
Ask HN: What's up with “No *sshole” Policies? - kennytilton
I have seen several HN job listings and one Fort Lauderdale beach bar declaring &quot;No Asshole&quot; policies. Being a long-time contract developer, I have observed many a shop and have never seen a situation that even came close to necessitating such a policy. But maybe I am out of touch. Is there an epidemic of bad behavior in tech? Back in my day it went without saying that one handled oneself in the workplace better even than in other social settings, because work was one&#x27;s meal ticket. Not so any more? ps. I am not saying we did not have prima donnas back then, just that they were manageable.
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sbinthree
The challenge is that a high performing, badly behaving person can be both
critical to the company and harmful to the others. Some people are so toxic
they actually bring the aggregate performance down despite high individual
performance. So that is short form for, you can't be toxic regardless of your
performance. In practice, the true work psychopaths can work around a policy
like that, and people with bad social skills tend to get punished unfairly by
comparison.

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wskinner
Companies want to signal their unwillingness to tolerate bad behavior from
even top employees. There is probably not an epidemic of bad behavior in tech.
The number of “brilliant jerk” employees is probably the same as it has been
for some time, but post #metoo, Susan Fowler and others, this issue is now
more public.

The appearance of intolerance for brilliant jerks is an inexpensive way for
companies to signal a type of culture that that is currently popular and
desirable, which is why you see them doing it.

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stmw
I think it comes from Netflix originally
([https://crooksandliars.com/2015/02/netflix-shares-their-
corp...](https://crooksandliars.com/2015/02/netflix-shares-their-corporate-
culture-no)) and is meant to indicate to applicants an engineering culture
where high-performing yet horribly difficult people are counseled out. This
seems like simple good management, but there have been enough companies that
didn't follow it that it's worth pointing out.

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cimmanom
Think of it not as a way to get assholes to go away, but a way to reassure
potential patrons/employees who want to avoid assholes.

