The No Asshole Rule and HR

I just finished reading Prof. Robert Sutton’s The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t. Quite a read…and quite a title. I’d add this book to the required reading list for HR. Sure, there are funny parts, and elements that require some real introspection, but I think allowing assholes to thrive in the workplace is beyond wrong, it’s indefensible. And there’s a real cost to allowing assholes to linger in your shop.

Assholes Cost a Fortune — The Total Cost of Assholes

Sutton outlines the TCA — the Total Cost of Assholes (pp. 44-51). It’s an economic analysis of what it costs to employ destructive people. When you read Sutton’s breakdown of the breakdown in civility, it brings the financial impact of assholes into specific relief. Some have argued that TCA could end up being a management measurement up there with TCO, ROI and EVA. Here’s a sampling of what Sutton calls The Wicked Consequences for Management:

Time spent appeasing, calming, counseling or appeasing assholes

Time spent “cooling out” employees who are vistimized

Time spent reorganizing departments and teams so that assholes do less damage

Those wicked consequences for management have a parallel in what Sutton outlines as the Legal and HR Management Costs:

Anger management and other training to reform assholes

Legal costs for inside and outside counsel

Setllement fees and successful litigation by victims

Settlement fess and successful litigation by alleged assholes (especially wrongful-termination cases)

Compensation for internal and external consultants, executive coaches, and therapists

Health insurance costs

How You Can Spot an Asshole

Defining an asshole is a little like Justice Potter Stewart’s definitiion of pornography in Jacobellis v. Ohio (1964): I know it when I see it. Sutton offers some behavioral indicators that are telling:

Common Everyday Actions That Assholes Use
1. Personal insults
2. Invading one’s “personal territory”
3. Uninvited physical contact
4. Threats and intimidation, both verbal and nonverbal
5. “Sarcastic jokes” and “teasing” used as insult delivery systems
6. Withering e-mail flames
7. Status slaps intended to humiliate their victims
8. Public shaming or “status degradation” rituals
9. Rude interruptions
10. Two-faced attacks
11. Dirty looks
12. Treating people as if they are invisible

Taking the ARSE Quiz

I wrote about the collaboration between Sutton and Guy Kawasaki to develop an online assessment tool in Take the ARSE Quiz. I know that over 11,000 people have taken the ARSE Quiz so far. It’s instructive.

Using the ARSE Quiz as a 360 Degree Assessment Tool

The ARSE Quiz would be a really terrific 360 degree assessment tool. And although I’m not claiming immunity from any of the behaviors on the list of 12, I’m closing my eyes and imagining one particular New York-based senior consultant in a place where I once worked. She was the quintessential asshole.

She was a browbeating bully. She screamed, she taunted, and she ripped people new…assholes. But she got away with it because management said, “Well, she has her shortcomings, but she’s really successful with clients and sales.” So, the criteria at that place was, “Be an asshole. It’s okay, as long as your numbers are good.” I didn’t buy it then and I don’t buy it now. I absolutely refused to work on a project that even was peripherally associated with her. She was one of the worst. I wonder what would happen, though, if the ARSE Quiz were used as a feedback tool.

You should check out the test. Wouldn’t it be cool if instead of meaningless performance reviews, that the ARSE Quiz was used as a clean-up-your-act-or-get-out tool? I’m adding a new chapter to our upcoming book, Get Rid of Performance Reviews Once and For All, that will address this. Companies can do good work and be successful without assholes like I described above. Imagine what could happen if people cooperated. Sutton talks about this virtuous circle when he quotes Leonardo da Vinci: “It is easier to resist in the beginning that at the end.” (p. 99). Sutton is referring to the fact that it’s easier to walk away from bad behavior early because it can be “poisoning,” and to work toward cooperation and healthy conflict resolution.

UPDATE: Sutton, on his blog today, references new meta research that shows that one bad apple is enough to push a group into a downward spiral.

Buy the Book. In the Meantime, You Can Read More Here

You can read an excerpt of Chapter 1 here. You can also read Sutton’s Work Matters blog, which has a very lively discussion of The No Asshole Rule. But I’d highly recommend buying the book. And kicking assholes to the curb. It’s good for your business.

About the Author

Frank Roche

Frank started IFRACTAL over 7 years ago with Sarah Chambers. Together, they've created HR communications and HR software for some of the world's leading companies. Frank is also studying Flamenco guitar and origami.

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