Cain and Abel at Work: How to Overcome Office Politics and the People Who Stand Between You and Success [Hardcover]

Gerry Lange (Author), Todd Domke (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 13, 2001

Do you know a Cain at work?

The back-stabbing liar who steals credit for your ideas...

The a**-kissing co-worker who worries about "face time" while you stay late working hard...

The gossipy colleague who spreads rumors just to create drama in the office.

If any of these people sound familiar, watch out: a Cain is lurking, ready to sabotage your job, your promotion, and even your reputation at work.

Written by two veteran media and political strategists, Cain and Abel at Work will help you survive the ultimate political arena—the office—and prepare you for the real-world interpersonal dynamics they don't teach you in business school.

In the Old Testament story that serves as the beginning metaphor for this book, backstabbing Cain kills the honorable Abel out of jealousy, and despite being punished with banishment, he goes on to marry, have a son, and build a city around him. All of a sudden, Cain gets to be a father, real estate developer, and probably the first politician of his day, while Abel's life is over in a flash. Authors Gerry Lange and Todd Domke have discovered that this type of injustice is still alive and well in the modern competitive workplace. Together, they have decades of personal experience and first-hand encounters with scheming, calculating Cains, and now they're giving readers an invaluable guide for coping with and combating Cain at work.

Using real-life case studies to illustrate how Cains operate, Cain and Abel at Work will teach you how to:

Identify the Cains before they make you their victim

Recognize the tactics Cains use to gain status and power

Win out over Cains without stooping to their level

With compelling new insight into human behavior and competition developed from the authors' experience in the political, media, and business arenas, Cain and Abel at Work explains what motivates both Cains and Abels at work. Not only does this book explore and deplore the behavior of Cains, it also explains how the simple naïveté of Abels allows Cains to get away with their shenanigans.

If anyone has ever stolen an idea from you or grabbed credit for your work, if they've taken advantage of or walked all over you, you need this book. Cain and Abel at Work is an office survival guide no well-intentioned Abel should be without.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The biblical tale of brotherly revenge, in which Cain killed his brother, Abel, because God seemed to treat Abel better, holds lessons for everybody in the workplace, according to veteran political strategists and media consultants Lange and Domke. Senior executives, graveyard-shift assembly-line workers and secretaries alike need to be able to identify their enemies in order to succeed in the business world, the authors claim. For readers who think Lange and Domke paint too black-and-white a picture, they include numerous brief case studies showing how people can be sabotaged because they didn't anticipate the motives of a Cain. Those who can't look themselves in the mirror and truthfully confess to being a Cain or an Abel will find the authors' classifications eye-opening. For example, Abels think in terms of getting the job done, teamwork and loyalty to colleagues. Cains think in terms of title, status, getting credit, power over others and the loyalty of subordinates. When Cains use words like "frankly" or "confidentially," they are actually saying, "I'm about to tell you a lie." To fight the Cains, readers can use some 27 strategies, including avoiding mind games, not believing lies and not allying with a Cain. Despite the biblical gimmick, much of this book is both engaging and plausible. However, some employees may be daunted by the process of recognizing Cains and modifying their own behavior while simultaneously performing their jobs day in and out. Managers and team leaders may find this book most useful as they assess their staffs and work groups and mentor their employees.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Unfortunately, a grandparents' maxim--"cream and bastards rise to the top"--still has merit today. How many times have you witnessed a calculating coworker get ahead because she just knew how to play the right kind of politics? Wielding a biblical metaphor for instant identification by readers, political consultants Lange and Domke delve into the Cain behavior and mindset (replete with disguised case studies), showing people infused with ruthless self-interest who lie, connive, and power their way to success--but only sometimes. By, first, recognizing Cain's actions and, second, erecting such protective devices as avoiding obsession and whining, you can survive in a manipulative world and, further, empower yourself by building coalitions. A word of advice: it is best to skip chapters about understanding Cain's motivations and, instead, focus on actions for combating this deadly office personality. Barbara Jacobs
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Broadway; 1 edition (March 13, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767905237
• ISBN-13: 978-0767905237
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,856,459 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Managers -- do your employees a favor and read this book!, May 10, 2001

By 

Chris Wong (NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cain and Abel at Work: How to Overcome Office Politics and the People Who Stand Between You and Success (Hardcover)

Ever since my first job at a small startup company I've been looking for a book like this. At my first job there was a Cain. While he was not directly responsible for this company going out of business, he certainly contributed to its demise. All the other books that I've read since then stressed various things: better communication techniques; handling difficult personalities, promoting one self, using humor to get a point across, and the like. The problem with these books is they all assume that the problem person is well intentioned -- and this is the major flaw in these other books. This book is the first self help book I've ever come across that was willing to admit that unscrupulous people exist.

Lange and Domke's book addresses the problem of how to recognize a Cain. This characterization is important to us Able's, but the downside is that this book can be used as a guide for Cain's-in-training (alas, "it is a poor sword that does not cut both ways"). Sadly, the usefulness of this book to Able's is directly proportional to how useful it is to Cain's-in-training at becoming better Cain's.

The only thing I don't like is that in a lot of the examples, the Able's are forced to leave the company by the Cain's. Because of these examples, I can see the necessity of recommending that Able's 1) "don't corner a Cain" 2) avoid interacting with a Cain (the authors don't say this specifically, but it comes across in the examples and the remedies). I would have preferred more direct methods for dealing with a Cain instead of hoping that all managers read this book and additionally hoping that it is not to the manager's benefit to keep a Cain around. The authors take the high road in dealing with Cain's. I suppose direct methods would involve becoming Cain-like myself and I'd rather eat glass shards than become a Cain. Maybe somebody can come out with a book describing how Able's can triumph over Cain's instead of merely existing in their shadows.

Regardless, this is an excellent book. And when it comes out in paperback, I plan on buying a half dozen copies and giving them to every manager I know.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Three Thumbs Up, March 15, 2001

By 

Sandy (Chatham, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cain and Abel at Work: How to Overcome Office Politics and the People Who Stand Between You and Success (Hardcover)

Three thumbs up; I'm counting one of my big toes as a thumb because I'm head over heels in love with this book. This book helped me figure out a tricky work situation. Before "Cain and Abel at Work," I didn't understand what the heck was happening, but now I've made a plan to resolve my boss/co-worker problem!! The book is savvy and shrewd, and very timely given the economic slowdown. Cut-throat Cains will be using the slowdown as an excuse to get rid of anyone not loyal to them personally; regardless of what's good for the company. I'd recommend this book to anyone in competition with potentially ruthless rivals.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing! Could rename it "Office Politics 101", April 30, 2001

By 

Nature Mom w/ 2 children + EE & Management de... (Massachusetts USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cain and Abel at Work: How to Overcome Office Politics and the People Who Stand Between You and Success (Hardcover)

This book spends the first 160 pages helping you identify the "evil" Cains and recognize their tactics...then just one chapter helping you "win over" Cains without stooping to their level. I found "The Secret Handshake" by Kathleen Kelly Reardon much more useful. Her book covers the basics "Cain and Abel" does (though much quicker!) and features quizzes to understand your political style (and your co-workers and executive management's too) as well as your company's overall style - and most importantly how to stretch your style at times to meet certain needs. You'll also learn how to handle recognition, patronizing behavior, separating offense from insult, influence cultivating, how to be gracefully right or wrong and much more - issues "Cain & Abel" doesn't address. "The Secret Handshake" advice applies to anyone wanting to improve productivity by learning the tools and understanding the options for making the politics involved in most any project work for you. Although "Cain and Abel" is an easy-to-read, well-written book, there's just nothing revolutionary about it and it gives so few ideas about how to succeed in spite of a political environment.