I first heard about the \u201cJerk\u201d effect during a verbal presentation at a conference. Robert Sutton apparently did a study and found that for every \u201cjerk\u201d in your organization, they are costing you $160K of productivity and profits each year. ((Sutton, Robert. \u201cThe No Asshole Rule.\u201d Note \u2013 I have not read this, but was told this was where the reference came from.)) It\u2019s incredible that you could be paying a manager who is actually costing you money, but we all have experiences with leadership where we\u2019ve wondered \u201cHow did they get that far in their careers? They are terrible!\u201d At the same time, these people seem to be available in abundance.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, if the cost of a jerk is $160K, you can quickly figure out that the toll is really extracted in terms of employee engagement and productivity. These have cascading downstream effects as well. Your decrease in productivity is only the first step as decreases in engagement are going to lead to turnover and increased hiring costs. This increase in turnover also means ramp-up time for new employees and a decrease in productivity for projects they should be associated with. I\u2019m not sure that $160K is the total cost, in fact I think it\u2019s low.<\/p>\n
McKinsey also picked up this concept and wrote about it in their 2007 Number 2 issue.<\/p>\n
The human damage done by that kind of encounter is well documented\u2014especially the harm that superiors do to their subordinates. Bennett Tepper studied abusive supervision in a representative study of 712 employees in a midwestern city. He asked them if their bosses had engaged in abusive behavior, including ridicule, put-downs, and the silent treatment\u2014demeaning acts that drive people out of organizations and sap the effectiveness of those who remain. A six-month follow-up found that employees with abusive supervisors quit their jobs at accelerated rates. Those still trapped felt less committed to their employers and experienced less satisfaction from work and life, as well as heightened anxiety, depression, and burnout. Dozens of other studies have uncovered similar findings; the victims report reduced levels of job satisfaction, productivity, concentration, and mental and physical health. ((Sutton, Robert. “Building the civilized workplace.” McKinsey Quarterly. 2007, Number 2.))<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
While I hate the idea that HR is still the \u201cbabysitter\u201d of the organization, we are the ones who get the complaints about other employees. Part of creating a talented workforce and maintaining our competitive edge is the understanding that it\u2019s not just talent and competencies you have to look after. Your culture and brand are major parts of the workforce equation and having the \u201cright people\u201d also means ensuring your employees fit the culture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I first heard about the \u201cJerk\u201d effect during a verbal presentation at a conference. Robert Sutton apparently did a study and found that for every \u201cjerk\u201d in your organization, they are costing you $160K of productivity and profits each year….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21,10,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-branding","category-engagement","category-strategies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}