The Times recently presented extracts from the latest book by Robert Sutton, a professor of management science. His new theory is called “The No A**hole Rule”.*

Apparently, so the new theory goes, it’s important at work to:

‘distinguish people who are having a bad day or a bad moment (”temporary a**holes”) from persistent nasty and destructive jerks (”certified a**holes”).’

I offer this up partly for your amusement, but also with a cynical view that it could prove useful when categorising team members on some proposal efforts!

*The newspaper uses asterisks throughout the article - then, oddly, quotes the book’s title in full. I’ve gone for the tamer version, to spare the blushes of our more delicate readers!