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We’ve all worked with someone who seems to be made of Teflon. They bend the rules to their liking (come in late, leave early), act boorishly to others, take credit where it isn’t due or don’t pull their own weight. Yet, they never seem to suffer repercussions. In fact, sometimes they’re even rewarded for flouting the rules. It’s enough to make a rule-abiding employee feel like the Prodigal Son’s disgruntled younger brother.
If you’ve started to suspect being a jerk is actually a viable strategy to get ahead, a recent piece from The Atlantic isn’t going to assuage your fears. Jerry Useem sifts through a large volume of research and expert perspectives to confirm that being a jerk (in specific contexts) does yield rewards . People who purposefully transgress social and organizational norms are seen as more powerful and, in many cases, compensated accordingly. Those who convince others their rule-breaking is for the greater good also get a pass. This finding may help to explain Sepp Blatter's re-election as FIFA's president at the moment when the organization has been leveled by a massive corruption scandal. As The Guardian reports it, Blatter's campaign was textbook munificent jerk behavior:
"Blatter angrily said last month that his 17 years at as Fifa president should stand as his manifesto when he defended his refusal to discuss the future. But every other video, presentation or contribution from the stage or the floor were effectively adverts for Blatter and the Fifa model of using a portion of its $5.7bn sponsorship and broadcasting revenues to redistribute to development projects around the world. Inside the hall football was endlessly 'a bridge for peace' or a vehicle for hope, the solution to everything from racism to Ebola. Peace could be brought to the Middle East through a handshake."
A jerk is one thing, but a jerk who increases FIFA’s development aid to Africa forty-fold during his tenure inspires a grudging loyalty.
Another fascinating piece of evidence to bolster the “rule breakers get rewarded” argument comes from the Harvard Business Review. Erin Reid discusses her research on a global consulting firm and the differences in how male consultants navigated the firm’s expectations that they work long hours and be at clients’ beck and call. Those men who asked the company for more flexible work arrangements were seen as less committed to their jobs and penalized with a lack of advancement. Those who simply worked the system to their advantage were still able to “pass” as go-getters and were rewarded accordingly. Reid discusses the example of Lloyd:
“One man who passed was Lloyd (a pseudonym), a Senior Manager. Lloyd was deeply skeptical about the necessity of being an ideal worker, and was unwilling to fully comply with this expectation. He described to me how, by using local clients, telecommuting, and controlling information about his whereabouts, he found ways to work and travel less, without being found out. He told me: ‘I skied five days last week. I took calls in the morning and in the evening but I was able to be there for my son when he needed me to be, and I was able to ski five days in a row.’ He clarified that these were work days, not vacation days.”
Lloyd was promoted to partner that same year.
What these consultants and the boorish colleagues you suffered have that others don’t is a canny ability to read people and situations. They know which rules are bendable and which aren’t. For example, the savvy consultants have sussed out that being in the office for X hours a week is not as important to the company as keeping clients satisfied and if they do the latter, they can play around with the former. Successful rule breakers also tend to be people who offer a unique value to their employers that makes up for their downsides. Our culture is rife with examples of unpleasant people who are valorized within their fields or given a pass on toxic behavior because they were able to drive ratings, wins or revenue. In fact, part of our simmering resentment for jerks is fueled by envy that they get away with things we don’t dare try or a fear that we aren’t “special enough” to be able to successfully take the risks they do.
At a cultural level, it makes sense for us to secretly admire those who break rules even as we resent them , because, well, American exists because of some rule-breaking colonists. Standing up to ‘The Man’ (or at least fantasizing about it) and doing things your own way is a hallmark of our movies, literature and music — rebellion against authority is part of our political and artistic DNA. As our trust in and respect for institutions falls and fetishization of increasing productivity while decreasing effort across all facets of our lives grows, expect being a jerk to go from the exception to the norm. In fact, when it comes to rule-breaking, most of us are already off to a good start.
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