Sep 4, 2011

Rude People Earn More

Posted by Wendy Weber

A recent study entitled “Do Nice Guys-And Gals-Really Finish Last?” finds that agreeable workers earn significantly lower incomes than less agreeable ones.

Three researchers analyzed data from three different surveys, which sampled roughly 10,000 workers across a variety of professions, salaries and ages. The study measured the notion of “agreeableness” in different ways, and concluded that men who measured below average on agreeableness earned about 18% more than more agreeable men. Less agreeable women earned about 5% more than their agreeable counterparts.

I would be interested in learning more about what it means to be “agreeable” in the workplace. I once had a boss that encouraged me to challenge him, invoking Winston Churchill’s opinion that, “If two people agree on everything, one of them is unnecessary”. Could it be that employees brave enough to challenge pervasive corporate thinking are deemed disagreeable? It’s true that they don’t agree with others. But is that a bad thing?

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