Assholes: A Probing Examination

MY. GOD. THE. WORDING.

'probing assholes'

'asshole examination'

'sniffing out assholes'

I hope it was intentional.

I had a similar reaction. Haven't we all run into the opinionated junior who dominates a 10 person meeting and won't shut up, take advice, or focus on executing their job competently before chasing some "prestige project"?

There are better and worse ways to deal with that person, but after a while, most merely human people will do things on this list rather than (for the nth time) gently explain that said junior needs to "pull their head in".

The major problem is we die, so if we didn’t die then yes those 10,000 years of civilization would help because of the life experiences of the survivors,

So:

1.) Not everyone reads history books 2.) We die 3.) Social stats reset at birth, pray you have parents who treat you and other people well

The only permanent solution is an evolution of our species where the asshole gene is gone or a collective hive mind

> People with Asperger's or otherwise on the autism spectrum can be huge "assholes" by the definitions here. Does autism make you unemployable?

It's my understanding that on average it's harder to get a job and some kind of jobs look out of reach.

Also, is the population ratio of Asperger/autism such that the definition of asshole should be reworded ?

I checked how this test fares in Academia my country (I won't mention its name) and there seems to be a surprising number of assholes here. I'm even suspecting that I might be one.

> Insulting or degrading individuals or groups

Every boss in my country does this from time to time. -1

> Joking and teasing to belittle others

My British colleagues do that, but otherwise it's rare. +1

> Tersely worded group e-mails that make people feel uncomfortable

I do that. -1

> Slapping down people of lower status in the company hierarchy

Everybody in my country seems to do that, I rarely found any exceptions. (I'm a foreigner and where I come from this is frowned upon.) -1

> Eyerolling, sighing, or otherwise negative body language while others are speaking

Every boss in my country does that, even the nice ones! -1

> Ignoring people trying to contribute

Every boss does that if they don't want contributions at a time. -1

> Interrupting people who aren’t done talking

Extremely common. -1

> Touching or invading personal space

Normal for all people in my country. It's in Southern Europe. -1

> Threatening or intimidating confrontations

Many bosses do that where I live. I only dream of beating up annoying colleagues. -1

> Publicly calling out and blaming others

Habitually done in my country of residence, unless by "others" you mean a boss, then it's not done at all. -1

> Undermining someone’s confidence for asking questions

That one is rare. Especially the psychopathic narcissist are always happy to answer questions. +1

> Gossiping about coworkers to other coworkers

Everybody I've ever met in Academia has done that. -1

> Cliquey behavior and exclusion

Everybody does that in every country and on every conference I've ever been. -1

> Taking credit for the ideas or work of others

Our bosses love to do that. Some of them want their name to appear on books they never even read, let alone written. -1

> Stirring shit and troublemaking

Sounds what I do when somebody really annoys me or is totally incompetent or just a plain asshole. -1

> Singling people out for uncommon traits they have

Yep, everybody does that. We had a guy using unreadable powerpoint colors all the time, wearing bizarre ties in an environment where nobody wears ties, and generally suffering from Asperger so much that he sat down on the farthest table from everyone else to have lunch at international conferences. I liked him, but he was singled out for his behaviour. -1

> Dismissing the opinions and ideas of others without discussion

Everybody does that in our institute. X is dismissive of Y's work, Y is dismissive of Z's work, and so on, until the full circle is reached. -1

Thinking about it, we could be a whole institute of assholes according to these criteria.

That being said, I personally prefer to work together with a competent asshole rather than with an incompetent nice guy. I'm fine with an arrogant colleague if he has a reason for being arrogant, if there is something behind it. (Admittedly, these people tend to be the least arrogant, but there are exceptions.)

Nice incompetent fools in higher positions, on the other hand, infuriate me more than anything else.