I Call Them Adult Cooties

I am putting the finishing touches on a new chapter of The No Asshole Rule that will appear in the paperback edition of the book, which will be published in September. The title of the chapter (which looks like it will persist) is "On Being the Asshole Guy."  To help write the chapter, I have been re-reading thousands of emails and comments on this blog.  I thought you might like the line that I use a title for this post.  It came in an email from a pastor in Georgia, who asked "Do You Study Churches?"  She went on express concern that the nasty and petty parishioners were turning her mean:

I entered a toxic environment and I too have fallen for being an asshole (actually I call them the 'adult cooties').  I am trying to turn around and be more sensitive, especially as I tend to stress my secretary rather than kick my dog.

As we've seen here many times, nastiness is a contagious disease, even for priests, ministers, and rabbis -- after all, they are just human being like the rest of us.   But I love her phrase "adult cooties."  

P.S. The paperback edition of The No Asshole Rule will be released in conjunction with my new book, Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to be the best... and learn from the worst."  I will begin blogging about that in the next couple weeks.

Comments

[Peter Young]

I hope that you will not use the term 'cootie' in your forthcoming book. This is a US term only, and is unknown in British English. The English term (for headlice) is Nits. But 'nits' has a different connotation in the UK.
This is for your information -- I don't expect you to put this on your blog ...
Best
Peter Young

[DC Jobs]

I respect her for her humility and for dealing with the situation in her congregation. It can be especially hard to "call a spade, a spade" in a room full of volunteers.