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Our No Asshole Rule

adventur.es

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Re: Our No Asshole Rule

#21

Post by MrBuddyCasino »

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…

This is important, the opposite of being an asshole is not being nice. Not that the text seemed to imply this, but this is forgotten all too often. I'll take a swearing, passionate Linus any day over some nice weasel.

Re: Our No Asshole Rule

#22

Post by onion2k »

There's quite a good book called "Assholes: A Theory"[1] that explores why some people are so hard to get along with, and more importantly why we need people like that. Assholes are quite often a catalyst to change, both in the sense mentioned in the article that they make you want to walk away from some things, and in the sense that working with them can force changes to the status quo in things that otherwise things will fail if they stayed as they were.

[1] http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Assholes.html?id=GCqXH...

Re: Our No Asshole Rule

#23

Post by Raphmedia »

A no asshole rule is bullshit. What you want is a no bully rule.

Being harsh is alright. The people are respect the most are those that have the balls to come up to me and say "your idea is rubbish, your point of view is stupid". Yes, this guy is an asshole. But he is a good one.

What you want to avoid is the bullies. The ones that will insult you for no reason. Belittle people to feel better. Those are the ones that are dangerous for a team.

Everybody is an asshole from the point of view of someone else.

Re: Our No Asshole Rule

#24

Post by _pmf_ »

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.

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

No, no; marketing people are excluded from this rule, obviously. The rule is only applicable to these disgusting engineers who have opinions and technical insight.

Re: Our No Asshole Rule

#25

Post by learnstats2 »

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…

In my experience, that kind of employee is dependent on good management.

If they can be coached into providing help only where other team members appreciate it, then they can become a highly valuable member of the team.

Or, if they are told simply to stop it by an authority figure, a person with noble intentions will normally respect that. An acceptable but perhaps tense solution.

On the other hand, if they are allowed to annoy and frustrate other team members, then they're probably going to cause increasing amounts of trouble within the team.

Re: Our No Asshole Rule

#27

Post by unimportant »

Meeting a potential employees significant other? I would like to see the person that agrees with that. :D

In the end its a managers ability of good people judgement to keep problematic personalities out, in combination with probation periods.

Unfortunately sometimes some of them slip through and are even rewarded with promotions (happened in two of my previous jobs), even though all colleagues hate them, by employing the good ol sucking upwards, kicking downwards strategy.

Re: Our No Asshole Rule

#28

Post by drzaiusapelord »

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

This seems code for "I don't want an egocentric person here with more confidence than me." Honestly, it depends on the role. I want my guy who handles negotiations to be a tough character. I want my lawyer to be fearless. I want my security guards to be unafraid to assert themselves if they see something.

This is what both this guy and Paul Graham get wrong: there simply is no "one good personality" for businesses. We need a mix of personalities to get things done effectively, or at all. Yeah my coders and sysadmins should probably be INTJ's, but I don't want an INTJ sales guy.

I also think there's folly in being ultra-sensitive and ultra-politically correct with hiring. So what if someone has more confidence than you? Is it such a threat to your company and well-being? I think this idea of a young company being a nerf-game nerdfest of humble geeks all "being nice" is asinine. These companies get eaten up by tough guys who just can out-compete them. Niceness comes with a lot of limits and in the long run, can't compete. Look at how quickly Google has given up its 'no evil' mantra, for example, or how Bill Gates had to transform from 1980s geek hero to 1990s hated Bill Gates. It was a limiting philosophy, especially when you have shareholders.

Re: Our No Asshole Rule

#29

Post by antimagic »

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.

Because... you're defending the right to be dishonest, manipulative, belittling or egocentric? That's an unusual point of view.

Re: Our No Asshole Rule

#30

Post by Ygg2 »

noxryan wrote: post #17
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…

What happens if you have no significant other? Does that fail that test?

If yes, this test was written by an egocentric asshole.

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