Good Boss, Bad Boss

September 6, 2010
Want to be a better boss? Unaware that you're a terrible one? Sutton (The No Asshole Rule) is here to help. The cost of callous and cruel superiors is considerable: employees with an abusive boss are more likely to work slowly, make deliberate errors, and even suffer heart attacks. With examples from such diverse workplaces as Pixar and Anchor Steam brewery, Sutton reveals how the best bosses take diverse and intertwined steps to create effective and humane workplaces, and offers tips on taking control, getting and giving credit appropriately, taking responsibility, staying in tune with employees, and squelching your potential inner jerk. Using real-life examples and insight gleaned from 30 years of experience as a manager, Sutton teaches his readers to become the boss employees enthusiastically want to work for. This entertaining, satisfying guide is a wakeup call for bosses everywhere—and a survival guide for those who work for them.

Bob Walter supplies an authoritative voice to Sutton's follow-up to THE NO ASSHOLE RULE (2007). Walter makes Sutton's no-nonsense views and straight-from-the-hip wording flow naturally. His delivery of the stories and studies that support Sutton's discussion of bosses good and bad is flawless. The variety of accents Walter affects for the quoted passages provides a welcome change from the more prosaic pitch and pacing of the exposition. Walter follows through on Sutton's quick-paced, conversational style and clearly delivers the audio-friendly summaries that highlight key points at the end of each section. E.N. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine