{"id":113715,"date":"2020-07-15T15:34:04","date_gmt":"2020-07-15T20:34:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=113715"},"modified":"2026-09-12T20:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T01:20:09","slug":"podcast-627-how-to-deal-with-jerks-bullies-tyrants-and-trolls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/social\/social-skills\/podcast-627-how-to-deal-with-jerks-bullies-tyrants-and-trolls\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast #627: How to Deal With Jerks, Bullies, Tyrants, and Trolls"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There are some people in life who are more than unpleasant, more than annoying. They&#8217;re real, genuine a**holes.<\/p>\n<p>My guest today has written the preeminent field guides to identifying, dealing with, and avoiding all of life&#8217;s&nbsp;jerks, bullies, tyrants, and trolls: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B000OT8GV2\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B000OT8GV2&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=stucosuccess&amp;linkId=FSXA3GZUT5SFDAZ4\"><em>The No Asshole Rule<\/em><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B01MU0FL7M\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B01MU0FL7M&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=stucosuccess&amp;linkId=FSXA3GZUT5SFDAZ4\"><em>The Asshole Survival Guide<\/em><\/a>. His name is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bobsutton.net\/\">Bob Sutton<\/a>, he&#8217;s a Stanford professor of organization and management, and we begin our conversation together with how Bob defines what makes an a-hole an a-hole, what causes their jerkiness, and the costs of having such disagreeable&nbsp;people as part of an organization. We then get into the circumstances of when being a jerk yourself can actually be advantageous. We then turn to how to deal with the jerks in your own life, including distancing yourself from them, deciding you&#8217;re going to be better than them, and imagining you&#8217;re a jerk collector encountering a new species of jerk. Bob explains smart ways to fight back against jerks, and gets into the wisdom of documenting their jerkiness, why it&#8217;s occasionally helpful to take an aggressive stand, and how even Steve Jobs learned how to be less of an a-hole. We end our conversation with how to build a jerk-free workplace.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are some people in life who are more than unpleasant, more than annoying. They&#8217;re real, genuine a**holes. My guest today has written the preeminent field guides to identifying, dealing with, and avoiding all of life&#8217;s&nbsp;jerks, bullies, tyrants, and trolls: The No Asshole Rule and The Asshole Survival Guide. His name is Bob Sutton, he&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":195053,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[156,42379,42293],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-podcast","category-social","category-social-skills"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/627-538x280.png","medium_large":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/627-768x432.png","aom":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/627-372x230.png","reactor-320":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/627-320x180.png","reactor-640":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/627-640x360.png"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.4 (Yoast SEO v28.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How to Deal With A**holes in Work and in Life | Art of Manliness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There are some people in life who are more than unpleasant, more than annoying. They&#039;re real, genuine a**holes. Here&#039;s how to deal with them.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/social\/social-skills\/podcast-627-how-to-deal-with-jerks-bullies-tyrants-and-trolls\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Podcast #627: How to Deal With Jerks, Bullies, Tyrants, and Trolls | The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There are some people in life who are more than unpleasant, more than annoying. They&#039;re real, genuine a**holes. Here&#039;s how to deal with them.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/social\/social-skills\/podcast-627-how-to-deal-with-jerks-bullies-tyrants-and-trolls\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-07-15T20:34:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-09-13T01:20:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/627.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/social\\\/social-skills\\\/podcast-627-how-to-deal-with-jerks-bullies-tyrants-and-trolls\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/social\\\/social-skills\\\/podcast-627-how-to-deal-with-jerks-bullies-tyrants-and-trolls\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Brett\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/84a51044fb965564cde35d18f7e0a832\"},\"headline\":\"Podcast #627: How to Deal With Jerks, Bullies, Tyrants, and Trolls\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-07-15T20:34:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-09-13T01:20:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/social\\\/social-skills\\\/podcast-627-how-to-deal-with-jerks-bullies-tyrants-and-trolls\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":222,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/social\\\/social-skills\\\/podcast-627-how-to-deal-with-jerks-bullies-tyrants-and-trolls\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/beta.artofmanliness.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/07\\\/627.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Podcast\",\"Social\",\"Social Skills\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2020\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/beta.artofmanliness.com\\\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/social\\\/social-skills\\\/podcast-627-how-to-deal-with-jerks-bullies-tyrants-and-trolls\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/social\\\/social-skills\\\/podcast-627-how-to-deal-with-jerks-bullies-tyrants-and-trolls\\\/\",\"name\":\"How to Deal With A**holes in Work and in Life | Art of Manliness\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/social\\\/social-skills\\\/podcast-627-how-to-deal-with-jerks-bullies-tyrants-and-trolls\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/social\\\/social-skills\\\/podcast-627-how-to-deal-with-jerks-bullies-tyrants-and-trolls\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/beta.artofmanliness.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/07\\\/627.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-07-15T20:34:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-09-13T01:20:09+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/84a51044fb965564cde35d18f7e0a832\"},\"description\":\"There are some people in life who are more than unpleasant, more than annoying. 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