Bullying Bosses: A Survivor's Guide: How to Transcend the Illusion of the Interpersonal [Paperback]

Robert Mueller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2005

BBSG helps both employees and management investigate, understand, and take positive steps in bullying situations. It is dedicated to employee self-preservation and peace of mind while accomplishing managements' mission as smoothly and cost efficiently as possible. It's about making immediately real, BBSG's proven win-win scenerios. For employees, it outlines straightforward workplace tools exercising their emotional intelligence. A reader's shown how to simply and significantly set aside the turmoil and sooth the anger that interfere with being effective as an employee and as a person, never to be victimized again. "The Daisy Approach." Professor Ayling recommends, "For those of you who are not or have not been targets of the bullying bosses, purchase it anyway...to be forewarned is to be forearmed." BBSG comes out of Robert Mueller's thousands of workplace cases. His successes are a matter of public record as legal precedent in the highest courts in California. BBSG has won international and interdisciplinary support, including from US syndicated workplace columnists Dianne Stafford and Lindsey Novak as well as Franke James, CEO of Work Politics online (Canada). Management experts agree: Teresa Alvarez, "Personnel Today," the UK's premier HR magazine and Andrea Needham, author of "Workplace Bullying, The Costly Business Secret" (NZ). So does psychology and academia: Health Psychologist David L. Johnson (US) and Sam Varknin, Author of "Malignant Self-Love - Narcissism" (Macedonia/Israel) as well as Diana Ayling, senior lecturer in law at Unitec (NZ) and The Midwest Book Review (US). And all agree that BBSG is a good read. Proving its value, BBSG has earned negative attention from bullies of various workplace sorts. Beware he who protests too much! As different as each workplace is, the bullies all share the same malice and a trademark stridency that readers can learn from and learn to overcome. -- Bullying Bosses Publications.

Product Details

• Paperback: 283 pages
• Publisher: Bullying Bosses Pub (June 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0976829304
• ISBN-13: 978-0976829300
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 4.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #520,966 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read for Targets, August 3, 2006

By 

A. W. NEEDHAM (Taranaki New Zealand) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bullying Bosses: A Survivor's Guide: How to Transcend the Illusion of the Interpersonal (Paperback)

This book is a must read for anyone who has ever worked, has a job now or is thinking of entering the workplace. Knowledge is power and this book provides just that. `Bullying Bosses, A Survivor's Guide' is actually two books in one: Part I, provides an overview of Workplace Bullying and its components. Part II is a manual to aid Targets to become Workplace Warriors.

Part I provides an excellent summary of international knowledge on Workplace Bullying and additional information gleaned from Robert's practice working with Targets and organisations. He cleverly uses a descriptor, the `Ring of Fire', to describe how isolated Targets can become. He brings to life the specific false and unfounded criticism directed at a Target and skilfully cultivated by a Workplace Bully. It is easy to see why team members withdraw and leave the Target to eventual isolation. Robert explains the nuances of each act well and introduces specific descriptors about bullying bosses and their colleagues, who through doing nothing, collude with the Workplace Bully. Robert's depiction, of how the diverse facets of organisations work together to attack a high performer and bring him/her down, is very real.

Part II is a life line for Targets. It describes how to beat the Workplace Bully at his or her own game and become a Workplace Warrior. Robert describes the knowledge, skills and abilities a Target needs in order to take on a Workplace Bully. This is particularly pertinent in small cities and towns and highly specialised environments where jobs are not always plentiful and available and people cannot typically walk away and get another job. People do not speak out because they are afraid of being black listed; rather they stay quiet and tolerate the Workplace Bullying. `Bullying Bosses' describes ways of managing these situations from a position of strength. The book gives action plans for reaction and planning and outcomes to strive for.

This book is a necessary read for senior managers and human resources professionals who truly wish to prevent Workplace Bullying. They will learn what constitutes Workplace Bullying and how it works to break individuals emotionally and therefore impacts self esteem and consequently productivity.

The book is an excellent reference book for Targets who want to fight the silent epidemic and expose Workplace Bullies for the chaos and desolation they cause and the lives they ruin.


Andrea W Needham
`Workplace Bullying, The Costly Business Secret'
2003 Penguin NZ
January 2006

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars There should a Hippocratic Oath for authors--"First, do no harm", January 24, 2009

By 

Texas Reader "I love books" (Dallas, Texas United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Bullying Bosses: A Survivor's Guide: How to Transcend the Illusion of the Interpersonal (Paperback)

Usually when I write a review it is because a LOVED a book and want others to experience the same pleasure in a well-spoken and thoughtful author. Today I write a review as an urgent public service to innocent and unsuspecting employees everywhere. I empathize with and wish the very best to anyone struggling with workplace problems. I therefore urge you NOT to put your faith in this deeply flawed treatise.

Far from offering meaningful help and support, Mr. Mueller's book promotes self-destructive behavior that assures the escalation of workplace strife. I read this book from cover to cover, searching for ANY redeeming quality. I never found it.

In the name of vengeance, the author carefully counsels the reader to become the workplace equivalent of a suicidal bomber. Encouraging MUTUAL ASSURED DESTRUCTION seems to be the goal of Mr. Mueller, a failed and paranoid employment lawyer, who counsels employees to treat every workplace dispute as a struggle to the death. The tragedy is that victims of workplace bullies who turn to this book for help are doomed to be victimized again.

I gave "Bullying Bosses" the lowest score allowed. If I could have rated it "negative five stars" I would have, because the reader who takes this book seriously will end up WORSE off than if he or she had never encountered Mr. Mueller. Indeed, in Mr. Mueller's world there are no winners.

I can only assume that the reviewers who gave this book high marks either have no practical experience with the problem or else are more interested in "getting even" with a toxic boss, than in helping victims find a way to overcome a bad situation and succeed in the workplace. By counseling victims to connive and plot to achieve their moment of (vengeful) "pleasure," Mr. Mueller surely condemns them to a lifetime of regrets.

For more life-affirming advice on this subject, I suggest Roy Lubit's "Coping with Toxic Managers, Subordinates and other Difficult People," which focuses on using emotional intelligence to survive and thrive in the workplace. I also heartily recommend "Designed for Success-the Ten Commandments of Women in the Workplace" by Dondi Scumaci. Both men and women will benefit from positive approach to overcoming workplace problems advocated in Scumaci's book, including advice on dealing with difficult supervisors.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stare-down the Bully, April 11, 2006

By 

Sam Vaknin (Skopje, Macedonia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bullying Bosses: A Survivor's Guide: How to Transcend the Illusion of the Interpersonal (Paperback)

It is rare that a book of reference and self-help should read like an edge-of-the-seat John Grisham thriller. But this significant contribution to the study of bullying in the workplace often does. Robert Mueller, in his own words, is a "former attorney who represented a couple thousand employees suffering adverse employer actions, many involving bullying." He sure introduces the drama of the courtroom and the rudiments of the adversarial system into the 300 pages of his survivor's guide.

The author calls on managers to become aware of the dynamics that turn many workplaces into simmering stealth infernos. Employees should protect employers from bullies. Mueller leverages court cases and case histories into a cogent and methodological analysis of bullying tactics and strategies. Parallelly, he weaves a tapestry of legal, psychological, social, and cultural dimensions as he analyses the victim's mentality and reactions. Strewn among the pages of this rich presentation are highlighted tips and quotes.

Mueller's message is simple: targets of bullying have to face down their tormentors. They have to become "workplace warriors" with "shields and swords". Easier said than done - but, still, can be done, argues the author. The target has to discover and groom potential supporters, build a case against the bullying boss, collect potent data and identify patterns of misbehavior, craft a plan, and implement it. It's all about empowerment by regaining control over situations that frequently and falsely look hopeless. The author takes the victim by the hand and convincingly shows him or her how to do it.

I recommend the book to anyone who has ever been involved in on-the-job harassment, stalking, and bullying because it is both deep and practical, accurate but never arcane, eye opening and thought provoking and challenging - but never loses its empathy and compassion for the victims of this widespread and under-reported phenomenon. A gem. Sam Vaknin, author of 'Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited'