Customer Rating: 
Summary: It's good information but lacks depth.
Comment: This book helpped me identify personality types of a few of my supervisors but as far as telling me how to deal with them, The answers the book gives was not what I wanted to heer. Example An authorative boss can be a real pain,very demeaning, bad for crew moral ,limit potential of employees. All it recommends is to submit and kiss his butt. I am a union steward and deal with suppervisors a bit so it could be useful as a refference but hard to read all the way through!!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Coping with Toxic Managers
Comment: Coping with Toxic Managers, Subordinates ... and Other Difficult People: Using Emotional Intelligence to Survive and Prosper (Financial Times Prentice Hall Books) This provides a great insight into the 'heads' of these difficult working types. Highly recommend.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The reality of working with people
Comment: Recognising what is toxic to you is perhaps a good starting point. Many of us spend more time with the people we work with than those we've chosen to spend our lives with. Most of us make assumptions that what offends or upsets us is the same for everyone else. This is not so.
In this book, Dr Lubit provides - with humour - descriptions of different types of managers and of different management techniques that can make working life hell.
Being aware of toxic behaviour and being able to manage its impact are two quite separate things. Dr Lubit provides insights into the former and resources to help individuals and groups deal with the latter.
I've had this book on my management bookshelf since it was published and find it an excellent resource both on a personal level and as part of mentoring other staff.
Highly recommended.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Customer Rating:
Summary: Fascinating and practical
Comment: I wasn't sure I would like this book. The topic of workplace psychology can be done wrong in so many ways. You can present it too clinically and thus lack any practicality. And you can slide the other way and shower the user with pop psychology check-lists and acronyms.
This book walks the ideal path deftly and presents practical workplace issues with the right blend of psychology background and practical wisdom on how to handle individuals with personality issues.
The book is organized by disorder. Each type of personality is presented in it's own chapter with what to look for. As well as how to handle that individual as a boss, a coworker and as a subordinate.
A fascinating read on it's own, and practical advice for people stuck in tough jobs where they have to contend with coworkers who have personality problems.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Cultural organization managers, note!
Comment: Lubit's volume, "Coping with Toxic Managers and Subordinates," should be considered a standard reference for veteran and new professional staff, experienced and beginning managers, and leaders of all non-profit organizations, especially cultural ones. Colleagues have said that these conclusions apply to all organizations.Non-profits and cultural organizations face major management challenges today. For example, while the number of museums has increased, there has been a great decrease in total funding. To stay competitive, these organizations have had to make fundamental changes in their operations and rely on a new breed of managers and professionals. This has been complicated by strong internal resistance to change. As a result, many cultural organizations find themselves unable to harness the talents of their staff and, instead, find productivity decreasing and morale dropping rapidly. High turnover, unhappiness and anger make for unmanageable environments.
Lubit's book contains excellent strategic thinking for dealing with the rapidly changing settings. Incorporating insights from experience in psychiatry, business management, and organizational leadership, Lubit provides a a comprehensive, hands-on guide for dealing with your superiors, subordinates and peers. This book is very complete. It describes the most troublesome types of negative and "toxic" personalities, explores the underlying reasons for the behaviors, and moves the reader from theory, to examples, to exercise sections called "Your Turn". The book is well organized, snappily written, and easy to use. It is complete with detailed "how to" sections, charts, and examples with both good and bad endings. This book will facilitate not just survival, but productivity and well-being in the workplace -- and elsewhere. I recommend it highly.
