We will see if the email subscribers actually get this post, given the title, but hey, it is actually the title of a good book I read lately. The subtitle is much more palatable: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One that Isn’t. It was written by Robert Sutton, a professor at Stanford, and despite the provocative title, it’s about something serious: jerks in organizations that make employees and customers miserable (and yes, they have a quiz online so you can see if you qualify!).
I wrote a brief review of the book on my website. It’s a good book and a quick read, so check it out.
It is a great book. On the one hand, it seems like it should be so obvious: Working with total jerks makes for a negative and unproductive workplace. But clearly that isn’t so obvious to a lot of organizations.
One thing that I really liked about the book was Sutton’s willingness to address his own moments where he behaved badly. I think that’s important, because it’s too easy for many of us to read about horrible examples of jerks at work and think, “Well, I must be OK, I would never do something that extreme.” By talking about his own experiences, Sutton challenges you to examine yourself a little more closely, which I appreciate.
Did you know Sutton has a blog on the Harvard Business Review website, at http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/sutton/? He doesn’t post that often, but what he writes is usually pretty interesting.