> If you focus on creating a culture of objectivity, facts and honesty, you'll solve most of your jerk problems without having to figure out what "jerk" means.

> If you focus on creating a culture of objectivity, facts and honesty, you'll solve most of your jerk problems without having to figure out what "jerk" means. Are you speaking from experience? As a consultant, I occasionally run into companies that have an asshole problem (it’s pretty rare, fortunately), and your comment seems like wishful thinking to the point of naivety. In fact, overly blunt and “honest” communication is one of the ways assholes express themselves. The other thing about assholes in companies is that they’ve made themselves indispensable—often raising themselves up by pushing the people around them down—because the ones who don’t, don’t survive. For every company I’ve been in that had an asshole problem, management was aware that they had an asshole problem, but felt they couldn’t resolve it because the asshole was a “star performer.” (They weren’t really. Overall performance typically increases when they leave, because previously-suppressed people are now able to step up and grow.) Objectivity, honesty, and facts do nothing to fix this problem, except in a fantasy world where everything is measured and the impact of people’s actions is perfectly visible. That world doesn’t exist.