Work Matters

Tag: Asshole Bosses

  • A Story About “Professional Asshole” Tucker Max: He Claims To Be A Great Boss

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    Tucker Max has just published Asshole Finish First, as shown above, which reports more of Max's tales of drunkenness, sex, and general obnoxiousness.  It is a sequel to his bestseller I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell, which was made into a film that I did not see (but that got bad reviews).  When I first read Max's proud claim that he was a professional asshole, I did an incredulous post, as I was — and remain — amazed that anyone would be proud to be an asshole because, as I have said here before, if you an asshole and you finish first, your are still an asshole, and therefore a loser in my book.  

    The odd thing about writing that post a couple years back was the reaction that I got from Tucker Max and a guy who worked for him.  I describe it in the new chapter in the paperback version of the The No Asshole Rule:

    The weirdest email exchange I had about bosses
    was with Tucker Max and one of his subordinates.  Max is the author of the
    bestseller I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell.  His next book is called Assholes
    Finish First.      Max’s website says:

    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.

    When
    I wrote on my blog that Max “appears to be a professional asshole,” he wrote me
    several friendly notes and explained that he really wasn’t an asshole as I
    define it. He further claimed “In five years, no more than ten, you are going
    to do a profile of me and declare that I am a model boss, a CEO that all bosses
    should base themselves on in some form or other.” The boss theme also came up
    when one his underlings wrote to say that Max has “been a mentor to me and I
    don't think ever violated that trust by being an asshole.”  So, even a guy
    who has made a ton of money being what I would call a professional asshole
    denies he is a certified asshole by the standards here — and he has at least
    one very loyal follower who admires Max because he has never acted like an
    asshole boss!  

    Pretty weird, huh?  Tucker, I am sorry, but I don't think I am ready yet to hold you up as a great human-being of any kind — but I guess you have another seven years to prove me wrong!

  • Asshole Boss of the Year?

    There is always a lot competition for this title. But (courtesy of Gawker and a tip from Scott), Vadim Ponorovsky, who owns the restaurant Paradou in Manhattan, appears to have won the prize.  Here is the email he sent to his staff, which was forwarded to Gawker:

    To All,

    Please read this email carefully. This is the last time we will be discussing this.

    This weekend, saturday and sunday we had 451 customers. Guess how
    many emails we collected? 60? 80? 40? No. None of those. We, or more
    acurately you, collected 2 emails. Thats less than half of one percent.
    2 fucking emails.

    WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU ASSHOLES?!?!?! How many times do we
    have to tell you how important it is that you collect emails. Everytime
    we have a slow night and you make no money and you sit there bitching
    about how you make no money, remember its because youre fucking lazy
    motherfuckers. YOU SHOULD ALL BE FIRED IMMEDIATELY!!!!! ALL OF YOU,
    INCLUDING THE HOSTS!!!!

    Let me guess, youre probably sitting there saying "Vadim is such a
    fucking asshole. How dare he speak to me like this. I dont need this."
    Youre right, you dont, so why dont you get the fuck out. Any and all of
    you.

    Youre probably sitting there saying "How dare he speak to me like
    this. How dare he not have respect for me". Youre right there also. I
    have absolutely no respect for any of you. Why? Because every fucking
    day, all of you continue to show that you have absolutely no respect
    for me or Alex. So if you dont respect us enough to do the little that
    we ask you to do, then GET THE FUCK OUT YOU FUCKING LAZY DISRESPECTFUL
    ASSHOLES!!!!!

    Effective immediately, any server or host who fails to collect at
    least 20 emails per week, will be fined $100. Anyone failing to collect
    at least 20 emails for two weeks in a month will be fired immediately.
    No matter what. No matter who you are.

    You dont want to do your job, you dont want to do what we ask, you dont belong at Paradou. Go find another place to work.

    How dare you disrespect Alex and me this way. How dare you completely ignore what we ask of you time after time after time.

    I am sick of all this shit, you bunch of fucking children. This is
    what I have to deal with at 6AM?!?!? I wouldnt tolerate this from my 13
    year old, and Im sure as shit not going to tolerate it from any of you
    assholes.

    You give no respect, you get 10 times back.

    If you can top that, let me know.

    P.S. There are all sorts of subsequent actions here, from a defense by the owner (with more F words and a claim that he practicing Reagonomics) and apparently there are death threats against him.  See here, here, and here.