Rule No. 1: No Assholes!

Somehow, the conversation around the water cooler this afternoon has come around to the issue of assholes and their employment. What do you do when you find out that you've hired an asshole, and how do you avoid hiring assholes again?

As it happens, Stanford professor Robert Sutton -- the author of the book The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't -- shares a few thoughts on that very subject here: How to deal with jerks, bullies, louts, boors, entry-level brutes, schmucks, rascals, jackasses, antagonisers, tormentors, schmos, browbeaters and assholes.

These people are destructive, he says -- they're assholes! -- and the simple fact is that you should apply a 'no asshole rule' in hiring. He offers up some tips on that. And if you're already encumbered? "You can actually calculate the total cost of assholes, or TCA," and use that in their termination notice, he says. Eminently practical.

And here's a quiz to find out if, just possibly, you are that asshole.

By the way, this conversation has absolutely nothing to do with Clint Rickards. Nothing at all. Not a thing. No relevance whatsoever.

LINKS: The Bully Rulebook & the No Asshole Rule - Inc.Com
Quiz: Are you an asshole? - Inc.Com