Is Your Boss an Asshole?

Readers of  The Technician Shop will note, since our inception, you haven’t seen language like this. Readers who have been reading my other online stuff since 1997, will also note the same. I use the A-word for emphasis. I use it for clarity. And I use it because it sears through the muck, right to the heart of the matter.

The inspiration and ideas discussed here today come from Guy Kawasaki’s book Reality Check and the chapter, Is Your Boss an Asshole?  Guy was inspired by Bob Sutton, author of The No Asshole Rule. This Q & A is in Guy’s book:

Q: How many bosses does it take to screw in a lightbulb? A: One. He holds up the lightbulb and expects the universe to revolve around him.

How do you know if your boss is an asshole? If you are a human being of sound mind who cares about others, you know. There’s no ifffy-gray area here. The ability to detect an asshole boss is a gift that all caring human beings are born with.

Guy chooses a handful of things that help to detect the asshole boss, but the one that is so unforgivable, so incomprehensible and so evil is the one I must mention: Your boss slows down or halts your career progress. The asshole boss usually does this because you are doing your job so well. Guys says, “God didn’t put you on this earth to make your boss’s life better, so don’t hesitate to abandon a boss who holds you back.”

In the real world it’s very unlikely that you’ll change an asshole boss. Tomorrow, we’ll give you something to think about before leaving a company with an asshole boss and something to think about if you do.