Customer Reviews

Games Bosses Play: 36 Career Busters Your Supervisor May Be Firing Your Way and How You Can Defend Yourself

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Games Bosses Play is a series of vignettes about how the relationship between you and your boss could end up in uncomfortable circumstances for you. The book goes on to suggest ways to reduce the downside after the damage is done, and also to avoid the downside before it occurs.

I recognize a number of these situations from superiors I worked for, and have observed others doing taking other tacks described in the book.

The main weakness of the book is that the advice goes overboard in a number of circumstances, and could backfire on you. For example, while being fired, the book suggests that as a last resort you drop hints about filing a law suit. That approach could cause you to spend a lot of money on a lawyer and lose some of your negotiating posture. Most executives are trained to stop talking to you as soon as you mention law suit. In a circumstance where the boss says that he has no influence over his boss, the book suggests asking your boss if you can meet with her/his boss alone to plead your case. That will seem very threatening to your boss, and could cause you to alienate someone who may be trying to help you.

If you follow the advice in this book, you should be sure to temper it with a lot of common sense and some willingness to feel like your superior may not be trying to do you in. Obviously, the best advice if you have a lousy boss is to transfer into another part of the company or into a new company.

The main value of this book is to provide the opportunity to think about circumstances before they arise. If they do arise, you will be better prepared.

Although this book is aimed at the needs of those who work for bosses, I suggest that supervisors and executives also read this. You may find some ways that you can do your work better as well. You may be surprised to see some of the ways that your actions can be interpreted and misintepreted by your subordinates.

This book may not be the end all to office politics, but it does make the reader aware of some of the head games that occur in offices. Russell Wild uses humor to present a not-funny environment that many of us find ourselves in. He has some suggestions for how to react; since all of us are different persons and our bosses are different from the examples -- think before you take action. The best things you may gain from this book are the ability to recognize a game and to preplan a strategy if you think someone will play the game on you. Knowledge is power! Forwarning allows one to forearm.

Humorous titles of the games describe common office situations such as "Gold Plated Droppings", "The Happy Usher" and "Squirrel in the Corner Office". The game is described, analyzed and then followed by some advice on what to do. Most of the advice is plain old common sense. What's nice about the book is that it is entertaining and by reading through these vignettes, you've mentally prepared, or play-acted the advice so that when you recognize a game, you would have already read the script. For example, if the boss is playing the "Happy Usher", and you're not prepared, you'd find yourself with the desk cleaned out and the papers signed within a blink of an eye. Whereas if you've read the script, you'd be in a better position to negotiate, ask for clarification, and not be hoodwinked into agreeing that you're really better off without this job. Instead you would not let the boss off the hook easily, and may get a chance to make a counteroffer. Usually, the "Happy Usher" is looking for an easy kill, and by having a counter-proposal ready for such a situation, you just might save your job.

There is very little information in this book. If you really want a great book on bad bosses buy The Bully at Work by Gary and Ruth Namie.

I've read every book there is about bad bosses, and this is by far the best. It gives very sensible advice about what to do when a boss drives you crazy. And it was lots of fun to read-- very, very funny. I'm just starting out in the career world, and I plan to keep this book for a long time.

There is no real life information in this book. It is a complete paper waste and poorly organized. Monday's "Dilbert" has more value.