# Text that introduced the rule, from 2004(?) There's a simple practice that can make an organization better, but while many managers talk about it, few write it down. They enforce "no asshole" rules. I apologize for the crudeness of the term--you might prefer to call them tyrants, bullies, boors, cruel bastards, or destructive narcissists, and so do I, at times. Some behavioral scientists refer to them in terms of psychological abuse, which they define as "the sustained display of hostile verbal and nonverbal behaviors, excluding physical contact." But all that cold precision masks the fear and loathing these jerks leave in their wake. Somehow, when I see a mean-spirited person damaging others, no other term seems quite right. I first encountered an explicit rule against them about 15 years ago. It was during a faculty meeting of my academic department, and our chairman was leading a discussion about which candidate we should hire. A faculty member proposed that we hire a renowned researcher from another school, a suggestion that prompted another to remark, "I don't care if he won the Nobel Prize, I don't want any assholes ruining our group." From that moment on, it was completely legitimate for any of us to question a hiring decision on those grounds. And it made the department a better place. Since then, I've heard of many organizations that use this rule. McDermott, Will & Emery, an international law firm with headquarters in Chicago, is (or at least was) known as a better place to work than other firms, and it has been quite profitable in recent years. A survey from Vault, a Web-based provider of career information, reports that McDermott has a time-honored no asshole rule, which holds that "you're not allowed to yell at your secretary or yell at each other"--although the survey also reports that the firm has been growing so fast lately that the rule is starting to fall by the wayside. Similarly, a Phoenix-based law firm provides this written guideline to summer associates: "At Snell & Wilmer, we also have a 'no jerk rule,' which means that your ability to get along with the other summer associates and our attorneys and staff ==factors into our ultimate assessment==." And the president of a software firm told me a couple of months back, "I keep reminding everyone, 'Make sure we don't hire any assholes, we don't want to ruin the company.'" All this might lead you to believe that this rule bears mainly on employee selection. It doesn't. It's a deeper statement about an organization's culture and what kind of person survives and thrives in it. ==All of us, including me, have that inner asshole waiting to get out==. The difference is that some organizations allow people (especially "stars") to get away with abusing one person after another and even reward them for it. ==Others simply won't tolerate such behavior, no matter how powerful or profitable the jerk happens to be==. I remember when my daughter switched schools a few years back. After a couple of months, she told me, "In our old school, when they said you had to be nice, they meant it. In my new school, they say it but don't really mean it." Some organizations allow "stars" to get away with abusing people. Others simply won't tolerate it. I acknowledge that there is a ==subjective element== to this rule. Certainly, a person can look like, or even be, a sinner to one person and a saint to another. But I've found two useful tests. The first is: After talking to the alleged asshole, do people consistently feel oppressed and belittled by the person, and, especially, do they feel dramatically worse about themselves? The second is: Does the person consistently direct his or her venom at people seen as powerless and rarely, if ever, at people who are powerful? Indeed, the difference between the ways a person treats the powerless and the powerful is as good a measure of human character as I know. I'll close with an odd twist: It might be even better if a company could implement a "one asshole" rule. Research on both deviance and norm violations shows that if one example of misbehavior is kept on display--and is seen to be rejected, shunned, and punished--everyone else is more conscientious about adhering to written and unwritten rules. I've never heard of a company that tried to hire a token asshole. But I've worked with a few organizations that accidentally hired and even promoted one or two, who then unwittingly showed everyone else what _not_ to do. The problem is that people can hide their dark sides until they are hired, or even are promoted to partner or tenured professor. ==So by aiming to hire no assholes at all, you just might get the one or two you need==. ## Sources _The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t_ is a management book by Robert I. Sutton, published in 2007. - [[Source - The No Asshole Rule by wikipedia.org]]