Working for You Isn't Working for Me

August 3, 2009
“It's one thing to have a difficult job. It's another thing to have a boss who makes it difficult for you to succeed,” begin Crowley and Elster (coauthors of Working with You Is Killing Me
) in their second exploration of how to deal with dysfunctional workplace relationships. For anyone who struggles with an inept, unsupportive or even hostile manager, the descriptions of bad boss behavior will likely sound familiar, as will the employee's probable pattern of reaction (e.g., self-doubt, avoidance, sulking, ardently wishing for your boss's demise). Crowley and Elster taxonomize offenders into 20 types (“The Chronic Critic,” “Liar, Liar,” “The Unconscious Discriminator”) and offer practical advice for finding productive ways of coping with each personality through “detecting, detaching, depersonalizing and dealing.” Because the tactics are fairly similar, the work when read as a whole becomes repetitive; readers are advised to seek out his or her own situation and use the chapter as a self-help exercise rather than wading through advice for every type of bad boss.