The No Asshole Rule Quotes

“the difference between how a person treats the powerless versus the powerful is as good a measure of human character as I know.”
― Robert I. Sutton, The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't

“As much as I believe in tolerance and fairness, I have never lost a wink of sleep about being unapologetically intolerant of anyone who refuses to show respect for those around them.”
― Robert I. Sutton, The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't

“Assholes tend to stick together, and once stuck are not easily separated.”
― Robert I. Sutton, The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't

“The University of Michigan’s Karl Weick advises, “Fight as if you are right; listen as if you are wrong.”
― Robert I. Sutton, The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't

“Winning is a wonderful thing if you can help and respect others along the way. But if you stomp on others as you climb the ladder and treat them like losers once you reach the top, my opinion is that you debase your own humanity and undermine your team or organization.”
― Robert I. Sutton, The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't

“two tests that I use for spotting whether a person is acting like an asshole: • Test One: After talking to the alleged asshole, does the “target” feel oppressed, humiliated, de-energized, or belittled by the person? In particular, does the target feel worse about him or herself? • Test Two: Does the alleged asshole aim his or her venom at people who are less powerful rather than at those people who are more powerful?”
― Robert I. Sutton, The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't

“A huge body of research—hundreds of studies—shows that when people are put in positions of power, they start talking more, taking what they want for themselves, ignoring what other people say or want, ignoring how less powerful people react to their behavior, acting more rudely, and generally treating any situation or person as a means for satisfying their own needs—and that being put in positions of power blinds them to the fact that they are acting like jerks.”
― Robert I. Sutton, The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't

“At the places where I want to work, even if people do other things well (even extraordinary well) but routinely demean others, they are seen as incompetent.”
― Robert I. Sutton, The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't

“Life is too short to put up with assholes.”
― Robert I. Sutton, The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't

“Bullies drive witnesses and bystanders out of their jobs, just as they do to “firsthand” victims. Research”
― Robert I. Sutton, The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't

“It takes numerous encounters with positive people to offset the energy and happiness sapped by a single episode with one asshole.”
― Robert I. Sutton, The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't

“Bill Lazier’s advice means that you ought to do your homework before taking a job. Find out if you are about to enter a den of assholes, and if you are, don’t give in to the temptation to join them in the first place. Leonardo da Vinci said, “It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end,” which is sound social psychology. The more time and effort that people put into anything—no matter how useless, dysfunctional, or downright stupid it might be—the harder it is for them to walk away, be it a bad investment, a destructive relationship, an exploitive job, or a workplace filled with browbeaters, bullies, and bastards.”
― Robert I. Sutton, The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't

“Everyone deserves to be treated fairly. If leaders are the problem, we ask those being served by leaders to let them know or go up the chain of command—without the threat of retaliation.” “Store”
― Robert I. Sutton, The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't

“A hallmark of teams and organizations that are led by assholes, or where swarms of assholes run rampant, is that they are riddled with fear, loathing, and retaliation. In a fear-based organization, employees constantly look over their shoulders and constantly try to avoid the finger of blame and humiliation; even when they know how to help the organization, they are often afraid to do it.”
― Robert I. Sutton, The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't

“A series of controlled experiments and field studies in organizations shows that when teams engage in conflict over ideas in an atmosphere of mutual respect, they develop better ideas and perform better .”
― Robert I. Sutton, The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't

“The implication is that if you want to quell your inner jerk and avoid spreading (and catching) this form of asshole poisoning, use ideas and language that frame life in ways that will make you focus on cooperation.”
― Robert I. Sutton, The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't

“Hatfield and her colleagues sum up emotional contagion research with an Arabic proverb: “A wise man associating with the vicious becomes an idiot.”
― Robert I. Sutton, The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't

“if someone consistently takes actions that leave a trail of victims in their wake, they deserve to be branded as certified assholes.”
― Robert I. Sutton, The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't

“But Grove is renowned for sticking to the facts and for inviting anyone—from brand-new Intel engineers to Stanford”
― Robert I. Sutton, The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't

“These tests imply an even more fundamental lesson that runs through this book: the difference between how a person treats the powerless versus the powerful is as good a measure of human character as I know.”
― Robert I. Sutton, The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't

“Be warned, however, that when groups work mostly through e-mail or conference calls (rather than face-to-face), they tend to fight more and trust each other less.”
― Robert I. Sutton, The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't

“Consider James D. Sinegal, co-founder and CEO of Costco, a warehouse retailer. His salary in 2003 was $350,000, which is just about ten times what is earned by his top hourly employees and roughly double that of a typical Costco store manager. Costco also pays 92.5% of employee health-care costs. Sinegal could take a lot more goodies for himself, but has refused a bonus in profitable years because “we didn’t meet the standards that we had set for ourselves,” and he has sold only a modest percentage of his stock over the years. Even Costco’s compensation committee acknowledges that he is underpaid. Sinegal believes that by taking care of his people and staying close to them, they will provide better customer service, Costco will be more profitable, and everyone (including shareholders like himself) will win. Sinegal takes other steps to reduce the “power distance” between himself and other employees. He visits hundreds of Costco stores a year, constantly mixing with the employees as they work and asking questions about how he can make things better for them and Costco customers. Despite continuing skepticism from analysts about wasting money on labor costs, Costco’s earnings, profits, and stock price continue to rise. Treating employees fairly also helps the bottom line in other ways, as Costco’s “shrinkage rate” (theft by employees and customers) is only two-tenths of 1%; other retail chains suffer ten to fifteen times the amount. Sinegal just sees all this as good business because, when you are a CEO, “everybody is watching you every minute anyway. If they think the message you’re sending is phony, they are going to say, ‘Who does he think he is?”
― Robert I. Sutton, The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't