Friday, May 18, 2007

The No Asshole Rule

Before you rush to any rash conclusions about me (not that you haven't), let me first state that I did not coin this expression (nope not this time though I am wondering why I didn’t). The No Asshole Rule is the title of Robert Sutton’s latest book that promises to Build a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t.


The book is all about the Aholes who rule your workplace (and trust me you meet a lot of them). He starts the chapter with an Introduction as to how and why he settled on that name. It’s interesting to know that his first choice of publisher, The Harvard Business School Press, were happy to publish the book if he would change the title to something less offensive. So he changed… publishers :-) Wise guy, oops I meant wise man!


Bob armed with a PhD (don’t ask me in what, but I know it isn’t Ahole Management) has met any Aholes in his sphere of teaching and felt compelled to write a book on how to tackle Aholes at workplace after hearing the woes of many who wrote to him seeking counsel or just shared their experiences at work place.


In the first chapter, he defines Ahole and even categorizes them into Temporary Asshole and Certified Asshole. There are also other variations of these two types. Other chapters deal with case studies, surveys, strategies, and even tests (yeah take it up and find out what type of Ahole you are).


My fave chapter is the one in which he says how a company can actually calculate Total Cost of Assholes (TCA) (Trust me, one company did do that and cut that amount from the employee’s annual bonus that was due to him. God save the company if there is more than one).

One chapter is devoted on how to avoid and tackle such people but sadly there’s not much that keeps you hooked.


And did you know that MIT has invented a Jerko-meter to measure a person’s stupidity????

Some jargon you can pick up from this book include jerk-audits, asshole management, uber-jerk, smart talk trap.


It’s OK to be under one but not OK to be one and Vinci’s principle that It’s easier to resist at the beginning than at the end (what to resist??? The burning desire to be an Ahole????) is the mantra that the book tries to convey. There’s nothing new in this book (expect for the title) that you don’t already know or haven’t read before. The book is not half as hilarious and half as knowledgeable as it's title. Just worth a browse at Crossword!

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