Guys, don’t bother bringing doughnuts to work or volunteering to organize the office Christmas party.
A new study suggests that when it comes to salary, nice guys finish last.
Researchers found that ruder men earn about 18 per cent more – or $9,770 more annually – than people pleasers do, the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Nice guys are getting the shaft,” says study co-author Beth A. Livingston, an assistant professor of human-resource studies at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
The effect was less pronounced for ruder women, who earned about 5 per cent – or $1,828 – more than their congenial colleagues.
The findings are based on data collected over a 20-year period from a total of 10,000 workers representing a range of professions, salaries and ages. The study analyzed the results of three surveys that rated workers on various “agreeability” scales.
In addition, researchers gave 460 business students profiles of candidates for a fictional consultant position and asked who they would hire. Men who fit the description of “highly agreeable” were less likely to get the job.
Niceness may not fit social expectations of “masculine behavior,” authors surmised in the study, to be published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Also, chances are that more agreeable people do not play hardball in salary negotiations, Dr. Livingston points out.
“The problem is, many managers often don't realize they reward disagreeableness,” she told the Wall Street Journal.
Nevertheless, rudeness in the workplace likely affects productivity, according to a 2010 editorial in the British Medical Journal. The article cited psychological studies showing that cognitive skills are impaired not only in victims of rudeness but also in witnesses of uncivil behaviour.
But until managers stop giving churlish workers a raise, mean people will keep laughing all the way to the bank.
Have you seen rudeness rewarded at work?
