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The Asshole Survival Guide: How to Deal with People Who Treat You Like Dirt Paperback – 12 Sept. 2017
From the international bestselling expert on dealing with assholes
'With cutting-edge research and real-life examples that are thought-provoking and often hilarious, thisis an indispensable resource'
Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project
'At last someone has provided clear steps for rejecting, 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 social media has only given rise to further incivility -- 40% of people have experienced harassment online.
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. 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!
- Print length224 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPortfolio Penguin
- Publication date12 Sept. 2017
- Dimensions13.5 x 1.7 x 21.5 cm
- ISBN-100241298997
- ISBN-13978-0241298992
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Product description
Review
'At last someone has provided clear steps for rejecting, deflecting, and deflating the jerks who blight our lives' -- 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
A contemporary classic
As much as we try to avoid assholes, inevitably they appear in our lives. Bob Sutton gives a menu of clear, thoughtful, and practical solutions for surviving and thriving in that painful situation. With cutting-edge research and real-life examples that are thought-provoking and often hilarious, The Asshole Survival Guide is an indispensable resource. ― Gretchen Rubin
Bob Sutton is very wise and very funny, AND he can tell you exactly how to handle the unfortunate reality that into every life a few assholes must fall. The Asshole Survival Guide is destined to become your go-to resource whenever you find yourself dealing with people who would treat you poorly -- Susan Cain, New York Times bestselling author of 'Quiet'
At last someone has provided clear steps for rejecting, 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 New York Times bestsellers INFLUENCE and PRE-SUASION
No matter what industry or profession you work in, you will always encounter people who are unpleasant, off-putting, or downright self-centered. Thank goodness Bob Sutton has provided us with such a well-crafted guide for surviving these jerks. It is mandatory reading for anyone who strives to endure, escape, fend-off, and bring them down -- CHIP CONLEY ― founder and past CEO of Joie de Vivre hotels, advisor and former Head of Global Hospitality and Strategy at Airbnb, author of four books including the New York Times best seller Emotional Equations.
With humor, understanding and comprehensive research - and an ah-ha moment on every page - this is a must-have for leaders and climbing stars alike, from the expert on the subject. Bravo! -- MARSHALL GOLDSMITH ― author of the #1 New York Times bestseller TRIGGERS
This is the guide you need for handling the worst people in your life-and making sure they don't rub off on you. If you've ever had a horrible boss, client, or colleague, this book is bursting with advice that's often ingenious and always actionable. And if your world has been free of jerks, consider this an insurance policy -- Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of 'Give and Take' and 'Originals' and co-author of 'Option B'
Assholes are like the weather-everybody complains about them but nobody ever does anything about them. Until, that is, Robert Sutton's Asshole Survival Guide. Sutton offers a wealth of helpful, and dare I say wise suggestions about how to identify and deal with the assholes in your organization, or at least minimize the damage they do to the well-being and productivity of others. (I'd also suggest bringing it along to family reunions and PTA meetings -- GEOFF NUNBERG ― University of California at Berkeley, author of Ascent of the A-Word: Assholism, the First Sixty Years
Reading The Asshole Survival Guide made me wistful. 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 the international bestseller 'In Search of Excellence'
One of the biggest impediments to achieving a great workplace is assholes. Their behavior creates a hostile work environment that leads to decreased engagement, productivity and employee loyalty. Bob Sutton has written a fantastic book that explains the severity of the problem and provides useful strategies for dealing with it -- PAUL PURCELL ― Chairman and former long-time CEO of Baird, ranked fourth on Fortune’s Top 100 Companies to Work For and renowned for its long-time “no assholes” policy
It's hard to know how to react to a jerk, so The Asshole Survival Guide is a Godsend. Obnoxious behavior is a double whammy. First, you feel mad at the other person. Next, you feel mad at yourself for your response / lack of response. It's being mad at yourself that is both hard to be aware of, and is most debilitating. With this brilliant and funny book, Bob Sutton saves you from fear, loathing, and self-loathing! -- KIM SCOTT ― bestselling author of the New York Times bestseller, Radical Candor, cofounder of Candor, Inc, former executive at Google and Apple
In this most-welcome sequel to Sutton's bestselling The No Asshole Rule, the author turns from an organization-wide perspective to an individual one, outlining strategies for dealing with difficult people at work. Readers will shake their heads-both in horror and recognition-at Sutton's real-life examples of egregious behavior. However, Sutton also shares true stories, provided by readers, of successful strategies for thwarting the bullies. ― Publisher's Weekly
If everyone had paid attention to the Stanford business professor's best-selling 2007 management manifesto, "The No Asshole Rule," there would be no need for a follow-up. Yet here we are. ― Esquire
Sutton offers a variety of techniques that people suffering the presence of difficult individuals at their work, in their sports teams or just in everyday life can employ to deal with them or fight back. There is even help with discovering whether or not you are an asshole yourself - and what to do about it if you do something that makes you one... This is a small book but it could play a big part in making us treat others better ― Forbes
You are armed and ready to handle ghastly people wherever you might find them ― FT Business Books of the Month
This survival guide is here to help you from going insane. It's full of science-driven tips and strategies on how to deal with nasty bosses, manipulative colleagues, or other general jerks in your life. ― W Magazine
People are jerks. And there's plenty of evidence to prove it in the very blunt self-help book called "The A-hole Survival Guide," a scholarly source that teaches fed-up readers how to deal with co-workers, strangers and just about anyone who sucks. ― Moneyish
From the Inside Flap
'With cutting-edge research and real-life examples that are thought-provoking and often hilarious, thisis an indispensable resource'
Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project
'At last someone has provided clear steps for rejecting, 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 social media has only given rise to further incivility -- 40% of people have experienced harassment online.
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. 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.
From the Back Cover
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 social media has only given rise to further incivility -- 40% of people have experienced harassment online.
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. 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!
'With cutting-edge research and real-life examples that are thought-provoking and often hilarious, thisis an indispensable resource'
Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project
'At last someone has provided clear steps for rejecting, 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
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Portfolio Penguin
- Publication date : 12 Sept. 2017
- Edition : 1st
- Language : English
- Print length : 224 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0241298997
- ISBN-13 : 978-0241298992
- Item weight : 180 g
- Dimensions : 13.5 x 1.7 x 21.5 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: 571,056 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 520 in Stress
- 530 in Self Help Stress Management
- 2,008 in Popular Psychology
- Customer reviews:
About the author

Robert Sutton is a Stanford Professor, organizational researcher, and best-selling author. His seven management books include bestsellers The No A**hole Rule, Good Boss, Bad Boss, and (with Huggy Rao) Scaling Up Excellence. His latest book is The A**hole Survival Guide:How to Deal With People Who Treat You Like Dirt.
Sutton was named as one of 10 B-School All-Stars by BusinessWeek, described as professors who are influencing contemporary business thinking far beyond academia. Sutton is an IDEO Fellow and co-founder of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, Center for Work and and Stanford Design Institute (the d.school). His latest adventure at Stanford is the Designing Organizational Change project, which you can learn about at http://stvp.stanford.edu/doc. He has written over 150 academic and popular articles and chapters, and over 1000 blog posts. He often leads workshops and gives speeches about his books and is academic director of several Stanford executive programs including Customer-focused Innovation. Sutton tweets @work_matters. Visit www.bobsutton.net to learn more.
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Customers find the book very informative for their lives and appreciate its readability, describing it as both interesting and fun to read.
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Customers find the book very informative and useful for their lives, with one customer noting it provides clever tips for working environments.
"Interesting and well written book. The writer expresses practice ideas about working life...." Read more
"...The book is a survival guide and not an in-depth psychological analysis. Most of us are looking for how to come out unscathed in such encounters...." Read more
"Really enjoyed this book Good clever tips for working environment's Something I think every manager and business owner should read...." Read more
"A useful guide on how to cope with the hordes of morons and jerks often encountered during everyday situations, including but going beyond the..." Read more
Customers find the book interesting and fun to read.
"Interesting and well written book. The writer expresses practice ideas about working life...." Read more
"...A compelling read, pitched at a very appropriate level." Read more
"I wouldn't call it a guide but it's fun to read and it's full of real-life stories of people facing "tough" managers/colleagues/clients and offers..." Read more
"A good read. Everyone should read it." Read more
Top reviews from United Kingdom
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- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 March 2019Interesting and well written book. The writer expresses practice ideas about working life. Considering that everybody could bump into one of these creatures, this book will give one practical advise to deal with them.
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 September 2017The chances are high that you encounter difficult people at your work and social circles. Sometimes these difficult people overpower our positivity and drain our energy. Robert I Sutton takes the no holds barred approach and terms these with a vulgar slang starting with A. It serves two purposes. The first is that the title sends out a clear message to us on the contents of the book. The second goal is to shock and raise your interest level. I have not read any of Bob Sutton's previous books. As it is always good to refresh the techniques to deal with difficult people, I picked up the book. The book is a survival guide and not an in-depth psychological analysis. Most of us are looking for how to come out unscathed in such encounters. In this regard, the book is handy.
The book explains practical ways to detect, avoid and confront difficult people. There are chapters dedicated to each topic like detection, avoidance, and confrontation. After describing each of these techniques in detail, Bob Sutton summarizes these techniques into a list. When dealing with such people and situations, we just have to go back to this list. At the onset of the book, Bob Sutton establish the most important ground rule. Sometimes, we might be the problem while we are ignorant about we being the issue. We might think everyone else around as difficult, but it might be us who are difficult to everyone around us. So Bob Sutton suggest the following rule. Be quick to label yourself as the difficult person and be slow in labeling others.
With this in mind, I recommend you to read this book. After all, the workplace is where we spend most of our time. So it is essential to have healthy if not happy environment there. This book helps in building such a place. There are enough anecdotes and studies scattered in the book which you will be able to relate.
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 November 2019Really enjoyed this book
Good clever tips for working environment's
Something I think every manager and business owner should read.
So they don't employ toxic staff to there environment
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 September 2020An interesting concept but ultimately I was left disappointed as this book did not provide any strategy to survive in a toxic working environment. The solution is that where you work for an as whole employer you need an exit strategy as your physical and mental health will suffer the longer you remain there.
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 February 2024I am on a reading break from this humourous realistic title.
I bought 1 as a gift for someone else.
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 October 2017Bought this for my daughter who is encountering some A......S! so thought this would enlighten her. She loves it
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 31 January 2018Bad leadership provides much value, if not more than good leadership, as an essential lesson on "how not to do it". In this book, Sutton uses a range of anecdotes to illustrate just the surface of these "loopholes", and importantly lays out the basis for victims to develop their own toolkits for survival. A compelling read, pitched at a very appropriate level.
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 31 December 2021A true survival guide to deal with jerks at work. It gives me hope for the future of dealing with disrespectful people in the workplace.
Top reviews from other countries
- katgirlReviewed in Italy on 3 August 2018
4.0 out of 5 stars a good book to validate feelings but not a lot of solutions
this is a great and humour book to validate situations of workplace bullying but really, i did not find many solutions -- by the time a person is readying a book like this they have usually tried all the solutions mentioned. but getting the validation and finding humor is also important!
- EricaReviewed in Australia on 9 December 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars Great read
Essential reading if you have a toxic work colleauge.
-
Theo CamenzindReviewed in Germany on 8 November 2017
4.0 out of 5 stars Ein wichtiges Buch für unserer Gesellschaft
Prof. Sutton beschreibt ein leidiges Thema in unserer Gesellschaft.
Auf jeden Fall lesenswert.
Jeder kann zum Asshole werden. Jeder kann von Assholes betroffen sein.
Wenn Prof Sutton es schafft, ein Bewusstsein in Unternehmen dafür zu schaffen (und wirksame Massnahmen ergreifen) wäre es ein Schritt zu einer wesentlich besseren Gesellschaft mit mehr Lebensqualität.
- Ana VranesReviewed in Spain on 9 December 2023
3.0 out of 5 stars Ok but not what I was expecting
Not that insightful or helpful as I was expecting, but ok book
-
DeaReviewed in France on 24 January 2018
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Excellent livre, un vrai plaisir à lire pour se détendre en pleine période de charrette!
Certains passages son un peu longs mais c'est tout de même assez intéressant