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Jerks at Work
Book

Jerks at Work

How to Deal with People Problems and Problem People

Ken Lloyd
Career Press, 1999
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Editorial Rating

6

Qualities

  • Applicable

Recommendation

Finally, a book that honestly identifies and analyzes that prolific workplace species - the jerk. Organized by situation and topic, Jerks at Work presents the answers to at least 200 jerk-related questions from real-life readers that were originally published in author Ken Lloyd’s syndicated On the Job column. The book is psychologically sound, excruciatingly direct, extremely funny and, above all, actually helpful. Lloyd does a splendid job of covering all the bases and every kind of jerk, from the boardroom to the mailroom. getAbstract highly recommends this book to everyone, because every company has at least one jerk.

Summary

The Ubiquitous Jerk

Jerks are found from the first contact in the employment process to the last day on the job, from the lowest rung to the executive office. Jerks are at the core of a multitude of problems at the workplace and, every day, employees at all levels wonder how to deal with them.

In answering real questions from real employees who have real problems with the real jerks they must work with, many issues fall under the broad category of "all in a day’s work." These questions were originally published (along with their answers) in the weekly advice column, On the Job, which runs in the Los Angeles Daily News and many papers across the U.S. and Canada.

Managers Who Just Don’t Get It

The best managers understand that managing is all about people skills, but those great managers are few and far between. Many managers take the authoritarian approach, which, in the long run, doesn’t work. It only destroys employees’ drive, motivation, commitment, productivity and morale. This is usually "the approach of choice" for jerks.

What should you do about a manager who changes moods numerous times during the day, so you don’t know whether the next moment...

About the Author

Kenneth L. Lloyd, Ph.D., is an organizational development consultant who works with a wide range of companies in organizational design, change and communication. He has authored several books, and his nationally syndicated workplace advice column, On the Job appears in newspapers across the United States and Canada.

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