Category: The No Asshole Rule

As Marketwatch reported:

Yehuda Baruch, a management professor at the University of East Anglia
in Norwich, U.K., and graduate student Stuart Jenkins found that
"apparent misbehavior can serve an organization well." Taboo language,
they said, can manifest itself in solidarity that helps create a much
more pleasurable and productive place to work.

In the case of assholes, complaining about them, even calling yourself an asshole now and then can have this effect.  But calling other people assholes to their face (unless it is part of a teasing relationship where that is seen as acceptable fun) can be dangerous.  But this sounds right to me, as that is pretty much how people talk in every workplace that I’ve ever been.  And although Professor Baruch is right that, as rule, you shouldn’t swear in front of customers, of course that doesn’t hold at all times. For example, we expect from comedians, and so the people who bring me in to give talks about The No Asshole Rule!

My French editor Marie-Pierre reports that the French-Canadian version of the book is about to came out, and the title there — as you can see above — is  "Objectif zéro chien sale."  She reports that the complete translation is " "Objective zero dirty dog" and the subtitle is "How to neutralize experts in
insults, degrading remarks, humiliating jokes and status degradation
rituals". I love the "dirty dog" part, although I understand that the title published in France has stronger words in the subtitle; the complete title there is "Objectif
Zéro-sale-con : Petit guide de survie face aux connards, despotes, enflures,
harceleurs, trous du cul et autres personnes nuisibles qui sévissent au travail."  Vuibert, my French publisher, has a nice blog that talks about both versions.

 

There
are a lot of songs about assholes; my favorite, as I’ve written
before, is by Denis Leary. But a friend recently told me about another
one, which is called The I95 Asshole Song. Jimmy Buffett sings it and is
sometimes given credit for writing it, but apparently Campbell deserves the
credit. Here are the lyrics
and a youtube
version that pairs the song with a pretty funny slide show.

 
 
   

The evidence that workplace assholes generate a host of costs for organizations keeps piling-up.  A new survey of 180 employees by Professor Wayne Hochwarter and his colleagues at The University of Florida adds more items to the "Total Cost of Assholes."  A recent summary of this research by Jenna Bryner at LiveScience reports:

"Employees with difficult bosses checked out in the following ways:

• 30 percent slowed down or purposely made errors, compared with 6 percent of those not reporting abuse.
• 27 percent purposely hid from the boss, compared with 4 percent of those not abused.
• 33 percent confessed to not putting in maximum effort, compared with 9 percent of those not abused.
• 29 percent took sick time off even when not ill, compared with 4 percent of those not abused.
• 25 percent took more or longer breaks, compared with 7 percent of those not abused."
  

Sure, I suppose, employees shouldn’t make mistakes on purpose and they should put in maximum effort. But this research — like it or not — is consistent with a huge body of research on justice and fairness in the workplace, which shows that when employees feel "cheated" or treated unfairly (e.g., getting unfair pay cuts) they "get even" by doing their jobs less well, even stealing more according to some studies. In addition, hiding, taking sick time, and taking longer breaks are all ways that people use — and are sometimes wise to use — to cope with abusive boss that they can’t escape, as I imply on my list of tips.

 
 
    

A
few months back, I got an email with the header “Our Test Identifies an Asshole
Before They Are Hired.” As I dug into
it, I realized that the author (who I won’t name, as that would make me an
asshole) was claiming that he and others in his company could reliably
identify and screen out future workplace assholes by analyzing handwriting
samples. He even sent me an example of a
report that –- based on only a handwriting sample – concluded that a job
candidate was a “bad apple,” who had problems including “self-centered,” “aggression,”
“moody”, “ and a  “poor team player.”

I
try to be open-minded and love strange ideas when they are treated as
hypotheses, hunches, and interesting experiments. BUT I also believe strongly in evidence-based
management, and that managers have a responsibility to act on the best evidence
available. Unfortunately, although graphology
is used routinely in some countries to help select new employees (notably in France),
existing research suggests that it is not a valid method for selecting new
employees.

Perhaps the most
damning study was published by Frank Schmidt and the late John Hunter in the Psychological Bulletin in 1998. These two – very skilled and very careful researchers–
analyzed the pattern of relationships observed in peer reviewed journals during
the prior 85 years to identify which employee selection methods were best and
worst. General mental ability (IQ and related tests) was the best predictor and work sample tests (e.g., seeing if people can
actually do the job) were the best of the 19 examined. Two predictors stood as the
worst, graphology and age.  Here is the
rank order of the 19 predictors they examined – the key thing to know here is
that neither graphology nor age provided any
valid information at all about whether future employees would do better or
worse on the job.

1. GMA tests

2. Work sample tests

3. integrity tests

4. Conscientiousness tests

5. Employment interviews
(structured)

6. Employment interviews
(unstructured)

7. Job knowledge tests

8. Job tryout procedure

9. Peer ratings

10. T & E behavioral
consistency method

11. Reference checks

12. Job experience (years)

13. Biographical data measures

14. Assessment centers

15. T & E point
method

16. Years of education

17. Interests

18. Graphology

19. Age

Perhaps some rigorous research demonstrating the predictive power of graphology will eventually be
published, or even has been published. I searched for new research that contradicted Schmidt & Hunter, but I didn’t
find any; perhaps there is some that I don’t know about. I could only find
research that examined why the process of looking at handwriting samples
and hearing expert opinions might fuel the illusion of validity, even if graphology has
no validity at all.

Practicing evidence-based management is about
acting on the best knowledge that you have right now, but being open to new
evidence and information.  Based on the
best research that I know of, my advice is don’t
use graphology to screen out workplace assholes, or for any other employee selection
decisions. It appears to be useless.

I
am sure that this will make some graphologists unhappy, but then again, astrologers
have huge faith in their methods as well.

I’ve written a lot here about how being put in a position of power can turn people into insensitive jerks. This is also the theme provoked a deluge of response to a question that I asked over at LinkedIn, so I know that this is something that people care about a lot.  BUT caring about it, even admitting in private that you’ve suffered from at least temporary bouts of asshole poisoning  when you’ve been in power is one thing, but talking about it in a public forum is an entirely different thing — I realize that this is something that most of us would rather not do.

If you DO want to talk about it, here is your chance!  I wrote an article based on ideas in The No Asshole Rule and some of the ideas on this blog for an enlightened publication at  UC Berkeley called The Greater Good — which has published the work of a host of well-known academics and other authors. For example, there are articles by Daniel Goleman and Richard Sapolsky in the current issue.   My article will be published in a forthcoming special on power dynamics, and it especially focuses on the dangers of being in power and how to overcome them.   The editor The Greater Good, Jason Marsh, made a suggestion that, at first, made me squirm: Why don’t we find someone who fell prey to these dynamics to write about it in a sidebar to the article?  My first reaction was "I can’t ask people to do that." 

My second reaction was that I am not comfortable asking this question directly to people who have talked to me about acting like temporary assholes, but I am comfortable making a general appeal.  I have talked about times when I’ve been a temporary asshole in my book, and as I like to say, "assholes are us." In addition, this is a sufficiently weird idea that it strikes me as an intriguing experiment. After all, compared to what people do on the Dr. Phil show, this is a mild request.

Here is Jason’s email to me — feel free to write him directly or to write both of us.  He is the editor, so he is the one who gets to decide what gets published and in what form, so writing in does not assure that you get in print:

"For the blog posting, please say that we’re looking for a short (350-word), first-person essay written by someone whose personal experience resonates with the phenomenon you describe in your book/essay–someone who was poisoned by a position of power, found they started to act abusively toward co-workers of lower rank, but then realized what had happened to him or her and tried to change his or her behavior. If they have a story they want to share, they can email me directly at jhmarsh@berkeley.edu"

I won’t reveal any of the names of people who write me or Jason on this blog (unless people want me to do so), but I will provide a general report in a week or so about the reactions to this plea (beyond any comments on this blog), as I am very curious to how many people respond to this request and what the tone and content of such responses might be — and you might be as well.

 
 
      

 

Aaron over at Electric Pulp wrote to tell me that the ARSE test, as of yesterday, was at 116,309 completions. So the self-examination continues. 

In the last few weeks, I’ve had the strange experience of meeting a host of people — including a Target executive, an IT manager, and the Executive Director of a non-profit — who introduced themselves to me by telling me their name and ARSE number.  Like "Hi, I am Joe, and I am a 2."  Each time this happens, my immediate reaction is that I have no idea why they are applying a number to themselves, and then I remember why. Those of you who have taken the test will recall that 0 to 5 suggests you are not an asshole, 5 to 15 that you are a borderline certified asshole, and over 15 that you are a certified asshole.

I just took the test again for myself (my score varies by my mood, I confess), and I got a 2.  I’ve scored as high as an 8, so either I am in a good mood or my level of self delusion is higher than usual.

The fantastic pictures are by freelance artist Lisa Haney, her take on how bullies do their dirty work — this was a series of drawings that she apparently did for the New York Times. Taken together, they remind of different ways to assholes do their dirty work, sort of a five-item test that might compliment the written items. The top picture is mobbing — where a group gangs up on one poor victim. The drawing is perfect because, at least for me, the victim’s body language and expression demonstrate how assholes can leave a victim feeling demeaned and de-energized so well.  And then if you look at the panel above, I see a screaming boss or co-worker, then a boss who insults other’s intelligence (this one reminds me of the TV personality who asked a producer "What did you do, take your stupid pills this morning?"), then the backstabber, and finally the asshole who makes it hard for others to do their jobs by withholding the information that they need.  Indeed, it is  interesting that Lars Dalgaard at SuccessFactors defines an asshole, in part, as someone who interferes with the "transparency " that he believes is essential to an effective organization.

So, while being victim to any one of Lisa’s bullying techniques is bad enough, you can imagine a 5 point scale, where 0 is best and 5 worst:

People where I work:

Scream at me
Treat me like I am stupid
Subject me to two-faced backstabbing
Keep secrets that make it hard for me to do my job
Gang-up on me

The last one seems like the worst to me, but I am taken by how much of the "asshole problem" is captured by Lisa’s five pictures.

Check out her website — Lisa also is an occasional contributor to Mad magazine. By the way, if I were Guy Kawasaki, I might call it something like the LSAT — Lisa’s Short Asshole Test!

P.S. Back to Electric Pulp, they just did a website for Stephen Colbert’s new book I Am America.  Among other things, you can petition Oprah to put him on her show so he can promote his book!

 
 
      

A couple weeks ago, I got an email from the Chief of Neonatology at a large hospital (they take care of new infants, especially the sick and premature).  She wrote:

“After recently reading your book, "The No Asshole Rule" I bought
an additional 20 copies for my faculty and fellows.  I plan on using it as
the basis of discussion for our annual retreat this fall.  Do you have any
recommendations for activities that we can do in addition to general discussion
of the principles of the book?”

This is a damn good question. And indeed, it is
something that I’ve been thinking about ever since. I have counseled quite a few leaders by now
about the steps required to implement the rule, and when I speak to groups
about workplace assholes,  I talk about how to
implement the rule in some detail (I focus in organizational practices – selection,
rewards, leadership, managing the little moments, and so on —  based in the ideas in Chapter 3 of the
book). But I have not developed  interactive materials for workshops with small
groups. I made a few suggestions to this
doctor based on role playing exercises that I’ve used for other purposes, such
as teaching Stanford students how to deal with difficult interview questions
and nasty interviewers. And I know that
most organizations –- by law, in most cases — do harassment training;
perhaps such materials can be expanded to include bullying (or have been already).

I don’t know nearly enough to answer this
question well. If any of you have any
suggestions about how to run such workshop, or know of existing materials, I
would appreciate your ideas.

Thanks,

Bob

I published a "Soapbox" article in Publisher’s Weekly called The Decent Thing to Call My Book a couple weeks ago, about the legal and personal challenges of talking about a book with the word "asshole" in the title.  In the essay, I discuss — among other things — how paranoid some radio producers were about the host or me saying the "a-word" on the air, as they feared getting fined by the FCC and getting fired. Jon Keegan does drawings for Publishers Weekly, and captured the mood during quite a few of my interviews just perfectly with the above drawing. Check out his blog and comment . 

By the way, my all time favorite weird censorship was by the BBC "presenter" who told me I could say "asshole" but not "arse."   Yes, as the saying goes, we are two countries divided by a common language

The new BusinessWeek bestseller list came out yesterday, and I am pleased to report The No Asshole Rule is on it for the sixth month in a row — hanging around at #8.  And I am also please to report that Chip and Dan Heath’s wonderful Made to Stick has just hit eight months on the list, moving up from #13 to #6.  I suspect that the jump is because school started, and this book is quickly becoming a standard text in a host of college classes, from marketing, to sales, to organizational behavior, to public health — anyone who wants to craft a message that spreads, is remembered, and will shape behavior ought to read it.