The Asshole Survival Guide: How to Deal with People Who Treat You Like Dirt

Description

From the bestselling expert- an entertaining and evidence-based guide to dealing with horrible people Being around assholes, whether at work or elsewhere, can damage performance and affect wellbeing- having one asshole in a team has been shown to reduce performance by 30 to 40 percent, and research shows that rudeness spreads like a common cold. In The Asshole Survival Guide, Stanford professor Robert Sutton offers practical advice on identifying and tackling any kind of asshole - based on research into groups from uncivil civil servants to French bus drivers, and 8,000 emails that he has received on asshole behaviour. With expertise and humour, he provides a cogent and methodical game-plan to fight back. First, he sets out the asshole audit, to find out what kind of asshole needs dealing with, and asshole detection strategies. Then he reveals field-tested, sometimes surprising techniques, from asshole avoidance and asshole taxes, to mind-tricks and the art of love bombing. Finally, he explains the dangers of asshole blindness - when the problem might be yours truly.

Robert Sutton is the bestselling author of The No Asshole Rule, on building civilized workplaces, which has sold 800,000 copies around the world, Good Boss, Bad Boss and Scaling Up Excellence. He is a professor at Stanford's Department of Management Science and Engineering, fellow at IDEO and has published over 150 articles in academic journals and outlets such as the Harvard Business Review, the McKinsey Quarterly, and the Financial Times. He tweets @work_matters

'With cutting-edge research and real-life examples that are thought-provoking and often hilarious, this is an indispensable resource' -- Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project 'At last someone has provided clear steps for rejecting, deflecting, and deflating the jerks who blight our lives' -- Robert Cialdini, author of Influence and Pre-Suasion 'If only Bob Sutton's book had been available to help me deal with the full complement of 1st-class assholes I've encountered in my 50-year professional life. No names shall be mentioned' -- Tom Peters, co-author of In Search of Excellence At last someone has provided clear steps for rejecting, deflecting, and deflating the jerks who blight our lives. -- Robert Cialdini, author of New York Times bestsellers Influence and Pre-suasion A contemporary classic -- DANIEL H. PINK, bestselling author of To Sell is Human and Drive As much as we try to avoid assholes, inevitably they appear in our lives. Bob Sutton gives a menu of clear, thoughtful, and practical solutions for surviving and thriving in that painful situation. With cutting-edge research and real-life examples that are thought-provoking and often hilarious, The Asshole Survival Guide is an indispensable resource. -- Gretchen Rubin, bestselling author of Better Than Before, Happier at Home and The Happiness Project Bob Sutton is very wise and very funny, AND he can tell you exactly how to handle the unfortunate reality that into every life a few assholes must fall. The Asshole Survival Guide is destined to become your go-to resource whenever you find yourself dealing with people who would treat you poorly -- Susan Cain, New York Times bestselling author of 'Quiet' At last someone has provided clear steps for rejecting, deflecting, and deflating the jerks who blight our lives. Better still, that someone is the great Bob Sutton, which ensures that the information is useful, evidence-based, and fun to read -- ROBERT CIALDINI * author of New York Times bestsellers INFLUENCE and PRE-SUASION * No matter what industry or profession you work in, you will always encounter people who are unpleasant, off-putting, or downright self-centered. Thank goodness Bob Sutton has provided us with such a well-crafted guide for surviving these jerks. It is mandatory reading for anyone who strives to endure, escape, fend-off, and bring them down -- CHIP CONLEY * founder and past CEO of Joie de Vivre hotels, advisor and former Head of Global Hospitality and Strategy at Airbnb, author of four books including the New York Times best seller Emotional Equations. * With humor, understanding and comprehensive research - and an ah-ha moment on every page - this is a must-have for leaders and climbing stars alike, from the expert on the subject. Bravo! -- MARSHALL GOLDSMITH * author of the #1 New York Times bestseller TRIGGERS * This is the guide you need for handling the worst people in your life-and making sure they don't rub off on you. If you've ever had a horrible boss, client, or colleague, this book is bursting with advice that's often ingenious and always actionable. And if your world has been free of jerks, consider this an insurance policy -- Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of 'Give and Take' and 'Originals' and co-author of 'Option B' Assholes are like the weather-everybody complains about them but nobody ever does anything about them. Until, that is, Robert Sutton's Asshole Survival Guide. Sutton offers a wealth of helpful, and dare I say wise suggestions about how to identify and deal with the assholes in your organization, or at least minimize the damage they do to the well-being and productivity of others. (I'd also suggest bringing it along to family reunions and PTA meetings -- GEOFF NUNBERG * University of California at Berkeley, author of Ascent of the A-Word: Assholism, the First Sixty Years * Reading The Asshole Survival Guide made me wistful. If only Bob Sutton's book had been available to help me deal with the full complement of 1st-class assholes I've encountered in my 50-year professional life. No names shall be mentioned -- Tom Peters, co-author of the international bestseller 'In Search of Excellence' One of the biggest impediments to achieving a great workplace is assholes. Their behavior creates a hostile work environment that leads to decreased engagement, productivity and employee loyalty. Bob Sutton has written a fantastic book that explains the severity of the problem and provides useful strategies for dealing with it -- PAUL PURCELL * Chairman and former long-time CEO of Baird, ranked fourth on Fortune's Top 100 Companies to Work For and renowned for its long-time "no assholes" policy * It's hard to know how to react to a jerk, so The Asshole Survival Guide is a Godsend. Obnoxious behavior is a double whammy. First, you feel mad at the other person. Next, you feel mad at yourself for your response / lack of response. It's being mad at yourself that is both hard to be aware of, and is most debilitating. With this brilliant and funny book, Bob Sutton saves you from fear, loathing, and self-loathing! -- KIM SCOTT * bestselling author of the New York Times bestseller, Radical Candor, cofounder of Candor, Inc, former executive at Google and Apple * In this most-welcome sequel to Sutton's bestselling The No Asshole Rule, the author turns from an organization-wide perspective to an individual one, outlining strategies for dealing with difficult people at work. Readers will shake their heads-both in horror and recognition-at Sutton's real-life examples of egregious behavior. However, Sutton also shares true stories, provided by readers, of successful strategies for thwarting the bullies. * Publisher's Weekly * If everyone had paid attention to the Stanford business professor's best-selling 2007 management manifesto, "The No Asshole Rule," there would be no need for a follow-up. Yet here we are. * Esquire * Sutton offers a variety of techniques that people suffering the presence of difficult individuals at their work, in their sports teams or just in everyday life can employ to deal with them or fight back. There is even help with discovering whether or not you are an asshole yourself - and what to do about it if you do something that makes you one... This is a small book but it could play a big part in making us treat others better * Forbes * You are armed and ready to handle ghastly people wherever you might find them * FT Business Books of the Month * This survival guide is here to help you from going insane. It's full of science-driven tips and strategies on how to deal with nasty bosses, manipulative colleagues, or other general jerks in your life * W Magazine * People are jerks. And there's plenty of evidence to prove it in the very blunt self-help book called "The A-hole Survival Guide," a scholarly source that teaches fed-up readers how to deal with co-workers, strangers and just about anyone who sucks * Moneyish *