Are You An Asshole?

Perhaps you’re not, but maybe you know someone who is. Maybe you work with that person. Maybe that person is your boss. Maybe there’s a little test you can take to determine if you (or someone you know) is, simply put, an asshole. Or, if you’re a little shy about using such coarse language, you can just say “A hole.”

I bring this up because I’m going to interview Robert Sutton, a professor at Stanford University, on a book he’s written called The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t. The title may make you laugh, but the subject is pretty serious. Working with (or for) people who do variations of the following not only makes life miserable at work, but costs companies money in terms of retaining workers, and defending against lawsuits:

Dirty Dozen Actions That Assholes Use

1. Personal insults
2. Invading one’s personal territory
3. Uninvited personal contact
4. Threats and intimidation, both verbal and nonverbal
5. Sarcastic jokes and teasing used as insult delivery systems
6. Withering e-mail flames
7. Status slaps intended to humiliate their victims
8. Public shaming or status-degradation rituals
9. Rude interruptions
10. Two-faced attacks
11. Dirty looks
12. Treating people as if they are invisible

Nice, huh? Okay, so you really want to take the Asshole Rating Certified Self Exam” (ARSE)? Click HERE and then come back and let me know your score. 🙂

I scored a 2 which means: 0 to 5 “True”: You don’t sound like a certified asshole, unless you are fooling yourself.

And do you remember this gem from Dennis Leary?

[youtube]uY67cYJDc9s[/youtube]

–PK

About Ted

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11 thoughts on “Are You An Asshole?

  1. Wow, I thought I’d be a huge, full-blown certified asshole! I guess I’m not…I hope I’m not fooling myself…

    I liked this post (the heading especially 🙂 ) and the test was fun.

  2. I scored a 4….. You don’t sound like a certified asshole, unless you are fooling yourself. I scored higher than you guys which means I have more of an a-hole factor, but we all knew that already. 🙂

  3. I think I’m kidding myself…I wonder how it would be different if my coworkers were scoring me?

    Dennis Leary cracked me up with that one.

  4. I also scored a 1, but man, I was the coolest boss ever. I didn’t let people get away with shit, but people who did their jobs loved me. As far as peers, I was always the one getting stabbed in the back, because I just don’t think that way.

  5. Well, it’s nice to know that we’re all good people. 🙂 But J’s right: what if other people taking this test based on their impressions of you. How do you think you’d do?

  6. I love that song. Perhaps the best use of the “D chord with chromatically descending bass” of all time (yes, including Dear Prudence, and Can’t Find My Way Home)

  7. Oooh. I’m an 8. Guess I’m kind of an asshole. Aw heck, I already knew it. But I’m no 19 or 20!

  8. I scored a 6, but i tell it like it is TO the assholes and I don’t really care if it hurts. They are assholes. Does that make me HALF an asshole?

    LOL
    WHatever. I work with a bunch of assholes. IF i’m ONLY a 6, there is no number on the test high enough for most of them.

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