Jerks need not apply

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http://www.today.com/money/help-wanted-successful-candidate-must-be-nice-8C11323114

Interesting to say the least

 

[NewJeffCT]

http://www.today.com/money/help-wanted-successful-candidate-must-be-nice-8C11323114

Interesting to say the least

Interesting to have that in writing. Being in my mid 40s now and having gone on a ton of interviews over the years for various finance/accounting type roles, I do think most companies are looking for somebody that can not only do the job, but is also the right fit personality-wise.

However, I did know one guy who went to interview at a company for a fairly senior position where the CEO told him that they have a "no A__ hole" policy at the company (using the actual curse, not the shortened one I've heard on TV and radio). Not sure if it was the CEO and his policy or not, but the company quickly went from a nice family-friendly place to work to horrible working conditions (huge amounts of stress, lots of overtime, which is unpaid when you're on salary, and lots of politics/backstabbing.) when the CEO retired.

 

[Janx]

I do see a problem with the one company's logic:

"Albrecht said the idea to specify that they were looking for nice candidates came after talking to company managers about which employees were the highest performers. The company executives found that the positive, generous employees seemed to do best, while the negative complainers were the most problematic."

While I agree that a negative complainer can be annoying to work with, they are quite possibly a symptom indicative of a Jerk Manager, rather than the problem.

Most employees have problems with Jerks in the workplace because the Jerks are in a position of authority and they abuse that position.

If somebody worked in that kind of toxic environment, no doubt they'd be negative and complaining too.

The problem in most workplaces is that Jerks are good at sucking up to those above them, while treating their underlings poorly. Their social defect is also their social skill in knowing who matters and who doesn't.

The problem then is that the Jerk's superiors fail to recognize the source of the problems is the Jerk, because they can't see past the facade.

 

[sabrinathecat]

When I was working at McGraw-Hill, at first we were in a nice building with the production and editorial services on one floor, then acquisitions and management on the floor above. It was lovely. Then they moved (for some lame reason) to another building where everyone was on the same floor. Between the drab, sterile, depressing building and the fact that Sr management was able to spread it's toxic politics all over, it was a very depressing place. No wonder the division shut down within a year. (yeah, a year. not my fault. Really.) Over 150 jobs were cut down to about 10. The rest went overseas, where the employees in India were treated so well, they were complaining and willing to quit.

 

[Dog Moon]

Actually, when I was looking for jobs [and I was unemployemd until tomorrow] a lot of the jobs I looked at basically specifically said stuff like "must be friendly" or "must be good at dealing with people" or something along those lines. They never specifically said "no jerks allowed" but a lot of times what they said seemed to be essentially the same.

But then again I was looking at customer service/human resources/admin assistant jobs, so maybe because those work with people more more defined rules had to be put in place.