What's more, the contagiousness aspect isn't the only issue here. Jerks tend to cause problems for organisations for other reasons too. Such as:
1. They scare away a lot of competent workers, since many smart and talented employees won't want to be stuck working alongside an asshole, regardless of how 'talented' they might be. And given that the best employees tend to have a plethora of options for where to work, and well... you can guess how that affects the talent remaining.
2. They discourage newer and less experienced employees from learning/improving, and instead encourage them to leave. But folks who aren't necessarily the most talented developers now can very much turn into such with the right environment and incentives, which these types of people don't provide.
There really aren't any benefits to keeping around jerks, and a whole lot more downsides than people think.
1. They scare away a lot of competent workers, since many smart and talented employees won't want to be stuck working alongside an asshole, regardless of how 'talented' they might be. And given that the best employees tend to have a plethora of options for where to work, and well... you can guess how that affects the talent remaining.
2. They discourage newer and less experienced employees from learning/improving, and instead encourage them to leave. But folks who aren't necessarily the most talented developers now can very much turn into such with the right environment and incentives, which these types of people don't provide.
There really aren't any benefits to keeping around jerks, and a whole lot more downsides than people think.