21–30 of 47 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Guilty as charged. :)
Oh, that wasn't aimed at you. :-) When I said "he" I meant the writer of the article! All this talk of arseholes, very confusing.
FYI, Professor Sutton from Stanford wrote a book about this very same idea: https://www.amazon.com/Asshole-Rule-Civilized-Workplace-Surv... I didn't know about Sutton's book at the time, but we used the same rule when raising our seed round. We rejected more than one VC firm based on this rule.
I can't site anything specific as I gave it away. It was just a good reminder to strategically eliminate assholes (not dissent) if I ran a company.
I've seen this at two shops now, verbatim (indicating that the phrase is cut-n-pasted from some management self-help book). In both cases, it translated into, " The assholes who have the most seniority or the ear of executives are 'team players'. The team players who do not have those things are 'assholes' ". It's just a verbal tool and political weapon for bullies to encourage sycophants... and for me is more of a r…
Yes, precisely. It irks me how this concept is always stated so matter-of-factly, like they just discovered some objective fact of the universe and you're an idiot if you're not on board. "No assholes! Like, duh!" All I can think is, let me guess: when you get rid of perks and don't promote people that should be promoted, and generally treat employees like cattle, you're not being an asshole. But if someone is not pr…
Ehhh. I work at a company that has a similar policy. What ends up happening is: 1) Everyone becomes conflict-averse for fear of looking like an asshole, so bad ideas often go unchecked 2) People find other ways to be assholes when they want to be, they're just passive-aggressive about it instead 3) It becomes a conversation-terminating cliche. Want to stifle someone disagreeing with you? Accuse them of phrasing somet…
> Everyone becomes conflict-averse for fear of looking like an asshole, so bad ideas often go unchecked While assholes are probably necessary for a functional society, in the context of business the No Asshole Rule refers to things like sexually harassing your coworkers. Calling out bad ideas wouldn't qualify.
(does this criticism make me an asshole? What if I added an ad hominim)
Policies like this have nothing to do with "assholes". They're about control and groupthink.
Ironically while reading this I got the distinct impression that the writer was a manipulative asshole.
[some content]
...
[if you've read this far and are not an asshole, please contact us as we're hiring. [email] [tweet] "We'd love to chat"]
Call me an arsehole if you want, but ugh. ;)
Am I the only one bothered by such a request? I wouldn't want to bring my SO, not only because I wouldn't want to mix my private and professional life, but also because it seems incredibly weird to me to have my private relationships being used to judge me.
Weird and creepy.
FYI, Professor Sutton from Stanford wrote a book about this very same idea: https://www.amazon.com/Asshole-Rule-Civilized-Workplace-Surv... I didn't know about Sutton's book at the time, but we used the same rule when raising our seed round. We rejected more than one VC firm based on this rule.
There may actually be good material in that book. However, what gets written down by consultants and professors, and what is actually applied in typical practice, are two separate things (e.g. every "agile" methodology book ever).
> 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? Am I the only one bothered by such a request? I wouldn't want to bring my SO, not only because I wouldn't want to mix my private and professional life, but also because it seems incredibly weird to me to have my private relationships being used to judge me. Weird and creepy.
The fact this is even considered is appalling, let alone publishing a blog post about it.