Sound like your workplace? Better yet it describes your manager!

HOW TO GET AHEAD
Office Jerks Finish First
Being An Office Bully Can Do Wonders For Your Career

By Patrick White
The Globe And Mail
July 9, 2007
Page L1

Picture an office where you're surrounded by decent human beings. Your co-workers share responsibility in good times and bad. They listen, they co-operate, they keep the office kitchen clean.

Sound much like your office?

Not likely. Nearly three-quarters of us face rudeness and condescension at work, researchers at the University of Illinois say. Jerks lurk behind the cubicle walls of every office.

Organizational psychologists call them extreme personalities. Human-resources departments call them problem employees. The author of a recent bestselling book - along with much of the working world - uses another name.
"For me, more polite synonyms, such as bully, abuser, despot or tyrant, don't quite capture the pain and anger that these creeps provoke in others," says Robert Sutton, author of The No-Asshole Rule, which has sparked a movement among such companies as Google, Mozilla and Southwest Airlines to purge workplaces of all varieties of jerk.

But is the jig really up for the office jerk? Don't count on it, many experts say. For better or worse, office jerks get noticed.

In other words, if Dr. Sutton's tag describes you, perhaps you should keep doing what you're doing.

"They do it because it works," Toronto-based career coach Alan Kearns says.

"They are bold, they take risks, they have a sense of mission. They can also be very charming."

What's worse, that brazen charm often comes off as a sign of intelligence.

"When people are engaged in dominance behaviour, others see them as smarter and more competent," says Larissa Tiedens, who teaches interpersonal and team dynamics at Stanford University's business school.

In one study, Dr. Tiedens played for subjects one of two clips that showed former U.S. president Bill Clinton responding to the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

In one clip, a fiery Mr. Clinton defended himself and demanded that impeachment proceedings be dropped wth forceful hand gestures and strong speech. The second clip showed a more remorseful, apologetic Mr. Clinton. Those who watched the furious Mr. Clinton were much more likely to say his actions were beyond reproach.

"We think of these people as deserving even more status," Dr. Tiedens says. "Not only do they have it, but they should have more."

Jerks are scrappy by nature. They see co-workers as incompetent rivals rather than colleagues. The office becomes a Royal Rumble.

In place of pile drivers and body slams, these workplace grapplers have visual and verbal moves that researchers have identified. They tend to stand with an open posture, speak in deep, loud voices, gesture wildly, impinge on co-workers' personal space and stare directly at others.

A researcher at Harvard University, Teresa Amabile, has traced the outcomes of jerk-type behaviour. In a comparison of book reviews, Dr. Amabile found that authors of negative reviews where seen as more intelligent than authors of positive ones.

That "brilliant-but-cruel" effect is a strong incentive for biting criticism in the workplace.

Even Dr. Sutton's book includes a chapter on the virtues of being the workplace jerk. He shows that, while being an office pest may not be good for your status in the eyes of co-workers, it could do wonders for your career.

"The academic evidence generally says that if you need to establish your position in the office, then glaring at people, may be insulting them, maybe fighting are actually going to be quite constructive," Dr. Sutton says. "If you're an office pushover, sometimes you just have to fight back."

Career coaches don't wholeheartedly encourage taking on the persona of a jerk just to get ahead, but they do agree with Dr. Sutton that office pipsqueaks shouldn't let others kick sand in their faces either.

If I'm coaching someone who lacks assertiveness, the office doormat so to speak, I might want them to start weighing into conflict more often," agrees Dr. Stephane Brutus, a career coach and organizational psychologist at Montreal's Concordia University.

"Whenever a conflict arises even a small one, you have to get in there. It could even be in the line at the grocery store."

While Dr. Sutton doesn't advocate picking picking up jerk traits, he says that in some workplaces it may be unavoidable if you're ambitious: "In some cultures, though, being tough is necessary. It'll still make you an asshole, but a necessary asshole."

Some workers ride the jerk impulse all the way to the corner office. In fact, narcissistic employees, nasty as they can be, comprise some of the most visionary of business leaders, according to Narcissistic Leaders: Who succeeds and Who Fails, an influencial book by psychoanalyst Michael Macoby published in 2003 and reissued in May.

Dr. Macoby finds that the most revered business leaders in the United States - Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Jack Welch, Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos among them - are driven, above all, "by power and glory."

Narcissistic can be "emotionally distant and highly distrustful." Dr. Macoby says. "Perceived threats can trigger rage. Achievements can feed feelings of grandiosity."

Sound like anyone you know?

There are well-documented drawbacks to picking up career tips from narcissistic jerks, of course.

"They may get promoted, but nobody is loyal to them," Mr. Kearns said. "Because of that they're not sticky in an organization. Good people with friends get the benefit of the doubt if they screw up."

But for the rest of us- the non-jerks, of course there's at least one good reason to tolerate them, Dr. Macoby says.

"If you hitch to them at the right time, you'll get rich. You could come out a multimillionaire."

"But you've got to be careful not to fall in love with one who's got no moral compass - just look at Enron."
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Addendum:

Fortunately, contrary to what Dr. Sutton and some of his colleagues are suggesting, you don't have to be an ....... to to succeed in the business world. Nice guys don't always necessarily finish last

An instructive case study is that of Jack "NUCLEAR" Welch mentioned in the article.









Welches Reach Divorce Settlement Before Trial Starts
By Del Jones, USA TODAY

Jack and Jane Welch avoided their divorce trial scheduled to begin today by agreeing to a settlement and sidestepping more embarrassment to themselves and to the General Electric company that Jack led for 21 years.

How hundreds of millions of dollars were divided went undisclosed. Both sides declined comment beyond confirming that the divorce was final.

"It certainly takes a problem off of your list of problems," says Donald Trump, who had his own highly publicized divorce from Ivana in 1990.

The Welch divorce was shaping up to be one of the business world's most publicized split-ups in years until Thursday's settlement reduced it to a one-sentence statement.

The divorce, Jack Welch's second, ends his 13-year marriage to Jane, who is 17 years younger.

Jack Welch, 67, became involved in a romantic affair that began almost two years ago with then-Harvard Business Review editor Suzy Wetlaufer, now 43.

Wetlaufer resigned under pressure from the business journal in April 2002 for compromising journalistic ethics by getting involved with an interview subject.

Jack Welch and Wetlaufer live together, mostly on Nantucket Island, Mass., during the summer, according to someone who knows Wetlaufer.

They recently attended the 40th wedding anniversary party of Bob and Myra Kraft, owners of the New England Patriots, according to the society page of the Boston Globe.

Jan Bobrow, whose divorce from former Ernst & Young CEO Richard Bobrow was settled in November, says divorces involving CEOs leave wives hurt, but they carry on. "The man's life does not change, because the majority of the time, he has someone new living with him," she says.

When divorce negotiations stretched out, Jane Welch disclosed that Jack was getting sizable retirement perks from GE, including an apartment and the use of a GE jet. Welch agreed to pay $2 million a year for their use.

The Securities and Exchange Commission launched an informal investigation to determine if the lucrative retirement package was disclosed in filings. GE referred questions about the matter Thursday to the SEC, and the SEC declined to comment.

Early in the divorce proceedings, Jane Welch's lawyer William Zabel promised to keep dirty laundry out of the media by reaching a quick settlement. But that ended when the sides could not agree in valuing the fortune. Jane's lawyers believed it was worth $800 million, Jack's lawyers said it was $450 million.

The discrepancy revolved largely around Welch's GE stock options. But there were other issues unique to the Welch divorce.

Jay Fishman, a business appraiser who determines the value of future speaking engagements and product endorsements of entertainers and athletes, says few CEOs have celebrity value, but Welch would be an exception.

Sincerely,
Clare L. Pieuk