Customer Reviews

Toxic Coworkers: How to Deal with Dysfunctional People on the Job

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

...as they manifest themselves at the office. You'll definitely see some of the traits and behaviors described in the people you're working with. But... when it comes to coping with these types, as the title promises, I found the book short on practical methods for dealing with problem people. In some cases, the books states there's little or nothing that can be done about jerks on the job.

This easily and quickly read book should be helpful to the reader who struggles with a boss, coworker or subordinate. In almost every workplace, there is one person whose behavior generates more negative attention than most others around him (or her). The toxic coworker we all experience at one time or another already has a gun; while we can't change that person, we certainly want to avoid giving her any bullets. Toxic Coworkers can help you understand that person and take appropriate actions that will not contribute further to the time- and attention-consuming behaviors that seem to make everyone around her miserable.

While not all the advice offered is research-based, as a Clinician familiar with coaching supervisors and coworkers to deal with problem personalities, the authors' descriptions of personalities and behaviors are accurate. I believe most readers will instantly recognize their problem-personality type from the descriptions based on the DSM-IV and the authors' experiences.

Cavaiola and Lavender advise against waiting for management to act; instead, they propose that readers arm themselves with the information and tactics that can protect themselves and their families from personality-disordered individuals on the job. I couldn't agree more. The authors repeatedly counsel readers to avoid taking the toxic-worker's actions personally and remind us all that we are not stuck in a hostile work enviroment. This book encourages the reader to take actions for self-protection and personal boundaries rather than to change the other person.

These two-hundred pages are cluttered with a number of typographical errors. I hope readers will allow themselves to ignore these errors in favor of gaining insight into themselves and others.

This book is absolutely the best guide I have seen for helping a working person deal with those people who just can't be dealt with at work. It goes into detail about Personality Disorder characteristics and how to deal with people who have a personality disorder, from the prospective of the co-worker, manager, and subordinate. It also covers other types of mental problems in addition to personality disorders. It really helped me in the area of giving real background information and vocabulary in order for me to let my manager know exactly what one of my subordinates was like. It gave a me a good handle on how best to deal with this "toxic co-worker". Even though I am not able to keep his problem from negatively impacting the work area completely, at least I have the peace of mind that it is his problem and not my imagination running wild!

I took my first managerial postition and a few months ago and was aware of an ongoing situation with a few of my co-workers who were now my responsibilty. Toxic Co-workers laid out a variety of disfunctional personality types but more importantly described how to deal with them in layman's terms. I can see this book as a staple for anyone in today's fast paced work environment that has to deal with a Toxic Co-Worker! It has helped me tremendously.

"Toxic Coworkers" was an easy read, and it delivers what the cover promises: "How to Deal with Dysfunctional People." Covering all the major players- all 10 of the personality disorders described by the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), it is an excellent resource for identifying exactly what type of problematic personality you might be dealing with, allowing the reader to then focus their search for additional literature pertaining to the specific personality disorder at hand.

Not only do the authors provide realistic and DO-ABLE solutions and strategies, their advice is organized by both which disorder you are dealing with, as well as the reader's relationship with the personality-disordered individual. (i.e. Boss/Administrator, Coworker, or Subordinate.) Additionally the book can be used as a guide for dealing with other toxic personalities in your life- a "parent" can substitute for the boss, a sibling or neighbor for "coworker", or a child for the "subordinate."

If you already know which disorder you are up against, you can jump to the appropriate chapter and start learning right away. I was able to start implementing solutions for dealing with a personality-disordered relative the same day!

This publisher needs to fire the editors of this book, as there were many small typos and grammatical errors, but don't judge the book on this alone. I am an educated adult with a background in scientific research, and found the authors to back up their ideas with solid information and strategies... that are already proving successful for me.

As a side-note, if you are seeking information about sociopaths (Antisocial Personality Disorder), I highly recommend this book along with The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout. If you are seeking help in dealing with a Narcissistic personality, I again highly recommend both this book, along with Joan Lackhar's How to Talk to a Narcissist. Both Stout and Lackhar offer understandable insight and sound advice backed by strong research and building on both accepted literature from experts who have come before them the past 50 years, as well as more recently discovered data.

Not the type of book to sit down and just read. In my opinion, it is more of a reference book. Extremely long descriptions of each disorder, which is good in some ways... but the book tends to repeat the same characteristics in various situations... for example: Working with the Narcissistic Administrator, The Narcissistic Coworker and The Narcissistic Subordinate all define the same characteristics... just from different perspectives.

What the authors accomplish is to clearly spell out what you can expect in the workplace from each type of disorder, which is why I bought the book to begin with!

I knew my co-manager was "crazy" and now thanks to "Toxic Coworkers" I also know how to make the best of the situation. This book is well-organized and packed with useful information and advice. The layman language and insightful anecdotes used by the authors help make it easy to understand and interesting. I also feel that the book's usefulness goes beyond the authors' intent. I believe that most people have some of the traits that are found in people with Personality Disorders, just in lesser, more rational and more functional degrees; and that the same advice the authors give for dealing with toxics in the workplace could be applied when dealing with more "normal" types at work or anywhere. For instance, the authors' advice on emphasizing the positives in evaluations when dealing with certain personality disorders would seem to be a productive way to handle all employees, as well as students, but especially those with lower self-esteem. While the authors clearly accomplish their goal of writing a book that helps people deal with toxic disorders in their workplace, they have also created a great reference book for dealing with all people, and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in improving his interactions with others.

As a physician, I have many patients come to me with physical or emotional symptoms of anxiety. If I discover that these symptoms are connected not throughout their experience but with just one person, say a boss, loved one or co-worker, I often recommend this book. This book brings personality disorders to the lay person. It is very readable and give specific techniques that with make things work smoothly with this person and examples of what will make things more difficult. This is a great read for anyone. I think we will all recognize people in our lives in each of the personality disorders. You will recognize your difficult person in one or more of the personality disorders. This book make you feel instantly sane because you can see that it's not you, that the difficult person can be acurately described by someone who doesn't even know you. An excellent book!

The book description gives a good, succinct overview of what's in the book so I am going to focus my review on how well the authors presented the material.

The book is structured very well. The first two chapters give you the motivation for the book and an overview of the material to come respectively. Both of these set the stage well for the chapters to come. Chapters three through 12 are each dedicated to a different personality disorder, and they follow the same basic formula:

* Illustration/anecdote giving an example of how a person with the particular disorder may behave
* The official symptoms of the disorders
* Suggestions for how to relate to a manager, co-worker, or subordinate who has the disorder

The final chapter discusses anxiety, depression, addiction, and ADHD at a high level; however, each of these are worthy of separate dedicated book.

I have no psychological training so not all of the material sunk in after the first reading. Some of the information is also a bit scary. However, I also feel much better equipped to handle toxic people in the workplace too. While it would be useful to anyone in the workforce, I would recommend it the most to those in management positions.

This is an interesting little book. It identifies some basic personality disorders and then speculates on how one might deal with such folks to limit the damage that they might do.

What is a personality disorder? The authors note that (page 4) "Personality disorders are long-standing disturbances in personality that usually begin in late adolescence and continue until adulthood." If the case is not too bad, such workers can be productive; if the disorder is pronounced, then real problems can occur in the workplace.

The disorders include the following: paranoid, schizoid, schizotypal, antisocial, narcissistic, histrionic, borderline, obsessive compulsive, avoidant, dependent, and passive aggressive.

For each, the disorder is described and examples provided. There is also discussion of how one might deal with either superiors or coworkers or subordinates who have one or another of the disorders. Some suggestions appear useful, others seem a little weak.

All in all, an interesting volume to read. See if you can identify any disorders in your workplace!