Stanford professor and author
Bob Sutton recently published
The Asshole Survival Guide. The fact that there is a complete series of books on surviving assholes underscores how toxic our work environments have become.
This is especially true in Silicon Valley's high tech environment. Creating technology requires unique abilities and people possessing them are often deluded into believing that they can get away with being assholes, that they are indispensible to the company. The truth is, nobody is indispensible, and life is too short to work for assholes.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, are those folks who believe that just because they are polite and nice the standards should be relaxed for them. In today's hyper competitive environment such people are a huge liability.
The truth we believe, is somewhere in the middle. Corporate culture is usually defined by how the company balances between the two extremes, namely polite incompetence and abrasive competence.