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Dealing with the Boss from Hell
Book

Dealing with the Boss from Hell

A Guide to Life in the Trenches

Shaun Belding
Kogan Page, 2005
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Editorial Rating

6

Qualities

  • Well Structured
  • Overview
  • Engaging

Recommendation

An abusive boss can make you miserable. Enter Shaun Belding and his witty little book, which provides practical advice about how to deal with this difficult situation. He weighs the benefits of being confrontational versus those of trying to re-educate your bad boss. If all else fails, he says, a new job is a realistic, positive option. His insightful book looks at the issues of employee relations and general productivity from the employee’s perspective. getAbstract recommends it to boss-bedeviled workers who want to improve their situations either in or out of the company, and to human resource managers who want to correct problems inside their companies.

Summary

Bad Bosses Are Everywhere

You spend half of your life at work, so you should make the best of it. But sometimes, the cause of your problems is not within your control. A bad boss can be rude, foul-mouthed, insensitive, sexist and, in general, the engine driving bad workplace habits and cultures that hurt all employees.

How prevalent is this problem? One study of 1,800 workers in Australia found that three-fourths were not happy with the managers who ran their companies. Studies in the U.S. came up with similar results. Bad bosses are everywhere.

Part of the problem is increasing stress and tension in the workplace. People have greater workloads and must meet high expectations to produce more and more. The pressure can even affect your health. One British study found that staff members’ blood pressure rises when they encounter a boss whom they see as "unfair," and decreases when the boss is "fair." Another study from Finland found that employees who receive no acknowledgment for their work and experience significant job strain are twice as likely as others to die of a stroke or a heart attack. One of the largest studies ever conducted by the U.S. polling company...

About the Author

Shaun Belding is the president of an international consulting firm that specializes in customer service, team building, management and leadership.

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