Jerks at Work: Toxic Coworkers and What to do About Them

Description

A fun guide to understanding and dealing with a universal workplace problem - difficult colleagues - based on original research by Tessa West, Associate Professor of Psychology at New York University. Want to get those difficult colleagues off your back and restore your sanity? NYU psychology professor Tessa West shows you how. Have you ever watched a colleague charm the pants off management while showing a competitive, Machiavellian side to the lower ranks? They don't hesitate to throw peers under the bus, but their boss is oblivious to their bad behaviour. What about a constantly interrupting colleague? Or an over-bearing manager? While these jerks stress us out in small ways throughout the day, they aren't technically breaking any rules, so we're expected just to put up with them. Until now. Tessa West has helped thousands of people resolve their most pressing workplace issues. And now she draws on a decade of original research to profile classic workplace archetypes, including the Gaslighter, the Bulldozer, the Credit-Stealer, the Neglecter, and the Micromanager, giving advice to anyone who's ever hidden in the bathroom to cry at work. She digs deep into the inner workings of each bad apple, exploring their motivations and insecurities, and offers clever strategies for stopping each type of jerk in their tracks. Know a Jerk at Work? This proactive approach reveals the single, most effective way to achieve emotional wellbeing at work.

Tessa West is an Associate Professor of Psychology at New York University. A leading expert on interpersonal interaction and communication, and quantitative analysis and statistics, her work has been covered in the New York Times, The Guardian, the WSJ, TIME, the Huffington Post and The Globe and Mail. Her experiences as a rising leader in the world of academia - often as the only woman, and youngest person in the role by a magnitude of decades - have given her a unique perspective on jerks at work. She regularly gives talks to global organisations including Capital One, KPMG, Gilead and Pfizer, to help employees improve their relationships.

Tessa West's strategies can help anyone reduce the impact of [a work jerk's] behaviour * The Financial Times * Who doesn't want to know how to manage the other idiots better? Or at least not murder them. This is the office survival guide I wish I'd read when I first started work. It's never too late to be a jerk whisperer. Essential reading. * Viv Groskop, author of How to Own the Room * This book provides the key to working smarter, better and happier, no matter who you're working with. * Nir Eyal, author of Hooked and Indistractable * Most of your happiness at work is based on personal relationships. Being able to manage those relationships when things get difficult is key to your success at work - and in life. Jerks at Work is a practical and engaging set of tools. Buy it. * Scott Galloway, author of The Four * Reading Jerks at Work is like listening to a real person who is smart, warm, and funny, and who I'd like to have a glass of wine with. That's unusual for any business or self-help author to achieve-from a scientist it's practically a miracle. This book basically has it all. I'm going to make it mandatory reading for everyone on my team. We all need this book. * Heidi Grant, PhD, author of Nine Things Successful People Do Differently *