Toxic Workers Are More Productive, But the Price Is High

Re:Toxic Workers Are More Productive, But the Price Is High by commandlinefan on Wednesday February 20, 2019 @02:31PM (#19211156)

Maybe. (Actually, no, not, but for the sake of discussion). I have worked with people that would be considered "brilliant jerks" as in, they were amazing but they were so hard for most people to get along with that they actually were fired for being difficult to work with. It's never happened to me, but I've seen it happen maybe a half-dozen times to other people. What I couldn't help noticing about each of them was that: a) I never had any problem getting along with them. They just came down hard enough on the incompetent that they got a reputation for being unreasonable. b) there were people who were much, much more abusive, but not people that anybody would call "brilliant" (the opposite, in fact), who seemed to be applauded for their ability to anger people. The difference was that they people who got away with it always directed their arrogant attitude down, never up. It just seems to me that the more competent you're _perceived_ to be, the lower the threshold for bad behavior gets you labelled as a "jerk".

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Toxic Workers Are More Productive, But the Price Is High by Tehchops on Wednesday February 20, 2019 @03:02PM (#19211435)

>It just seems to me that the more competent you're _perceived_ to be, the lower the threshold for bad behavior gets you labelled as a "jerk".

Yep. If the 80/20 rule is true(and I keep finding anecdotal evidence it is), then wouldn't the natural frustrations of the 20% doing the 80% simply be perceived as toxicity by the other 80% doing the remaining 20%?

Take a team of 10 people. If 8 people get together and decide to say the 2 top performers are "toxic"(by whatever metric that is defined), what chance do those 2 people have, even if they are doing 80% of the work?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Toxic Workers Are More Productive, But the Price Is High by krinchan on Wednesday February 20, 2019 @09:01PM (#19213912)

The cost of "just being honest" over learning some subtlety.

I'm smart, I'm competent, I know what I'm doing, and, most importantly, I know how to get you to come along with me willingly.

If that fails, well, I know how to say something that only becomes devistating once I leave the room and I'm better friends with all your co-workers anyway. Come at me.

The people you saw fired lacked that final quality. They bought into the narrative that our field is a meritocracy and that's a downright lie. They poured all their effort into their skills and ego and left zero room for learning to navigate office politics. They deserved to be fired.

[ Parent | on HN ]