After dealing with some not-so-pleasant managers and executives (I’m really biting my tongue on the descriptors here), most people cringe at the thought that these jerk bosses tend to get raises and promotions faster than their non-jerk peers.

The blog post Is there an upside to assholes? at Management-Issues.com quotes research that suggests “aggressive managers who blame others when things go wrong are more likely to get promoted than managers who feel guilty and accept responsibility for failure. The same research found that it actually pays more for managers to get angry . . .”

I’ve stated before that these managers get their promotions IN SPITE OF their crappy style, not because of it, and it’s nice to see that this post quotes professor Robert Sutton from Stanford who echoes my perspective, and even has a new book out on the subject.

But here’s something to think about: Like hires like.  In other words, jerks tend to hire (and promote) other jerks.

So in reality, those who promote jerks are either blind to some core realities about those they’re promoting, or they come from the same mold (pun intended!).

What does it say about the organization you work for when you see jerks getting promoted?  Do you really want to invest your efforts into an organization that encourages its managers to step on people? 

If you see that you can make a difference in such an organization, more power to you – seriously. But I certainly don’t advocate staying in such repressive environments if your only reason for staying is a (false) sense of job security.

Life is waaaayyyy too short to spend our time bending over backward for people who don’t really care about us anyway.

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Filed in Work, Business, Opinion, Motivation, Management, Leadership, Teambuilding, Workplace