Reading

Things at work are heading south fast. I met on Monday with the evil AVP (former boss's boss) to get a list of my new responsibilities and to find out that they're not even going to start the hiring process until after Labor Day, which means I've gone from being a team of three to a team of one (my junior colleague transfered to another part of the group). My good boss and I went over the list together, and she helped me come up with a figure for my new salary. So on Wednesday when the AVP sent me an e-mail listing those responsibilities, I wrote back thanking her and asking for a meeting to discuss salary. She wrote back basically telling me no; she's taken away some of my responsibilities in addition to giving me the new ones and that everyone's salaries will be reviewed once the consultant finishes their analysis of the group. (Those responsibilities that she took away account for about 4 hours a month. The ones she gave account for about 20 hours a week.) On Thursday I wrote back responding to her "argument" and again requesting a meeting. Nothing.

So when I saw The No Assholes Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't at the library yesterday, I had to check it out. Written by Stanford professor of management, Robert Sutton (PhD), the book defines "asshole" and explains the difference between the temporary and the certified asshole, explains the rule and how to implement and enforce it, knowing when you are the asshole and how to stop being one, and how to survive on "Asshole Avenue"--which is where I work.

It takes two things to be an asshole: 1) people who encounter the asshole almost always feel worse about themselves afterwards and 2) assholes focus their venom on the powerless. So, like the AVP who has actually stuck her tongue out at my junior colleague in meetings with people from different parts of the organization and saying repeatedly, "I know where you're going." Which isn't horrible in and of itself, but it is part of a larger pattern of behavior which includes far too many things to include here. Suffice to say she prides herself on micromanaging and demanding things and using the most condescending tone imaginable. She's a kiss-up, kick down kind of person who sides with everyone but her group. Oh, she's an asshole.

So anyway, the advice for dealing with the assholes is to run*. Which I had sort of figured out on my own. It took me a while to realize the AVP is part of a larger problem that starts at the top and wends its way through the entire organization, not just the group, not just our department. (As Sutton says, "Assholes breed like rabbits" because they hire their own kind.) So in the near future, there might be less money available to do some of the things on this list--though I will have more time to do them...

She's leaving for vacation on Thursday. Would it make me an asshole to hand in my letter of resignation on Wednesday?

*If you can't, you're supposed to float downstream with your legs out in front of you. Which I don't get.

Non-fiction: 11.5