Think you’re NOT the office asshole? Then I would bet you actually are.

From here, and pretty amazing:

Fifty years ago, the Austrian-born organizational psychologist Fred Fiedler made a fascinating discovery. He administered a survey to employees asking them to describe their “least-preferred coworker” on a series of scales from “hostile” to “supportive” and “insincere” to “sincere,” for example. Some people derided their least-liked colleague with every harsh adjective they were offered — while others offered a more nuanced and tempered view. The surprise was that Fielder found that the magnitude of the criticism had more to say about the respondent than their coworker. To this day, the Least-Preferred Coworker instrument is a reliable way of inviting prickly professionals to unwittingly self-identify as those who are most difficult to get along with.

Trapped ’em. But also: a large problem with work as a whole.

How we structure work makes almost no sense

Here’s what I mean. Most companies, as they grow, come to resemble this:

• Lots of hierarchy
• Misaligned incentives
• A constant focus on “stakeholders” so those with power get their ass kissed all day
• Attempting to assume everything is…