Asshole Driven Development

I’ve recently stumbled upon a book called “Say no to assholes” (Link to blog post in Czech) and it immediately reminded me of my past job. I don’t want to slander anyone, I just want to share it as a warning and encouragement. I worked there for about a year, which is enough time to know how Asshole Driven Development works. Basically there is an asshole in the leading position demotivating everyone. What is surprising about it is that although employees complain every day, lot of them stays in the company. They are under motivated, pretending to work and their boss is pretending to pay them. To compensate for stupid work condition they make small mischievousness. No blame on them. I did the same, and some of things we did was lot of fun :).

What surprised me the most that even after a year situation is almost the same. People are leaving at a pace about one/two people per month (and newbies are hired instead). I wonder why the number of people leaving is not higher? Is it fear of being unemployed? Or is it enough to clear your head by complaining? Why is it that we get used to something we don’t like? Tomas Hajzler says that human mind has the strange feature that if something is happening for long enough it will accept it as normal. That probably explain why so much people work in a job they don’t love for 10 years in a row, or why a quarrelling couple stays together for so long, or why we think that some things “have always been this way“.

Nothing has always been the way it is. There was some process that lead to it. And there is always the possibility to change it to something else. First make sure that you not the cause of your current problems (which is very often the case), and then try to change things around you. If it is not possible, don’t complain but leave. Leave and go someplace else. Meet new people, join new company, get some fresh air 🙂