Problem: Executives don’t see assholes as assholes. They see ’em as top performers.

Saw that headline above over at Harvard Business Review just now. Rebecca Knight, who I believe works for INSIDER these days, is usually pretty good. The article itself, linked here, isn’t bad and actually has some examples of how to deal with a so-called “brilliant jerk,” which I believe is a term we’ve now attributed to Reed Hastings, origin-wise.

So while the article itself is good, here’s the problem: how does an executive look at a brilliant jerk? If the executive is self-aware, which is sadly pretty rare in most companies, they will see “Well, this guy or gal performs well, but they seem to be a general negative for the team, so maybe I should talk to them.” Most executives, who are harried and hurried and propped by a bunch of lieutenant enablers, can only see results and financial acronyms; it’s ostensibly all they know. As such, they look at an asshole and think “This person ships. He/she sells. I like it.”

It’s the same issue we have with burnout. Burnout is brutal, and very real. Many people experience it, and it’s probably why Netflix keeps having good quarters — because you get to the end of a brutish, burnt week and you just want to watch some stupid bullshit on your couch. However, the thing is, executives don’t see burnout as a “crisis.” If anything, they see it as the cost of doing business. Because what is work to them? It’s long nights, it’s late night emails, it’s “strategy,” it’s hustle, it’s beating rivals. If that stuff…