Building a Civilized Workplace means no jerks. That’s right, no jerks. All people that work in an organization should agree in writing to these rules of engagement:

I will be a good person to work with –I will not be territorial — I will not be a jerk.

A great organization should consist only of people who absolutely love what they do, and have the utmost respect for individuals in a collaborative, egalitarian, and meritocratic environment. So, no blind copying, no politics, no parochialism, no silos, and so on. But we don’t live in a perfect society, therefore we’re bound to run to jerks every now and then. There are alls sort of jerks: the credit grabber jerk, the weakling jerk, the shylock jerk, etc. etc. etc… but in my experience, the charismatic a**hole is the worst jerk ever. They tend to be in senior positions, and are  pretty darn seductive: smart, charming, capable on occasion of making you feel like you too, are smart and charming and the most important person in the whole world. Some of the most interesting people I’ve worked for/with have been charismatic a**holes. Even though I didn’t trust any of them, I was still on occasion sucked in to their orb by sheer magnetic force. 🙂

Hopefully at days end there will be less ferks I mean jerks in the world and ultimately we will all live in a better place. Let me end this with what the Borg say: “Strength is irrelevant.Your GCI is irrelevant. Your resistance is futile. We will strip off your jerkness (is there such a word?). We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. We wish to improve ourselves. Your culture will adapt to service ours.”

🙂