Would you fire your top contributor — someone with a deep understanding of your product’s architecture and a ton of domain-specific knowledge? Jonathan Solórzano-Hamilton writes on the freeCodeCamp blog about this exact scenario…

“You will never be able to understand any of what I’ve created. I am Albert F#@$ing Einstein and you are all monkeys scrabbling in the dirt.”

He declared this in front of the product design team, developers, management, and pre-launch customers. One of our project sponsors had the temerity to ask when the problem crippling our product would be fixed.

No one gets a pass on being a jerk. I personally subscribe to the “no asshole rule,” and do my best to purge the assholes as soon as possible. The sooner the better, for everyone.

Have you heard of the book on the subject? Here’s why Robert Sutton wrote ‘The No Asshole Rule’