BFTP: All about assholes

A weekend Blue Skunk "feature" will be a revision of an old post. I'm calling this BFTP: Blast from the Past. Original post March 6, 2007. Given that a couple of coworkers seem to have attended asshole camp this summer and learned a great deal, I am reviewing the book and this post.

It’s always, always, always better to be a nice person than an ass. 
You will make mistakes at home and on the job. So keep this in mind: People will forgive your mistakes if you are generally a nice person; they never forget them if you behave like an ass. from Machines Are the Easy Part; People Are the Hard Part. Illustration by Brady Johnson

Asshole is one of those words like bullshit that, while rude, is sufficiently descriptive and exact to be useful.  My copy of Robert I. Sutton's smart little book The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't came in the mail yesterday. When I sat down with it I meant to only read the dust jacket but wound up nearly finishing it.

Based on an earlier article in the Harvard Business Review, Stanford professor Sutton defines an asshole as a person who meets these criteria:

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 than at those people who are more powerful? 

While Sutton suggests we can all be temporary assholes, he singles out the chronic and "flaming" assholes as not just unpleasant to work with, but actually damaging to a company's bottom line. He even provides a TCA (Total Cost of Asshole) formula to determine what an asshole might be costing an organization.

While Sutton's observations and examples come from the business world, those of us in education should also learn from this  book. At least I know I have worked with assholes and have probably acted like one more often than I would like to admit. I would even argue that the "no asshole rule" - that assholes will simply not be tolerated as part of the organizational culture - is even more important in schools than in businesses. The damage that assholes can do to kids is greater and more long-lasting than that they can do to adults. Period.

One piece of advice about disagreements Sutton shares comes from the University of Michigan's Karl Weick: "Fight as if you are right; listen as if you are wrong."  Something as a blogger - writer, reader and responder - I need to remember a little better.

I advise my staff who too often get the brunt of an asshole's fury (tech problems tend to bring out the unreasonableness in people) to simply say, "Please talk with me about this when you can treat me with respect" and walk away.

Do you have any special methods of dealing with the assholes in your life?

Mindset lists for teachers and librarians updated

I've enjoyed the Beloit Mindset list (2015) and use parts of it in presentations for years. Bruce Krajewski writes a college faculty "mindset list." (via Stephens Lighthouse.)

Maybe it's time to dust off my librarian and teacher mindset lists and spruce them up a little...

The Mindset List for Librarians Entering the Field in 2011

Librarians entering the field today...

1. Have never had to type a catalog card.
2. Have never looked something up in the Readers Guide to Periodical Literature.
3. Have never maintained a vertical file.
4. Have always maintained a Facebook fan page for their library.
5. Have never attended a F2F graduate school library class.
6. Have never puchased (or rented) a 16mm film, VHS tape or LaserDisc. (Let alone a filmloop or filmstrip.)
7. Have never NOT had the Internet as a resource.
8. Have never checked out 5 1/4 floppy disks of MECC games.
9. Have always helped find and stream videos rather than checked out tapes to teachers.
10. Have never arranged for interlibrary loan of a physical book.
11. Have ever worked in a library without student workstations or a computer lab.
12. Have always had wireless access for students and teachers.
13. Have never sent overdue notices to parents by postal mail.
14. Have always been more concerned about Internet sites being blocked that books being challenged.
15. Have always worried about whether their positions would exist the next school year.

Teachers entering the profession in 2011

1. Have never gotten a buzz sniffing fresh mimeograph copies.
2. Have never used a paper gradebook (and have always needed passwords).
3. Have only received their school bulletin via school e-mail and have always had a school website.
4. Parents and students have always been able to Google them.
5. There has always been a Rate Your Teacher website.
6. Have always used white boards and LCD projectors, not chalk boards, overhead projectors or TVs.
7. Have always had a telephone and voice mail in their classrooms.
8. Have always been asked to be more concerned about test scores than about learning.
9. Have never "taught" students how to use a print dictionary, encyclopedia or atlas.
10. Have been portrayed by politicians and the press more as villains than as heroes.
11. Have always had students who can "fact check" a statement using their cellphones in class.
12. Have always had their collective bargaining rights questioned.
13. Have always had both parents and students look at their gradebook via a web portal.
14. Have always used a card rather than a key to get into their buildings and have always smiled at the security camera by the door.
15. Online classes have always been an option for students who don't like the F2F class they are attending.

See you in Minneapolis this fall

Be there or be square.

 I'm doing both a pre-conference workshop and a regular session. Looking forward to seeing old long-time friends.

The REAL visitors' guide to Minnesota will be coming soon.