The Asshole Survival Guide

From the international bestselling expert on dealing with assholes

‘With cutting-edge research and real-life examples that are thought-provoking and often hilarious, this is an indispensable resource’
Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project

‘At last someone has provided clear steps for rejecting, dejecting, deflecting, and deflating the jerks who blight our lives. Better still, that someone is the great Bob Sutton, which ensures that the information is useful, evidence-based, and fun to read’
Robert Cialdini, author of Influence and Pre-Suasion

‘If only Bob Sutton’s book had been available to help me deal with the full complement of 1st-class assholes I’ve encountered in my 50-year professional life. No names shall be mentioned’
Tom Peters, co-author of In Search of Excellence

Being around assholes, whether at work or elsewhere, can damage performance and affect wellbeing: having one asshole in a team has been shown to reduce performance by 30 to 40%, and research shows that rudeness spreads like a common cold. In The Asshole Survival Guide, Stanford professor Robert Sutton offers practical advice on identifying and tackling any kind of asshole – based on research into groups from uncivil civil servants to French bus drivers, and 8,000 emails that he has received on asshole behaviour.

With expertise and humour, he provides a cogent and methodical game-plan to fight back. First, he sets out the asshole audit, to find out what kind of asshole needs dealing with, and asshole detection strategies. Then he reveals field-tested, sometimes surprising techniques, from asshole avoidance and asshole taxes, to mind-tricks and the art of love bombing. Finally, he explains the dangers of asshole blindness – when the problem might be yours truly.

Readers will learn how to handle assholes – in the workplace and beyond – once and for all!