I had to chuckle when I noticed that there was a “But What About Brilliant Jerks?” slide in Netflix’s leaked employee/culture documents, and totally nod re: their official policy of “Some companies tolerate them, but for us, the cost to teamwork is too high.” There’s been a lot written lately about ‘brilliant jerks’ in books like ‘The No Asshole Rule’, and it’s an interesting paradox to be dealing with at a work place, certainly one I have little experience with.

Some say Steve Jobs is a ‘brilliant jerk’, but in my opinion he’s just too relentless in his pursuit of making Apple the best company that ever existed. Relentlessness and focus, to clarify, may seem like it’s jerk-like behaviour, but I think it’s far from it.

See, a jerk is a jerk in all aspects of his life. Whether he’s stopping you at the airport security check-in because of your name or refusing to pay for something you sold to him, hints of selfishness and arrogance and every bad human trait can be noticed if you look carefully.

But people like Steve Jobs? I don’t think they would care outside of Apple, where you are legally their employee and legally working under them and legally obliged to listen to their commands, what you do or what your background is or what you do to them. Infact, they might actually be the nicest people alive, as this video proves in Steve Jobs’ case.

Put otherwise, a jerk would make your life hell in any and every situation. A Steve Jobs wouldn’t care about your life unless you’re located under the property of 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, or directly dealing with Apple because you’re the network iPhone is running on or your content sells on iTunes and you’re trying to get the last penny you can.

That said, a focused and relentless employee or manager should be tolerated at all workplaces, but a jerk should be kicked out of each one. People should be as driven as they like, but not at the cost of others.