Managing Difficult People: A Survival Guide for Handling
Any Employee
Marilyn Pincus
Adams Media Corp.
They are everywhere, even at work. Especially at work. They are the
Complainer, the Knowit- All, the Manipulator, the Procrastinator,
and many others. As a co-worker you might have just had to tolerate
them. As a learning executive you might be called on to deal with
them via the power of learning. (That's a fancy way of saying that
the someone has dumped the problem on you.) "You can learn how to
handle problem employees three ways: figure it out for yourself,
get a great mentor, or read this book," writes an online review of
this book. "Designed primarily for managers rather than human
resources professionals, it's a handy guide to different problem
personalities." As the book's publisher notes: "The last thing you
need is an unruly employee whose chronic "negaholic" attitude
upsets your office applecart and affects the morale of your entire
staff."
Since Strangling Isn't an Option
Sandra A. Crowe
Penguin Group (USA)
It seems that even among readers of advice books there are those
who love them and others who just want to heap criticism on them.
This book appears to have big fans and big haters, if online
reviews are any indication. One reviewer was nice enough to
describe it as: "A lighthearted, anger-free approach to a
frustrating problem." Of course, that was among reviews provided by
the book's publisher. Another reviewer was less cheerful when she
wrote: "This is another book in a seemingly unending line of books
cranked out by psychologists and self-styled psychologists that
only really succeeds in one thing: describing what it is to be
human and LABELING IT."
Thank You for Being Such a Pain: Spiritual Guidance for
Dealing with Difficult People
Mark I. Rosen
Random House
"Some people really are bad people," this book's author told The
New York Times. "But I don't think the percentage is as high as
people think it is." He added that most people fall into the
category of "incompetent or oblivious." One has to wonder: is that
some sort of improvement? Does the fact that co-workers are rude,
insipid, selfish, or otherwise maladjusted without being aware of
it somehow make it easier on the rest of us? If, as the experts
suggest, we can't do anything about people who bother us, this book
may help us control our own responses.
Take the Bully by the Horns: Stop Unethical, Uncooperative,
or Unpleasant People from Running and Ruining Your Life
Sam Horn
St. Martin's Press
"The subtitle of Horn's treatise indicates just how much
psychological ground he manages to cover in this encouraging
how-to. Not just for kids on the playground anymore, bullying can
have serious consequences for adults: violence, lawsuits, abuse,
and even death," writes Publishers Weekly. This book might be just
a tad too flip to use as a guide in a difficult workplace
situation. Horn's sometimes too-cute writing ("Stop paying the
price of nice" and "Savior self from martyrs and guilt-mongers,"
for example) might make you want to toss this book at the
troublemaker, as opposed to talking with him or her.