Peter Economy - Wait, Im Working With Who?!?: The Essential Guide to Dealing with Difficult Coworkers, Annoying Managers, and Other Toxic Personalities

This book is for those who aspire to be managers, who are new managers, or who want a refresher. The conversational tone makes the book easy to read, and it is great as a reference guide to keep on the shelf.

Booklist

A complete guide for training new managers or a refresher for established ones. Every person promoted to a management position should be given a copy of this informative guide.

Library Journal

This edition first published in 2021 by Career Press, an imprint of

Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

With offices at:

65 Parker Street, Suite 7

Newburyport, MA 01950

www.careerpress.com

www.redwheelweiser.com

Copyright 2021 by Peter Economy

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages

ISBN: 978-1-63265-185-3

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available upon request.

Cover design by Kathryn Sky-Peck

Cover illustration by iStock

Interior by Maureen Forys, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

Typeset in Crimson Pro, Trade Gothic, and Amatic

Printed in the United States of America

IBI

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www.redwheelweiser.com/newsletter

TO DANDI

W ho hasn't had to deal with a jerk at work? Whether it's a toxic team member who loves nothing better than to suck the life and excitement out of her colleagues, or a bad boss who causes his employees to constantly dream of telling him to Take this job and shove it! or the difficult coworker who isn't happy unless the office is filled with mayhem and drama, we've all had to deal with people on the job we would rather not.

And more than just an annoyance for the people around them, jerks create all kinds of problems for the organizations in which they work. Research shows, for example, that three out of four employees say that dealing with their boss is the worst and most stressful part of their job, and two-thirds say they would happily take a new boss over a pay raise.

Why? In many cases because they are tired of working for and with a bunch of jerks.

So, if you can't get these mean, toxic, and lazy people out of your life (you probably need that job, after all, with the paycheck every two weeks and healthcare and other benefits), what can you do to neutralize the negative effect they have on you and your coworkers? Fortunately, the answer to that question is plenty!

This book is the essential guide to identifying and dealing with jerks at work, including bad bosses, troublemaking coworkers, lazy and time-sucking team members, and toxic people of all sorts. As you'll soon see, this book is divided into two parts.

The first part considers the negative impact that jerks have on the workplacethe productivity lost, the employees who quit, the people whose hopes are forever tarnishedand a catalog of sixteen specific species of jerks at work. I suspect that you'll immediately recognize every single one of these sixteen different kinds of jerks.

The second part focuses on eight strategies for dealing with jerks at workwhether you're an employee or a manager. The information and strategies in these chapters will be immediately actionable and profoundly helpfulproviding you with the tools you need to counter the jerks in your workplace and anywhere else you might encounter them (believe methey're everywhere).

Based on proven-effective techniques and the latest research and advice of workplace experts, Wait, I'm Working with Who?!? provides you with detailed and unambiguous advice on how to deal with and neutralize the negative people in your work life. And, as a special bonus, the advice in this book is just as applicable and effective for life outside of work as it is in it, so you're really getting two books in one.

One note: I have created a series of case studies throughout the book that illustrate common situations we all find ourselves in with toxic people at work. While drawn from my personal experience, they are completely fictional.

My hope is that you'll learn strategies for dealing with toxic people in your lifewherever you may find them. And that, if you're sometimes a jerk at work, you'll recognize that fact and find less-toxic ways to behave. Awareness is a powerful thing, and once you see the toxic people in your life for who they truly are, you can neutralize the impact they have on you and on the people around you.

So, it's time to get to work.

I am thankful for all the difficult
people in my life.
They have shown me exactly
who I don't want to be.

ANONYMOUS

T aking on the jerks at workwhether you're an employee, supervisor, manager, or executiverequires first gaining an understanding of the true extent of the problem and its negative effects on you, and then being able to identify the most common jerks in your organization. In this Part, we'll explore the negative impact toxic people have on the workplace and the most common jerks you're likely to encounter on the job. Topics include:

• Revealing the tremendous negative impact of jerks at work
• Understanding the problem of bad bosses
• Cataloging the sixteen most common types of jerks at workwho they are, what they do, and how to identify them
• Assessing the toxicity of coworkersand yourself

When dealing with people, remember you are
not dealing with creatures of logic,
but creatures of emotion.

DALE CARNEGIE

I 'm sure all of us have a work story that goes something like this...

It was my first day at a new job. I was excited, wide-eyed, and optimistic about the opportunity and the super impressive people I was certain I would be working with. Dressed in a blue blazer, a button-down shirt, and khakis, I jubilantly walked into the office and introduced myself to everyone I passed by. My boss led me to my new office, and as I got settled in and read through the new employee pamphlet (actually, more like a book than a pamphlet), I heard a voice from the doorway say, Hi.

I turned around, and the woman who worked a few offices down the hall was grinning at me as she introduced herself. Let's call her Erica. She seemed nice and made me feel welcomed, which were two things any new employee could ever ask for. Maybe she could be my new work lunch buddy, I thought to myself. Erica suggested we go to her office to talk, and we did just thatmaking the short walk down the hall.

As I settled into a guest chair, I couldn't help but catch a glimpse of Erica's computer screen, which had what appeared to be some random website that had nothing to do with work. I didn't think much of it until I visited later and saw the same thing. Every time I caught a glimpse of what Erica was doing, it never appeared to be work related. During staff meetings, our boss would check in with Erica on an assignment and Erica would pretend that she was tirelessly working on it. She would even go so far as to make up the excuse that It's such a big task for just one person to complete!