Toxic Workplace!: Managing Toxic Personalities and Their Systems of Power

The narrator is the one redeeming factor for this book. She sounds like Kathleen Turner. It's strange to have this husky voice reading the book, but it makes the content more engaging. The first half of the book is more useful for general employees, but it does not offer ways for individuals to make change. It is depressing because you find yourself nodding your head at the examples and saying, "yes yes, I have worked what someone like that" or "yes yes I have done that to avoid that person" but you aren't offered a way to change.

The second half of the book is geared toward leaders and HR professionals. I am not one of those people. The discussion about creating corporate values makes me roll my eyes. It isn't as useful for existing companies...especially those that are part of a big multi-national corporation.

I found that I wished my old bosses would have read this book and taken its points to heart. I am one of the people the book talks about who leaves a job to escape toxic individuals. I am that heightened turnover. If only my bosses had read this book. And that's the problem with this book. It leaves you frustrated if you have no ability to change the work environment.

As an aside, the book acknowledges that there are psychological issues that may be driving behavior. Many of the individuals that are described could be categorized as borderline or sociopaths. The book "The Sociopath Next Door" is more useful for individuals dealing with "toxic" people in the workplace than this book. This book is for leaders that need to follow the rules. The Sociopath Next Door is for coworkers that need to learn how to deal with these chaotic individuals.

This book clearly illuminates how toxic people (especially people in authority) in the workplace can create entrenched systems and beliefs that may last for years, even after the toxic employee's removal. Such results include stifled creativity, afraid of voicing true opinions in the company's best interest, mistrust of co-workers, social/emotional scars for co-workers and their families, costs of lost productivity due to co-worker's focus on protection and damage control, cost of re-training workers who finally leave, and lack of growth in the company.

The No-Asshole Rule. Explains why top companies like Intel get of rid of individual high performers who can't work collaboratively making the company less competitive and financially successful in the long run.

I enjoyed her narration; friendly, interesting, and informative.;

How a toxic administrator can leave long-reaching damage that may take years to reverse.

A great book which made me aware of the sharks among us in the workplace who need to be weeded out in order for companies to stay innovative, productive, and competitive.