. Y isn’t
just an asshole, he’s a screw-up and his screw-ups are costing the hospital x
number of dollars.  Yes, the CEO finally took action.  He fired the
two administrators for plotting against Dr. Y.  You see, Dr. Y is in
a protected class.  Dr. Y brought in a lawyer to the meeting saying he was
being "harassed".  Case closed.

Honestly, they tell us to "document, document,
document" when it comes to abuse.  But when it IS documented,
the doctor gets a slap on the wrist (anger management times two–oh yes, and he
had to apologize this time) and there is fallout on whoever reported it.
A manager actually told us that senior management considers the nurses dealing
with Dr. Y as "bunch of whiners".  Without documentation,
there’s no case.  With it, there’s retribution.  What does the CEO
really want?

For myself, the biggest sense of disappointment in this
whole issue isn’t that I’m bullied by assholes.  It is the fact that the
CEO sits on his lilly white ass and turns his back to it.  My anger
for the bullies in my life is dwarfed by how angry I am at
the administration and the CEO who allows it to continue, gives
doublespeak about how it won’t be tolerated here (great place to work and all
that bullshit)—and then tolerates it, offering any one of us up for a
human sacrifice on a silver platter at the request of the biggest bully
monster physicians.  That’s what makes me so fucking angry, disappointed,
and disillusioned with the spineless, eunuch "leaders" where I
work.  They couldn’t last one day in my job with the abuse that is hurled
at me.  These nutjob doctors always look psychotic, like they are one
hair’s breadth away from pounding the shit out of me or my co-workers and from
what we have seen in the last month, it isn’t just possible or probable, it’s
real.

After the "table throwing incident"  I made
an appointment with a psychiatrist because I was so disillusioned and depressed
with how the administration handled that situation.  I really felt that I
was being fed to the lions and nobody could or would help me.  I
would go to work and just shake.  I’d be on the verge of tears all
day.  The psychiatrist started me on anti-depressants to get through the
day.  There aren’t enough anti-depressants in the world to fix this.
My psychiatrist told me, "I want you to know that I’m putting the wrong
person on anti-depressants.  You’re not the only patient I see because of
Dr. Y."   She eventually diagnosed me with PTSD.  She said that
she treats cops, too, who have PTSD and she said our problems are
identical.  At least the cops are the ones who are supposed to be "in
charge" and they can defend themselves with a gun, if necessary.  She
said she could put me on disability for six weeks, but I refused.  How
would that look?  Who would hire me after that?  I have begged my
spouse to let me quit this job, but my salary pays the mortgage and as I
said, with the type of work I do, the type of people I work
with are the same everywhere you go. (I know because I’ve been around.)
I went back to college part time to learn a new skill.  After
graduating, I couldn’t get a job in that skill without moving out of the
area and my family won’t move.  So I’m stuck.  Until I finally
have a stroke or heart attack of my own and then I’ll be free.  What a
price to pay.

P.S. Dr. Gooser was also a cardiac surgeon. 

No, this is not a story from The Onion. I got an email yesterday from a German journalist asking me about a law suit against a Salt Lake City firm in which a former employee alleged that he was subjected to waterboarding to increase his motivation.  I was sure she that this was urban myth or something. But here is a Wired story that provides a link to the complaint.  I was amazed, disgusted, and — I confess — amused to see that the company named in the complaint apparently provides self-help and motivational coaching to individual clients.

Here is excerpt from Wired:

The suit describes Joshua Christopherson, a Prosper, Inc manager, as
a supervisor who routinely punished employees by drawing fake mustaches
on them, removing their chairs and slamming a paddle down on
their desks. On May 29, 2007, Christoperson asked for volunteers for an
unspecified "new motivational exercise," which plaintiff Chad
Hudgens volunteered for to prove his loyalty, according to the suit.

Christopherson then marched his subordinates up a hill near the
office, told Hudgens to lay with his head facing downhill and ordered
other employees to hold him down, according to the suit.

Christopherson then "slowly poured a gallon of water over Hudgens’
mouth and nostrils, thereby making it impossible for Hudgens for breath
(sic) for a sustained period of time."

Hudgens soon developed depression and anxiety due to the trauma and left Prosper, according to the suit.

I wonder, what kinds of methods does Prosper use to motivate its clients?  Also, I still don’t quite believe this, it sounds like an April Fool’s joke. 

I’ve been working away on an array of different projects, including teaching our d.school class on Creating Infectious Engagement (stay-tuned: We are going to have a mini-conference with some cool speakers on the afternoon of May 1, which is open the public).

We’ve had some great in-class guests this term, including Chip Heath talking about his smash hit Made to Stick and the amazing Joe MacCannon from a non=profit organizational called the Institute for Health Improvement — Joe told our class how his organization identified a set of simple but effective practices (hand washing and raising the bed at least 45 degrees when people were on respirators)  and then led a political-style campaign to spread the persistent use of the practices in U.S. Hospitals.  Joe’s group recruited about 2000 of the 3000 or so U.S. hospitals to participate, and an initial analysis for the evidence suggests that the campaign did indeed save over 100,000 lives.  IHI  is a mighty ambitious organization; they are now onto a campaign to save 5 million lives!   

I am also doing some very early work on my next books (it is too early to talk about the content now, but my current  theory is that it is easier form me to work on two books  rather one) and I continuing to give talks about leadership, innovation, and the no asshole rule to various groups. 

Meanwhile, The No Asshole Rule keeps bumping along.  There were three interesting stories in the past week or so.  First, as Polly LaBarre reports on her Mavericks blog, she interviewed two of my favorite anti-asshole CEOs: Lars Dalgaard from SuccessFactors and Paul Purcell from Baird for a story on "Nice Guys Finish First."  I am trying to find  the video, but  Polly’s post is pretty entertaining and detailed.  Second, a story on workplace bullying called "Fight or Flight" came out last week in the American Chronicle.   I was pleased to see that the author described how one of her friends who was a victim of workplace abuse found the book to be "a soft comfort to her battered spirit and troubled mind" and "The book totally made her awestruck as it discusses everything that she
had been experiencing and witnessing at work like an oasis on a dry
dessert, she said."  It is awfully nice to read stories like that, and I do appreciate the nice words.  There are, of course, other books that she might have found equally helpful, including Taming the Abusive Manager.  Finally, lawyers continue to discuss the need to apply the no asshole rule in their workplaces; the most recent story No Jerks Allowed is on Law.com and is about why and how in-house lawyers should apply the rule in their organizations.

P.S. Speaking of Polly LaBarre, when she was a guest lecturer in my class last year, she had the greatest term if ever heard for the tired, meaningless, and convoluted language that plagues business: Jargon Monoxide.  I love that phrase.   

 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!