New Jerk City: New York Post Story

Today's edition of the New York Post has a long story on The No Asshole Rule by Chris Erikson, called New Jerk City.  The main story does a nice job of summarizing the book's main points, along with the range of reactions that it has generated -- as it says, I never thought I would write a book that result in an appearance on a "shock jock" radio show like Mancow, a forthcoming article in the respectable McKinsey Quarterly, and as a reading in a bible studies class.  There is also a sidebar on "surviving snakes" which is based on my longer post on "Tips for Surviving Asshole Infested Workplaces."

The best part of the package, however, is the sidebar about HBS Professor Boris Groysberg's research which shows that, even in investment banking, enforcing the no asshole rules pays dividends. Note Boris's clever test for assessing if a culture is no-asshole or pro-asshole:

CULLING THE CREEPS

There are industries that put a premium on genteel, courteous behavior. And then there's investment banking.

"If there was a poster child for an industry where jerks are tolerated, it would be investment banking," is how Harvard Business School professor Boris Groysberg puts it.

Which is why during a long-term study of top investment banking firms, Groysberg and his partner, Ashish Nanda, were somewhat surprised to find that those who enforced a "no a - - hole rule" reaped clear dividends.

"Firms that have policies of maintaining a nonhostile work environment have done much better overall than firms where complete jerks are tolerated," says Groysberg, who was studying whether the success of "superstars" crossed over when they moved from one firm to another. "So what we found was very similar to what Bob [Sutton] describes in his book."

For starters, Groysberg and Nanda found that such firms have significantly lower turnover. And employees were willing to work there for less money.

"To be in a friendly work environment, people would work at a significant discount from what they could get just by crossing the street," he says.

Groysberg is too diplomatic to name the worst offenders, but cites Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs as the most vigilant about weeding out jerks. Having spent a fair amount of time at various firms while doing his research, he says the difference in culture between such firms and those that let jerks run wild can be clear to see.

"I found that if you just sit quietly in the dining room and observe how food gets ordered and how people eat and interact, in half an hour you can tell if this particular culture is more a - - hole-friendly than others," he says. - C.E

Comments

[Joanne]

un peu court mais pas mal du tout
;)

[Miserable]

I read about Dr. Sutton's book in the NY Post this evening while commuting home from work. I can't tell you what an impact it had on me. I have been suffering for years working for a nationally-known, public company that favors a few, adn treats the rest terribly. The few to whom I am referring are all alike. They are the most untalented losers I have ever met. They live to undermine and belittle others, and do nothing to promote the careers of anyone other than themselves. Each day I face belittlement and immaturity, and for what? My co-manager is a single mom who is so threatened by competition that she will do everything in her power to screw me. She gets away with it because the people we report to love her, and find her little tactics hilarious. After reading the article in the NY Post, I am buying Dr. Sutton's book and getting out of there.