too nice to be successful

Being sympathetic, kind, co-operative and warm may lower men’s likelihood of becoming bosses, according to a study which found a strong link between personality type and jobs.

One of the authors of the research concluded that "people who aren't very nice are more likely to become managers."

We all knew this, but it's nice to have it scientifically confirmed. And it explains why Dances Etc and myself are the only folk from our school who managed to avoid success, with the result that we could spend yesterday morning at a museum, and all yesterday afternoon at the pool. For a while, we had the whole indoor and outdoor pools to ourselves. There were just a few folk loafing in the sauna and the scalding in the steam room.

A few hours later, well knackered from swimming and poached from the sauna, we sat at the poolside cafe and had hot drinks and handmade cookies, gassing while the pool filled up with mums, kids and office workers. After his second coffee, Dances's natural talkativeness went right off the scale, like speeding. At one point he was explaining, with mimed actions, the merits of different ways of killing yourself. I noticed people staring, at the point where he was describing how to slit your own throat and how far the blood would spurt.

Dances trying to stand upright after the steam room