Robert Sutton

Robert Sutton is Professor of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford. He studies innovation, the links between knowledge and organizational action, and most recently, workplace assholes.

Sutton has worked with organizations of all kinds, from People Magazine, to Procter & Gamble, to National Football League executives. He has published over 150 articles in places ranging from peer reviewed journals to the Harvard Business Review to Esquire magazine. Sutton's books include Weird Ideas That Work: 11 1/2 Practices for Promoting, Managing, and Sustaining Innovation; The Knowing-Doing Gap: How Smart Firms Turn Knowledge into Action (with Jeffrey Pfeffer); and Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense: Profiting from Evidence-Based Management (also with Jeffrey Pfeffer).

His new book is the national bestseller The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't. Sutton's blog, Work Matters, contains much information about what it takes to build a workplace that screens out, reforms, and banishes nasty people.

Fighting Back Against an Asshole Boss

Robert Sutton, Stanford University

The No Asshole Rule offers much advice about how to survive a nasty workplace. But I've learned much more about this challenge since I published the book several months back, especially from people who have escaped from, endured, and defeated asshole bosses. If you have a boss who persistently leaves you and others feeling demeaned and de-energized, here are my top tips:

Start with polite confrontation. Some bosses really don't mean to be assholes. They might be surprised if you gently let them know that they are leaving you feeling belittled and demeaned. Other bosses are demeaning on purpose, but may stop if you stand-up to them in a civil, but, firm manner. An office worker wrote me that her boss was "a major asshole" (he was a former army major, who was infamous for his nastiness). She found that "the major" left her alone after she gave him "a hard stare" and told him his behavior was "absolutely unacceptable and I simply won't tolerate it."
If your boss keeps spewing venom at you, limit your contact with the creep as much as possible. Try to avoid any meetings you can. Do telephone meetings if possible. Keep conversations as short as possible. Be polite but don't provide a lot of personal information during meetings of any kind, including email exchanges. If the jerk says or writes something nasty, try to avoid snapping back; it can fuel a vicious circle of poisoning.
Find ways to enjoy "small wins" over asshole bosses. If you can't reform or expel the bully, find small ways to gain control and to fight back--it will make you feel powerful and just might convince the bully to leave you and others alone. Exhibit one here is the radio producer who told me that she felt oppressed because her boss was constantly stealing her food--right off her desk. So she made some candy out of EX-Lax, the chocolate flavored laxative, and left it on her desk. As usual, he ate them without permission. When she told this thief what was in the candy, "he was not happy."
Practice indifference and emotional detachment- learn how not to let a demeaning boss touch your soul. Management gurus and executives are constantly ranting about the importance of commitment, passion, and giving all you have to a job. That is good advice when your bosses and peers treat you with dignity. But if you work with people who treat you like dirt, they have not earned your passion and commitment. Practice going through the motions without really caring. Don't let their vicious words and deeds touch your soul.
Keep a diary -- carefully document what the jerk does and when it happens. A salesman wrote me that he has been the top performer in his group until he got leukemia, but his performance slowed during chemotherapy. His supervisor called him every day to yell at him about how incompetent he was, and then doubled the sick salesperson's quota. The salesman eventually quit and found a better workplace, but apparently because he documented the abuse, his boss was demoted. An especially effective tactic is to recruit other colleagues to keep diaries too about an abusive boss or workplace. It is far more difficult for management - or a judge - to dismiss a complaint from a group of victims than a single victim.
Take legal action if you must, but do so as a last resort. There is a growing legal movement against bullying in the workplace, and employment lawyers keep telling me that it will get easier to collect damages against "equal opportunity assholes," not just against racist and sexist jerks. Documentation is essential if you are considering making a legal claim. And certainly there are plenty of bosses and employers that deserve to be slapped with massive fines. BUT if you are suffering workplace abuse, the best thing for YOU might be to get out before you suffer much, if any, damage. I had a long conversation with two smart lawyers about this recently, and they pointed out an unfortunate fact of life that every person with an asshole boss needs to understand: The more you lose - - the deeper your depression, your anxiety, and your financial losses, and the more physical ailments you suffer -- the better your legal case against the boss or company. The more you suffer, the more money you can get. The implication for me is, if you possibly can, why not get out before you suffer horrible damages in the first place?

There are no instant cures and easy answers for people who are trapped in nasty workplaces. But I hope my little list of tips can help those of who are struggling to fight back against an asshole boss. And please write me at robert.sutton@stanford.edu to let me know what you think of these tips, and especially, if you have more tips for battling back - and winning -- against workplace assholes.