Posted on 03/16/2007 5:59:48 AM PDT by radar101
Quit, check out, or dig out Ex-Lax
If you've worked for long, you've probably had a boss or co-worker who was a complete, flaming jerk.
Maybe she always scowled as if she smelled something bad while reviewing your work. Maybe he never missed a chance to berate you in front of others.
Or he interrupted constantly when you were talking. Or sneaked up behind you at your desk. Or helped herself to your food.
Robert I. Sutton, a professor of management science and engineering at Stanford Engineering School, has heard it all while working on his recently released best seller, "The No A------ Rule."
The book grew from a piece he wrote for The Harvard Business Review in 2004 under the headline, "More Trouble than They're Worth." The piece, he said, inspired an outpouring of jerk-boss e-mails from around the world. His correspondents included the manager of a roofing company, the CEO of a money-management firm and a researcher for the Supreme Court.
Since the book came out, he said, he gets at least 15 e-mails a day from people with horrible bosses.
"I feel like Dr. Phil," the talk-show therapist, he said.
He argues that companies should screen for jerks as they hire and purge the bullies already in their ranks because, in almost all cases, they cost more than they contribute.
One of his other solutions may deflate anyone who works for a jerk: Leave the job.
If that's not possible, he suggests checking out emotionally. "Passion is an overrated virtue in organizational life, and indifference is an underrated virtue."
The Associated Press interviewed Sutton, who describes workplace monsters with a mild expletive, which has been changed here to "jerk." Excerpts:
Q: First, let's define who we're talking about. You define work jerks as people who pick on those beneath them and leave others feeling belittled and sapped of energy. What are some other signs?
A: To me, the main sign of someone who's a certified jerk is someone who leaves a trail of people feeling demeaned and de-energized. It tends to be more often associated with power dynamics - they kiss up to those above them and kick down those beneath them. About a third of the time, bullying is peer on peer.
Q: Since workplace jerks tend to pick on people below them, how can the victims, who usually don't have much power, fix the problem?
A: In normal organizational life, for people who have less power, the best thing is to get out. If you can't do that, try to avoid contact with the person as much as possible. You can also learn not to care.
The other thing is to find little ways to get control and fight back. One woman whose boss was always stealing her food reshaped Ex-Lax to look like candy, then her boss stole it.
My favorite story comes from a former CEO who told me about her worst board member. When he'd call and scream, she'd lean back in her chair, put her feet on the desk, put him on speakerphone, turn off the volume and do her nails. She would check in from time to time to see if he was still screaming. When he was done, she would reason with him. She put herself in a relaxed position and did something she could control - her nails.
Q: You describe ways to screen for jerks, such as Southwest Airlines Co.'s refusal to hire a pilot who was rude to a company secretary, and Virgin Group Ltd. founder Richard Branson's ruse on his reality show, in which he picked up contestants while disguised as an arthritic old driver and ejected the two who treated him poorly. How else can an organization separate the monsters from the rest?
A: In fields where there are relatively small and tight networks, people get reputations that are deserved. In my field of academia, we know each other. There are excellent scholars who are not considered because no one wants to work with them.
Q: Is there such a thing as a sick organization? Can a workplace grow jerks?
A: Some organizations are sicker than others. Exhibit One is Hollywood. I have a cousin who works in the industry. I asked her to name the nice people in Hollywood and there was this long pause, and she eventually named Steven Spielberg and Danny DeVito.
Maybe the worst occupation is doctors. Based on studies, as far as a high rate of abuse, nurses really have a brutal time. Ninety percent of nurses report six to 12 incidents of verbal and emotional abuse per year.
Q: You suggest companies perform an audit, quantifying in dollar figures how much a jerk's poor behavior costs. Then you give an example of a company that did, and figured one salesman's bad behavior had cost it $160,000 a year. Instead of firing him, the company took about $100,000 out of his bonus. Can you tell us about a company that purged its jerks instead?
A: I can't name the company, but it was a Fortune 500 retailer. As part of a turnaround, the new CEO came up with a mafia-style hit-list of 25 of the biggest jerks. He wanted to get rid of them all at once, but human resources said, "Let's get rid of them through the performance evaluation process."
The company did and my informant said you could see, even at the store level, less nastiness.
Q: One of your solutions to workplace jerks seems to be to stop hiring them. Other solutions include (one similar to) giving referees at youth soccer matches the power to "red card" abusive parents and eject them from the game, and shaming jerks when they behave poorly. What do you consider your top solution to the problem of jerky behavior?
A: First thing: I believe that some polite self-awareness helps. There's a test you can take; we put this on Guy Kawasaki's blog, http://electricpulp.com/guykawasaki/arse/.
Second, there should be consequences. People should know it's not efficient and it's going to cost them. My wife is a lawyer. She said with the more aggressive attorneys at her firm, in compensation discussions with them, the partners tell them they should cool it a little bit or it will cost them.
The biggest workplace jerks are the lazy ones who can't or won't do the job then point fingers at their betters.
Too many chiefs and not enough Indians... Everybody wants to be the boss but few can actually do the WORK...
"Passion is an overrated virtue in organizational life, and indifference is an underrated virtue."
That, unfortunately, is the key to surviving a career in public school teaching these days. Teachers who start with a passion to teach children are soon confronted with so many obstacles to that goal that the only thing to do is quit or "check out" while continuing in the job. Initiative is buried under the stifling layers of local, state, and federal regulations that squeeze the joy out of teaching.
Also the more abusive they are to their minions the more kiss-ass they are to their superiors.
..years ago when I had this problem with a boss who liked to help himself to my secret Twinkie stash, and he would never admit to it,I simply "injected" a few marked single packaged bombs with Tabasco hot sauce. He couldn't say anything about it...and he stopped
I had a boss like that once. Two visits to the gyn in one month, and he was all questions. A long, exhaustively detailed and graphic descritption of my menstrual woes, cramps and flows shut him down pretty effectively.
Come to think of it, that would cure a lot of things.
ping
There is a VP where I work that couldn't come up with the answer for the question what is 2 + 2. She has to convene a committee and/or orders someone else to do the work. She is the reason I'm hoping to retire early.
I've had some real doozies in the Army. Usually they were new Second Lieutenants straight out of ROTC who knew EVERYTHING. However, one word from the First Sergeant that they were to follow me around and I'd show them the ropes usually worked. If not, I had some simple ways to get them reassigned elsewhere. You're only as strong as your weakest link. ;)
I just started my Dream Job this past week. So far, so good. I like my new Boss's management style, and the next guy under her is great, too; he and I are equals. It appears that I'll have lots of autonomy in my new position, plus a seasoned staff to lead, which will be very helpful.
Show me the scope of my job, then get out of my way and let me do it. :)
We have a megalomaniac here who thinks she runs the place. When something happens, such as a power failure, I don't see my boss or the managers or presidents of the various companies in the building. No, I see the customer service manager in my doorway telling me it has to be fixed, what are you doing, when will it be back, etc.
I finally had to tell her to shut it.
hehehe. You go girl - that is awesome. :-)
I'll have to remember that one......
He cannot legally ask that question. It is a violation of the HIPA Law.
I worked for a guy once that did lines of cocaine on the toilet tank top in the mens room .... and he was a major a-hole.
So I thought I'd give him a little lift by dicing up some Altoid breath mints and sprinkling the fine powder on the toilet tank top .... make him think he left some coke from last time he snorted
So ... about an hour later in he goes ... locks the door. About 5 minutes later he busts out of the mens room with his eyes almost bleeding with tears ... face red as a brick.
I blew an entire mouthful of coffee through my nose when he ran by my desk heading for his car ....
I'm pretty sure that the new HIPPA regulations prohibit bosses asking meical questions. That's one workplace jerk that needs to be educated.
Got out after 8 years with the company and burned bridges behind me.
by a lawyer
You just described our corporate office. Back-stabbing, throat-cutting, knee-jerking bunch of snakes in the grass.
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