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Our No Asshole Rule

adventur.es

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Re: Our No Asshole Rule

#11

Post by ivraatiems »

philh wrote: post #8
ivraatiems wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have found that often (but not always), individuals who claim "awkwardness" or hide behind a label of awkwardness to avoid criticism for misbehavior are, in fact, assholes (as this article would seem to define them). People who are truly awkward don't go around telling others how awkward they are (close friends/partners/family excepted). The difference is easy to suss out: approach the person in question, say "hey,…

wolfgke was talking about people who are awkward, not people who label themselves awkward.

Okay - but as far as I can see, the same rule applies. I guess my bigger issue here is this feeling I'm getting from this discussion that we should be making excuses for others on the basis of their intellect or our presumptions about their behavior.

Re: Our No Asshole Rule

#12

Post by kyberias »

It sounds to me they don't like some people for whatever the reason, tag them assholes and refuse to "tolerate" them. I've always wondered whether the criteria for an asshole is the same for each intolerant individual.

Re: Our No Asshole Rule

#13

Post by uniformlyrandom »

I wonder how they determine if someone is an asshole. Sounds like a perfect opportunity to fire anyone. Because this line:

> We have no tolerance for dishonest, manipulative, belittling, or egocentric individuals

, made me think that this blog post was written by an asshole.

Re: Our No Asshole Rule

#15

Post by Corrector2 »

What checks are there to ensure that those enforcing the rule are (1)doing it correctly, (2) not themselves a-holes?

And, assuming it's possible to implement this rule, how do you prevent exploitation, and hence, extinction?

Re: Our No Asshole Rule

#16

Post by pjc50 »

wolfgke wrote: post #2

But what about employees that aren't assholes per se (in the sense that they are evil or egocentric), but just socially awkward? To give one example: A intellectually brillant employee wants to explain some complicated programming or math concepts so that the other people at the company can become better - a very noble plan. But because of their social inaptness this is considered to be rude and arrogant by the other…

Well, if the explanation is done in a manner that people don't like, it's also likely to be ineffective. You can't improve things from a peer position while setting everyone against you. Believing that you're right is not a license to offend.

Re: Our No Asshole Rule

#17

Post by noxryan »

uniformlyrandom wrote: post #13

I wonder how they determine if someone is an asshole. Sounds like a perfect opportunity to fire anyone. Because this line: > We have no tolerance for dishonest, manipulative, belittling, or egocentric individuals , made me think that this blog post was written by an asshole.

This is what they claim:

"There are two almost sure-fire ways to understand someone’s perspective. The first is to eat with them. How do they treat the wait staff? Are they demanding, or easily agitated? What happens when things aren’t perfect? The other test is to meet their significant other. What qualities did they choose in the person with whom has the most influence over them? We call these the asshole acid test."

Re: Our No Asshole Rule

#18

Post by cmdkeen »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #10

Upvoting this because it's worthy of discussion, but in my mind a little off-base. Ever work in a big, dysfunctional environment? I have. My job is to help teams work better, so I get a chance to work in startups, BigCorps, government IT shops -- pretty much everything. As a rule, large dysfunctional environments are full of people who are extremely polite to each other. You have to be: when you've got a thousand peo…

It's also worth pointing to Tuckman's "forming, storming, norming and performing" stages of group development. The example you describe is an institutional level of norming.

During the performing stage, which many teams never actually reach, teams can exhibit arse like to outsiders. They have become a unit that fully understands each other, knows how to raise objections efficiently (often read as rude by outsiders), and doesn't want anything to break up the amazing experience that is being part of that team. Adding a new team member into the mix will upset the balance and push the team back to previous stages.

Re: Our No Asshole Rule

#19

Post by cubano »

Isn't it at least sort of true that one person's asshole could be another's best friend?

Plus, we all have bad days...of course you shouldn't interview on one of those but it could happen.

What if the person has no significant other at the time..does that automatically make them an asshole?

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