Hey Cloe,

I will be another support on the don’t-be-an-asshole side.

I don’t know if you’ve heard of Dan Aierly’s book Predictably Irrational. One of the chapters talks about two main forces that drive people to do work: market norms and social norms.

Market norms kick in when money is the topic of the conversation. Money is about fair exchange. You give people an amount of money, they work diligently for you for 40 hours each week.

Social norms have a different effect. It’s the inner force that makes someone hold the door open for the next person, or help a friend move, or work the twice the hours when the crunch time comes without a whim of thought to ask for more money.

I say all this because I’m working at a place when the effect of social norms is very clear. I have some colleagues that aren’t really passionate about their jobs, but they work just as happily because they love the people around them. And that’s why many companies try so hard to provide as good working environment as possible.

As you can see, “being an ass-hole” will invariably put people in the realm of market norms. If the money runs out, so do the people.

Anyway, I really recommend the book. It explains this idea much better than I could, and with many supporting experiments.