On one level the email staff memo republished by Bob Sutton on his excellent web site is funny. It sounds as if Fawlty Towers was run by someone with Lenny Bruce’s vocabulary.

On the other level, it’s disturbing just how bad some managers can behave. And it must harm the business.

Bob Sutton: Asshole Boss of the Year?. (Warning, the language may cause offence).

The No Asshole Rule author Bob Sutton hits the nail on the head again. The quote comes from his post:  The Enron Code of Ethics: Something Every Boss Should Read.

British sleazeballs tend to think of ethics as the county directly East of London.

Bob Sutton dug up this brilliant quote from Peter Drucker. Like Sutton I think some meetings are essential, but both Sutton and Drucker are right that they are too often a substitute for real work.

Bob Sutton: Peter Drucker: “One Either Meets or One Works”.

Does this man look like an ass or an arse to you?

Where I come from it would be arse-hole. But who’s enough of one to niggle over antipodean versus American English?

Either way, the arse-hole collar isn’t just an American thing. In my experience British and Australian arse-hole managers wear them too. New Zealanders don’t. But then hardly anyone in New Zealand ever wears a collar and tie to work these days. Of course it’s different when you’re expecing a visitor from overseas, at a formal function or making a sales call.

The comments on Bob’s post mention bow-ties also indicate arse-hole managers. That’s not as universal a truth as the whole white collar on coloured shirt thing, but yes, there is some correlation there too.

What I’d like to know is how does one identify a female arse-hole boss?

Bob Sutton: The Asshole Collar.