How to Deal With Jerks in the Workplace

Call them jerks, bullies, louts, boors, or — as Robert Sutton prefers — a--holes. Whatever you call them, such characters are a part of every organization, and Sutton, a professor of management science and engineering at Stanford University, has written a book about how to deal with them, The No A--hole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't.

Sutton shared his thoughts on the topic with Inc. editor-at-large Leigh Buchanan. Prohibited by her editors from using the objectionable word, Buchanan turned to a thesaurus for help.

What got you interested in jerks?

My late father. He was an entrepreneur who started a half dozen companies. And his standard for a work relationship was if people were a--holes, it wasn't worth it no matter how much money you could make. Because in the end it would drive you crazy. Then when I got to Stanford, my department had a no-a--hole rule that we applied in hiring.

Is that the term they use at Stanford?

You do see the word more now because dirty talk is more socially acceptable in organizations. When I first got to Stanford, they were talking about it. It wasn't written down, of course.

How do you define the term?

There is a two-step definition that comes from the literature on abusive supervision. The first standard is whether someone consistently leaves people feeling demeaned and belittled and deenergized. The second standard is whether that person targets people who have less power than they do. But there's also an emotional component — the feeling that you're being oppressed or pushed around by a bad apple.

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