The Schmuck in My Office

How to Deal Effectively with Difficult People at Work

De: Jody Foster MD, Michelle Joy

Narrado por: Christina Delaine

Everyone has a "schmuck" in their office - a difficult, disruptive person who upsets the workplace, confuses their coworkers, and causes concern. No one is safe from a schmuck. They come in many sizes and shapes, such as:

• Narcissus - the self-centered, condescending, attention-seeking peacock who tramples on others
• The Flytrap - the bringer of chaos who can flip from angry to happy in an instant, creating an office maelstrom
• The Bean Counter - the orderly perfectionist who never gives up control even when it's full-steam ahead to disaster
• The Robot - the inflexible stone wall who is incapable of adapting, even in the face of much-needed change

Sound like anyone you know? These are just a few of the more prominent schmucks. In her new audiobook, Dr. Jody Foster explains the entire spectrum of schmucks and how they can decrease productivity and generally make everyone else unhappy.

After delineating the various types of schmucks, she looks at personality traits and explains how interactions among coworkers can become maladaptive, leading to workplace disasters. She helps listeners understand the schmuck as a person, figure out how to help him or her, and effect a positive solution. Dr. Foster also helps listeners understand the most difficult thing of all: Sometimes you are the schmuck.

Let Dr. Jody Foster show you how to help the schmuck, know if you are the schmuck, and make your workplace a happy and productive one.

©2017 Jody Foster, MD, with Michelle Joy, MD (P)2017 Macmillan Audio

Shmucks!? You might be the schmuck!

Would you listen to The Schmuck in My Office again? Why?

It is a very easy listen and gives insight to personalities in the workplace. It gives both high level psychology & lower level psychology. It can be a simple how too. It can also bring to light things about oneself and others we might not see or are not ready to face in a workplace setting. Worth a listen or purchase.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Schmuck in My Office?

Not one memorable moment but I like how the author seeks to thread the need to really work with others to resolve and reconcile. It shows the need to regard others not just fire them.

Have you listened to any of Christina Delaine’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I don't know.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No..

Too Much Terminology

When someone who doesn’t know all those medical terms reads this book, will think that is more for someone who studied psychology. When the narrator had to made her point on some terms, she would be loud, too loud for me.

Useful and insightful book.

I loves this book. It gives such detail on dealing with difficult people, and does it in a way that would be effective for people with diagnosable conditions as well as everyday average people. I started to use the techniques immediately in my business and have seen immediate results.

Adapt this for listening outside of just the APP

Is there anything you would change about this book?

This audible book, is not listener friendly outside of the app. Trying to listen to it at work on the audible website is such a hassle because you cannot reliably rewind it if you need to. instead it would go back to the beginning. The chapters cannot be chosen either, you need to fast forward in 30 sec increments. WHY?

Not on par

This book does go into detail about the psychological issues with "schmucks" and how to understand them. I felt it went into way to much detail , with a lot of studies being referenced. Detail is good , but it did drag on. Which is my main issue with this book.

Interesting but . . .

Whether it was the material or the performance, this book made me cringe. The titles of the personality types felt . . . well, just mean. Venus Flytrap, Robot, Swindler, the Lost. While the authors continually warned readers off of making armchair diagnoses, the way the book was structured and advice was given conflicted with the warnings. Difficult people in the workplace generally present in far more subtle ways in my experience. It also didn't spend much time on dealing with thr difficult worker beside you as opposed to the boss or subordinate. Bottom line -- I did not enjoy the book, and I don't think it brought a lot more insight to how I manage relationships with difficult personalities at work.

However, there were a couple of invaluable reminders: look in the mirror and if you keep finding "schmucks" everywhere you go, you might be the schmuck (paraphrase).

makes fun of the people in the office

I was hoping for more helpful responses to how to address various situations. However, the author seems a tad mean spirited and mocks people, so I didn't like listening to it. didn't want it to corrupt my own heart so stopped listening after a chapter and a half. didn't hear real solutions to how to address situations, which is more of what I was looking for.

Interesting read but not useful

I chose this book because who can resist Yiddish in the title (schmuck), the subtitle (How to Deal Effectively with Difficult People at Work), and because the main author is a psychiatrist and MBA. If you’re looking for an interesting read, this is. If you’re looking for concrete ways to deal with difficult coworkers, skip this book.

It started off so well, mentioning (in passing) types that we actually have to deal with: people who withhold the information you need to do your job or people who constantly “forget” how to do their jobs. But these were never really discussed.

What are discussed are really extreme cases, the kind we probably won’t encounter—like serial killers in the workplace. Most of the cases seem to be about people who truly do have personality disorders and are mentally ill.

While some strategies are given, it usually boils down to the manager working with HR and legal to get the person into therapy—or fired or arrested on occasion. Most strategies managers use seem to require them to be a therapist in order to be effective.

The one strategy I remember distinctly was for dealing with a narcissist and goes something like: You did such a wonderful job with your presentation—so much useful information. But I wonder if telling Alex that her question was stupid might have made her feel bad. Again, super duper presentation. A compliment sandwich, I think it was called. Seriously? At our company, we don’t tell people their questions are stupid (let alone throw knives at people on a regular basis. Yep, the chef was sent to therapy instead of being fired). And that’s what I kept wondering throughout this book: Why aren’t these people fired or arrested? Some were, but most get shuffled off to therapy. Hey, I’m a fan of therapy but no business I’ve ever worked for sends you to therapy because your behavior is completely unacceptable. And why did the author not use more commonplace examples that readers actually encounter?

The “bean counter” section and the section about people on the autism spectrum was probably the most useful.

So, very interesting listen that was completely useless for ways to deal with a difficult coworker.