When Smart People Work for Dumb Bosses : How to Survive in a Crazy and Dysfunctional Workplace

Rating:
Summary: Case studies: it's all up to you.
Review: A book is as good as the lessons you learn from it. So why should you shell out your hard-earned money to read about other people's bad experiences in the workplace? Well, you SHOULDN'T. But if you decide to do it because you WANT to, you might learn that:

1. Life can hit you hard, and it probably will, no matter how good you are on the job, so don't expect to be any different.
2. Other people have had experiences similar to yours, so you get to find out you're not alone (Gabba-gabba we accept you... gabba-gabba one of us).
3.You can compare your situation to those of others and maybe feel a little better--or a little worse.
4. There are no victims, only participants. By reading other people's stories you have a better chance of becoming a consensual participant, or getting the hell out of a sick situation.
5. It's better to read a book that might shed some light on your situation, than to actually whine about it in front of people. There being so many people dispensing advice, you can at least ignore whatever the hell the Lundins tell you and make up your own mind.
6. Yes, you can get hurt on the job, even if you're not a blue-collar worker, but if you let these situations get to you, you _may_ become bitter and even volunteer your experience for the Lundins' next book.
7. It is not wise to expect to read the solution to your problems in ANY book, so no matter what the Lundins learned --or didn't learn-- from all those interviews, it's up to you to come to ANY conclusions and devise your own survival strategy. No book can tell you how to do that--this one certainly doesn't.

So, the negative reviews are partially right. For instance, the "lessons" throughout the book are not really lessons.
However, for me, it was very comforting to have this book around when I needed it, even if it didn't have all the answers. And as a manager, it provided me with a good insight into the perspectives of the people I manage. So it's not all good, but hopefully that shouldn't stop you from benefiting from it.

Rating:
Summary: Is there life after the Peter Principle?
Review: Back in the '60s Dr. Laurence Peter discovered the Peter Principle: "in a hierarchy everyone rises to his/her level of incompetence". What made it so revolutionary is that it explained why everything is so screwed up in the business world. It's being run by incompetents. (As if you hadn't noticed.) Now, over three decades later the Lundins have documented the devestating impact these "dumb bosses" have on the workplace. If you now work or have worked for an insensitve, ego driven, individual you need no further explanation of what we're talking about.

But, what's best about this book is that the Lundins offer strategies for survival. Bill Lundin says dumb bossess are here to stay, and unfortunately, he's right. It's the old Peter Principle. Now at least there are some ideas of how to get through the day if you work for an incompetent manager. This is a great read for those whose work life is quietly frustrating and an even better read for managers brave enough to want to discover if they're really as smart as they think they are.

Shel Newman

President-Elect, Chicago Chapter, American Society for Training and Development

[e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: BULLIES - FAMILY / WORKPLACE / SCHOOL / NEIGHBORHOOD
Review: Excellent compliments to this book are: Emotional Blackmail: When People in Your Life Use Fear, Obligation and Guilt to Manipulate You by Susan Forward and Donna Frazier; Why Is It Always About You?: The Seven Deadly Sins of Narcissism by Sandy Hotchkiss and James Masterson; The Angry Heart: Overcoming Borderline and Addictive Disorders by Joseph Santoro and Ronald Cohen; The Narcissistic Family: Diagnosis and Treatment by Stephanie Donaldson-Pressman and Robert Pressman; Understanding the Borderline Mother: Helping Her Children Transcend the Intense, Unpredictable and Volatile Relationship by Christine Ann Lawson; Living with the Passive-Aggressive Man by Scott Wetzler; Malignant Self Love: Narcissism Revisited by Sam Vaknin and Lidija Rangelovska (Editor); Children of the Self-Absorbed: A Grown-Up's Guide to Getting Over Narcissistic Parents by Nina Brown; Treating Attachment Disorders: From Theory to Therapy by Karl Heinz Brisch and Kenneth Kronenberg; Toxic Coworkers: How to Deal with Dysfunctional People on the Job by Alan Cavaiola and Neil Lavender; Bully in Sight: How to Predict, Resist, Challenge and Combat Workplace Bullies by Tim Field.

And if you want to pursue the subject even further, you may be interested in reading The Narcissistic / Borderline Couple: A Psychoanalytic Perspective On Marital Treatment; Parenting with Love and Logic: Teaching Children Responsibility by Jim Fay and Foster Cline.