Jerks at Work: Toxic Coworkers and What to Do About Them

by Tessa West

Want to get those difficult colleagues off your back and restore your sanity? NYU psychology professor Tessa West shows you how.

Have you ever watched a colleague charm the pants off management while showing a competitive, Machiavellian side to the lower ranks? They don't hesitate to throw peers under the bus, but their boss is oblivious to their bad behaviour. What about a constantly interrupting colleague? Or an over-bearing manager? While these jerks stress us out in small ways throughout the day, they aren't technically breaking any rules, so we're expected just to put up with them.

...Until now. Tessa West has already helped thousands of people resolve their most pressing workplace issues. And here she draws on a decade of original research to profile classic workplace archetypes, including the Gaslighter, the Bulldozer, the Credit-Stealer, the Neglecter, and the Micromanager, giving advice to anyone who's ever hidden in the bathroom to cry at work. She digs deep into the inner workings of each bad apple, exploring their motivations and insecurities, and offers clever strategies for stopping each type of jerk in their tracks.

Know a Jerk at Work? This proactive approach reveals the single, most effective way to achieve emotional wellbeing at work.

Genres: Nonfiction, Business, Self Help, Psychology, Leadership, Audiobook, Management

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 20, 2022

Reviews

[Amir Sarabadani · Rating 5 out of 5]

After finishing it, it feels like a handbook so I suggest skimming through it and then keeping it around when you need to deal with one of the subtypes.

[Tina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Perhaps it's the realization that we're all the jerks she's describing. Or that (most) people don't intend to be a jerk. Or that all of the anecdotes seem very very made up.

Act as if people have the best intentions. Talk to your coworkers like adults. Take care of yourself. Work is hard.

[Candleflame23 · Rating 5 out of 5]

.
.

عادة ما يقال أن كل مجتمع إنساني لابد وأن يحوي تناقضات في سمات وصفات شخصيات أفراده مما يخلق حالة من التعدد والتنوع، وهذا التعدد كفيل بأن يخلق جوًا من التكامل، إذ أن اختلاف الشخصيات من المفترض أن يخدم المجتمع وينفعه لا يضره، ولأن بيئة العمل جزء لا يتجزأ من كينونة المجتمع يأتي كتاب jerk at work للكاتبة الأميركية Tessa West وأستاذة علم النفس في جامعة نيويورك الحاصلة على درجة الدكتوراة من جامعة كونيتيكت، والتي تمتلك خبرة رائدة في إدارة العلاقة و في التفاعل والتواصل بين الأشخاص ليمثل جزء من حقيقة أن كل ما يتم بناءه على خط المثالية في هذا الجانب يبقى مجرد وهم!.
تُقدم تيسا وست في الكتاب عصارة خبرتها البحثية والميدانية في مجال تطوير بيئات الأعمال من خلال عرض قصصي ومواقف واقعية بعيدة عن الخيال وهذا ما ميّز الكتاب، قسمت وست شخصيات الموظفين في بيئة العمل إلى عدة أقسام ومسميات وقراءة واحدة لهذه التصنيفات كفيلة بأن تجعل قوائم الأسماء تتحرك في ذهنك لتصنف بدورك زملاء عملك وفقاً لكل تصنيف، وتضع وست بعضًا من المشكلات التي قد تواجهك في بيئة العمل فتحيلها إلى منطقة جحيم، لم تكتفي الكاتبة بذكر المشكلات بل قدمت بعضًا من الحلول التي رأتها مناسبة، ولا تستغرب إن كانت مشاركة الأصدقاء " الفضفضة " برأي الكاتبة حل لبعض تلك المشكلات، ويبقى تصعيد المشكلة والانتقال بها صعودًا وفقاً للسلم الوظيفي للمؤسسة الحل الأكثر عقلانية، كما ترى ويست إن مغادرة بيئة العمل السامة لربما كانت الخسارة التي يمكن اعتبارها لحظة انتصار وربح، إذ يصرف الموظف عن ذاته الأذى باتخاذه لقرار المغادرة.

ماذا بعد القراءة ؟
قد لا نملك حق تقويم أخلاق الغير ولكننا حتماً نملك دوماً حق الإبتعاد عنهم، " ابتعد عما يؤذيك".

#أبجدية_فرح 5/5 📚🌷
‏#candleflame23bookreviews
‏#jerksalworks
#tessawest

[Teal Veyre · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book! This is exactly what I look for in a workplace non-fiction (which is a very specific genre that I'm weirdly hooked on). It's a super quick read, full of anecdotes that illustrate the point. Also lots of great advice.
I know I'll always be terrible at following said advice though. I can not people. I get irritated too easily and immediately let everyone know how irritated I am. I don't think a gaslighter could ever do much with me, because I doubt anyone could successfully get me to shut up or socially isolate. I have, however, dealt with my fair share of bulldozers and micromanagers. I have handled both in the exact same way, by snapping at them, telling them they were irritating me, and in one case, quitting without notice.
A lot of the conflict management strategies in this book take a lot of passive and sneaky approaches. I'm not denying these approaches are smart and likely effective. I just know I'll never be capable of them.

But I enjoyed the book nonetheless! When I picked up the book 'When Bad Teams Happen to Good People' (which was a horribly dry one-star read for me) THIS was the sort of book I was looking for. A book with humor and anecdotes and great insights into human psychology.

[Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually did really like this book and I'm kind of between a 3 and 4. While it is probably the best-written book of this genre that I have read (not that I have read a lot) I think the writing style didn't totally resonate with me.

Still, the descriptions of each type of Jerk and Work were really great and I liked the way the book was structured - I felt like there was a highly practical guide to classifying jerks!

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I ordered this book to better understand one of my coworkers (Sabrina), but she left before I could finish, which also solved my problem. Four stars!

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Author is a psychology faculty member, so i start off with a positive bias, and I applaud her for taking the time to write up real-world tips derived (sometimes loosely) from psych theory and research. Also, she's fairly funny, and the anecdotes/quizzes etc. were readable, the taxonomy of jerks seemingly reasonable. I'm not just saying that because my highest score was for "Ideal Co-worker". Sure, by the time i took the quiz, i could tell what sort of solution she tends to recommend.

a little hard to put my finger on what i found lacking, but I guess....without naming names and without considering people I've known of but not worked with closely, I've had maybe 3 major jerks at work at my current and longest-lasting job.......

...........and I didn't really find any useful advice here for dealing with any of the 3. The scenarios all seemed either overblown (she's oddly, in my reading anyway, obsessed with the possibility of someone's getting too much or too little credit for their work -- i know that can happen, but i'd say in the long run the bigger workplace annoyance is actually the person preoccupied with getting every last drop of credit sorted out in situations in which there's likely some irreducible ambiguity) or else simplistic and unresolvable by the rational/good-person strategies recommended here. I tried picturing using the advice in the situations i've faced, and either I or someone else had already done so to no avail, or else it would seem just out of the question.

Can't expect an author to anticipate what the exact people with whom I've worked are like, but I suppose i could have used more evidence/argument that these things work. There is citation of research on some topics, but many of the solutions would boil down to "so here's how i worked it out with my research assistants" and the like, which is seldom generalizable to how you deal with tenured faculty colleagues, administrators, etc.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book that confirms you aren’t the crazy one, unless you’re lying to yourself. Enjoyed the tests before and after listening to this book. I was able to pinpoint key factors of deciding who is a jerk at work, who is on your side, and who couldn’t care less. Very eye-opening.

[Sandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

How to identify and handle the jerks at work. This made me glad I no longer have to work. The snakes are out there! Could be useful.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Are you an ideal worker?
Do you have coworkers or higher-power colleagues that are...Kiss-Up/Kick Downers, Credit Stealers, Bulldozers, Micromanagers, a neglectful boss, or a Gaslighter?
Take two quizzes before you read this book (featured and explained at the end of the book) to test it out. After reading it, take the quizzes again and you will be very surprised by what you may think of your results.
Additionally, check out the many ways how you can handle the jerks at work. While most of these scenarios and types are extremes of situations, they are still unfortunately, nevertheless accurate.
We all face them. In some ways, we are also one of them. How can we deal with these "jerks"?
While many of the methodologies involve the simplest form, communication and building up the team as a whole, it does state that sometimes you have to go beyond that. Most of the scenarios too, are meant for "larger" "corporate" type positions, though it does use scenarios from many facets of companies.
It does examine each of the "Jerk" types very thoroughly as they are full chapters.
Lastly, the book forces you to take a look at your work environment and yourself to determine, are you really who you and/or who you think your co-workers and managers are.

[Kari Olfert · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wasn't very helpful. Maybe I was looking for something else, but the types of jerks, for me, were too basic, same with the solutions.
Let's go deeper and also add less cliche examples.

[Jung]

Okay, if there’s one thing we can take away, it’s that you don’t have to just put up with toxic coworkers. There are alternatives to venting to your friends about them and hoping that all your problems will go away.

For starters, try to pinpoint their behavior. What exactly are they doing? Are they micromanaging, neglecting, bulldozing, free riding? Once you figure that out, try to address it. Again, that doesn’t mean you have to confront them directly. Sometimes, the solution could be something as simple as setting up a non-confrontational meeting to help you get on the same page — but other times, a more drastic action will be needed, and you may need the help of people higher up in your company’s hierarchy. Either way, you need to be thoughtful, strategic and open-minded about any and all possible solutions

---

Kiss Up/Kick Downer

Before Tessa West became a social psychologist, she was a salesperson at a high-end department store. There, she had the misfortune of working with another salesperson named Dave. Whenever the manager was around, Dave acted like a model employee. But the moment the manager left, Dave’s true colors came out. He was viciously competitive — not only stealing his colleagues’ customers, but rearranging and hiding the items they needed in the storage room, making it harder for them to complete their sales.

Dave is a classic example of the first type of jerk you might encounter at work: a kiss up/kick downer. He “kisses up” to those above him — acting polite, offering to do favors, charming their socks off, and trying to cozy up to them outside of work. In contrast, he “kicks down” people at the same level or below him in the workplace hierarchy — trying to undermine them and make them look bad in any way he can get away with.

If this sounds like something that’s happening to you at work, the first thing you should do is make sure you’re not just being oversensitive and confirm the person is actually being a jerk. To do this, find someone who is socially well-connected and knows “what’s up” at your workplace. Ask them a question like “Have you heard anything good or bad about Dave?”

If they confirm that you are indeed dealing with a jerk, try to find other victims and collect their testimonies about his behavior. To keep things professional, just ask your colleagues neutral questions, like “have you worked much with Dave? What’s that been like?”

Meanwhile, try to put as much space between you and the kiss up/kick downer as possible. Think about when and where you encounter him and how you can minimize contact. It could be something as simple as changing seats at a meeting or avoiding the coffee machine at a certain time.

When you’re ready to present your manager with your case against the jerk, remember: thanks to all that kissing up he does, your manager probably thinks highly of him, so you need to approach the issue diplomatically. Begin by acknowledging the jerk’s strengths, and then focus on his negative behaviors and how they’re impacting you and your colleagues.

Then, all that’s left to do is wait and be patient. It may take some time and behind-the-scenes action for your manager to deal with the jerk, so don’t expect an instant solution.

---

The Credit Stealer

What’s the key to getting ahead at work? Your performance would seem to be an obvious answer. But it’s more complicated than that.

Imagine you do a great job on a project, but no one is aware of all the work you did. Obviously, that won’t do your career any good. But now imagine a colleague swoops in and takes credit for it. Now she might get a promotion, even if she barely did any work on the project!

Meet our next jerk at work — the credit stealer — someone who takes more credit for ideas and accomplishments than she deserves.

Now, to be fair, she might not be doing this intentionally. With group projects and teamwork in general, it’s often unclear who contributed what to the final product, and we all have a tendency to overestimate the size of our contributions. We also have a tendency to assume the work we do is more visible to others than it is in reality. You may be doing lots of behind-the-scenes work that your credit stealer isn’t even aware of, like polishing documents and checking for errors.

Also, when teams are filled with like-minded people, they sometimes come up with similar ideas independently of each other. This can lead to situations where it seems like one person stole an idea from another, even though it was really just a coincidence.

With that in mind, don’t be accusatory with your potential credit stealer. Try to have a neutral conversation where you simply share your perspective and ask them for theirs. For example, “It seemed to me like we were proposing similar ideas at the meeting, and it seemed to me like I was the one who was putting them on the table first — but how did it seem to you?”

From there, broaden the conversation and focus on the facts of the matter. For instance, if you were working on a group project together, who did what? Talk about the invisible work you both put into the project. Maybe it turns out they did more than you thought they did! And if not, the facts will speak for themselves.

You can then have a pragmatic conversation about how to distribute credit more fairly in the future. One way to nip the problem in the bud is to decide who will do what before a project begins; that way, there will be no ambiguity over who did what at the end of it.

---

Free Riders

He works hard when their boss is around, but slacks off the moment she’s out of sight. He was a high performer early in his career, but now he’s comfortably resting on his laurels. And he has a convenient tendency to “volunteer” for work that looks important but isn’t really that hard to do, like giving a presentation that someone else prepared.

Let’s be honest, this guy seems to be living the dream. If you’re him. But if you’re everyone else? Then he’s the next jerk at work – the free rider: someone who benefits from other people’s efforts without pulling his own weight.

The stronger a team is, the more it tends to attract free riders. And that’s because free riders take advantage of three characteristics that make a group strong in the first place.

For starters, strong groups have members who are conscientious about their work — they’re dependable, disciplined, and hard-working. Unfortunately, that means they’re also prone to picking up free riders’ slack, sometimes not even realizing they’re doing it.

Second, strong groups have cohesion — their members feel close to each other and get along well together. But that means they also let down their guard with each other and avoid keeping tabs on each other, allowing free riders to slip through the cracks.

Finally, they use collective rewards to encourage teamwork instead of competition between the group members. But that can lead some people to conclude that working hard is pointless; they might as well slack off. After all, they’ll get the same reward, no matter how much effort they contribute to the team.

To root out free riding, teams need to keep track of their members’ work. One way to do this is to divvy out tasks at the beginning of a project and then periodically check in with each other by sending out a brief survey that asks three questions:

Which tasks have you completed?
Did you do any extra work you didn’t plan on doing?
Did you notice anyone else doing extra work?
By getting answers to these questions, you can detect if you have a free rider in your midst. Maybe you’ll discover that just about everyone is doing some extra work on the free rider’s behalf! You can then come up with a plan for dividing the work out more fairly.

Finally, teams can remove part of the motivation behind free riding by rewarding individual performance in addition to collective achievement. Teamwork and individual effort aren’t an either/or binary— you can promote both things at once!

---

Micromanagers

What’s the most common reason people quit their jobs?

If you’re like 89 percent of bosses, you might think the answer is money. But that only accounts for 12 percent of people who quit. The most common reason they leave their jobs is dissatisfaction with management — and micromanagement in particular is one of the most common complaints. A whopping 79 percent of the workforce has experienced it at some point — and 69 percent of that group have thought about quitting because of it.

Micromanagers are the most common jerk at work, so there’s a good chance you’ll encounter one at some point in your career, if you haven’t already. Other than quitting your job, how can you escape their tyranny?

Well, as with other jerks at work, don’t confront them too directly. If you march into their office with an accusation of micromanagement and a list of things you’d like them to stop doing, their response will probably be defensive.

Instead, ask to have a meeting to talk about big picture goals. How does your work fit into the bigger picture of your team? What are the big picture goals of your micromanager, and how does your work contribute to them? In other words, zoom out from the little details your working relationship has become overly fixated on.

Once you’ve established the bigger picture, talk about expectations and priorities. Your understanding of what’s important might not align with your micromanager’s understanding. In fact, that might be one of the underlying causes of her micromanagement; she sees you as failing to meet her expectations and priorities, and she’s micromanaging you to try to get you on what she perceives as being the right track.

If that’s the case, see if you can come to a compromise. For example, consider the case of Matt, a journalist the author is friends with. It turned out his micromanaging boss Karen wanted him to prioritize the articles she wanted published, whereas he wanted to prioritize chasing his own leads. Their compromise? Matt would focus on the articles Karen cared about first — and if he finished them early, he could spend the rest of his time focusing on his independent projects.

If there are any behaviors you’d like the micromanager to stop engaging in, be specific and avoid generalizations. For instance, instead of saying “you're overbearing”, say that “at the moment you’re sending me x number of e-mails per day, and it makes it hard for me to stay on task”. Also, to help keep things positive, mention things you appreciate about your micromanager and would like her to do more of, instead of just what you’d like her to do less of!

---

Gaslighters

Toxic coworkers come in many shapes and sizes — but all the ones we’ve looked at so far have at least one thing in common: they’re manageable. There are things you can do to fix their behaviors and achieve better relationships with them.

But the final jerk we’re going to meet is different. He’s not just a difficult person or an inadvertently bad team player. He’s downright sociopathic. You’re not going to change him. He’s not a fixer upper. All you can do is escape him.

He’s the gaslighter — someone who psychologically manipulates you into having a false sense of reality.

He begins by isolating you. Maybe he does it in a seemingly positive way. He makes you feel like you’re part of something special, such as a secret project or a selective club. Or he might erode your sense of self-worth and make you feel indebted to him, telling you things like he’s the only one at the workplace who cares about you and you’d have been fired if it wasn’t for him. Or he does a cunning combination of both.

After having sneakily isolated you, he then starts taking advantage of you, often by turning you into an unwitting accomplice in one of his unethical schemes. Consider the story of Kunal — an employee at an advertising firm. His gaslighter was his boss Julie. She told him to keep their work together secret, because, she claimed, their workplace was filled with cutthroat competitors who would try to steal their work.

In reality, Julie herself was stealing other people’s work and then asking Kunal to edit it, unknowingly helping her cover her tracks. One day, Kunal thought he saw her logging into a coworker’s account, but when he asked her about it, she said he was just imagining it — another classic gaslighter move.

To prevent a gaslighter from warping your sense of reality, start writing down every suspicious thing you observe him saying or doing. Memories are fallible, and gaslighters try to mess with them, so you need to put things down in writing to preserve them.

While doing this, you should also begin gradually rebuilding your relationships at work, to escape your isolation. Start by connecting with people with similar status and positions as you, and then work your way up and out from there, expanding your network to eventually include a social referent. This is someone who is especially well-liked, connected, and respected at your workplace. She can be your advocate and convince the higher ups at your company to do something about your gaslighter.

You’ll probably need the assistance of someone like this, because the person who is gaslighting you is probably someone with more power than you.

[Jovi Ene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tessa West, profesoară de psihologie la Universitatea din New York și expertă în știința comunicării, își construiește acest volum enumerând cei mai toxici și nocivi colegi și căutând (și găsind) metode de a le desconstrui felul în care pot face rău echipei sau ție personal.
Sigur, subiectiv este greu să-ți găsești locul în rândul acestor colegi toxici, dar dacă treci dincolo de subiectivism, poți observa că și tu ai trăsături apropiate hoțului de reputație, chiulangiului cotonogar sau mardeiașului (traducerile par uneori forțate, dar există suficiente explicații pentru care sunt așa cum sunt). Eu m-am regăsit uneori în rolul șefului neglijent, deși testele binevenite de la final mi-au spus că sunt „șmecher intrigant.”
Chiar dacă nu mă împac deloc cu cărțile de dezvoltare personală (sau poate n-am găsit-o pe cea potrivită), „Ticăloșii de la job” oferă câteva sfaturi pertinente despre cum să ne comportăm cu oamenii toxici din jur.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting but not as in-depth as I’d have liked.

[DrNiaDThomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book because I was looking for someone. And I found them. In chapters 1, 2 and 7!
The book starts with a questionnaire. This is not for the feint hearted. It’s not your average Good Housekeeping multiple choice questionnaire that’ll tell you if you should decorate your study in wallpaper or paint. This is a proper questionnaire. If you take your new book to bed, expecting it to lull you to sleep – you’re in for a surprise. I’d suggest you need to start this book on the sofa, with a lap tray, pencil and paper (unless you’re happy to write in your book….(errrrrrm….). Unfortunately, I did start reading it in bed and so didn’t get round to doing the questionnaire – my bad.

The book sets out 7 types of jerk at work and offers full and helpful descriptors. 1 is the kick-up/kiss-downer who plays people from both sides, who is the centre of their own universe and not to be trusted by their colleagues. 2 is the credit stealer who is adept at making the most of other people’s talents and passing them off as their own – also not to be trusted. 7 is the gaslighter, who – for me, is the biggest jerk of them all. The manipulative, emotional abuser who twists words, spins situations and distorts discussions so that they come out on top and more importantly, you come out on bottom. Trust this jerk at your peril.

Throughout the book, Tessa frequently makes reference to the fact that one person may be a whole coven of different jerks in one go! This is really helpful because like me, I’m pretty sure your jerk will cover more than one phenotype.

Each chapter also has a ‘what to do about it’ section, which really needs some concentration and studying – far more than I expected, if truth be told. I thought this book would be more about stories of jerks who eventually got their comeuppance, like your good novel, but no. This is a proper, well researched, well thought thought handbook of jerks and fixes.

If you’re dealing with a jerk at work right now, this book is your go-to textbook on how to deal with them. I luckily am not, but if I were, I’d be heading back to the ‘what to do’ sections, with pen and paper in hand, writing myself a to-do list and a script of how to confront, ignore, stop or get away from the jerk.

I enjoyed reading this book. It’s got swear words in the right places and tells it like it is, treating you like an intelligent, capable person who simply doesn’t have to put up with bullies, tyrants, fibbers, cheats, manipulators and jerks.

I gave it 4 out of 5 for being a good read, a textbook, a guidebook and self help for people in horrible situations. It was a 4 rather than a 5 because the questionnaire felt like something I needed to do before starting the book, but when you’re in bed snuggled in with a new book, you’re not going to get out again to do a questionnaire. If I come up against a work-jerk in the future, I will definitely do the questionnaire and read the book again

[Alina Jeschke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Palanci w pracy... któż ich nie miał? Z pewnością wielu z nas miało do czynienia w swoim doświadczeniu zawodowym ze złodziejami pomysłów, osobami, które dominowały spotkania i za wszelką cenę forsowali swoje zdanie i pomysły, czy osobami, które cichutko siedzą w kącie i jadą na gapę. O nich właśnie jest ta książka! Osobiście spotkałam na swojej drodze zawodowej przynajmniej kilku takich palantów. Zdarzyło mi się płakać, pracować wieczorami, bo ktoś nie wykonał swoich zadań, czy stać w cieniu, w trakcie, gdy ktoś inny zbierał pochwały za mój pomysł.

Książka ma bardzo ułożoną strukturę. Każdy typ palanta to oddzielny rozdział. Każdy rozdział rozpoczyna historia pokazująca jak dany typ palanta działa. Następnie poznajemy ich charakterystykę, motywację, sposób działania. W zaznaczonych fragmentach autorka wymienia podstępne działania, na które należy uważać, następnie znajdziemy cele, które powinniśmy sobie wyznaczyć, aby poradzić sobie z opisanym wcześniej palantem. Natomiast, na końcu każdego z rozdziałów znajdziemy podsumowanie w podpunktach, co pozwala nam usystematyzować i utrwalić zdobytą wcześniej wiedzę.

Język jest prosty i przyjemny dla czytelnika. Zdecydowanie nie jest to "naukowy bełkot", jest to książka napisana dla każdego. Poczucie humoru autorki jest wisienką na torcie, zdarzyło mi się zaśmiać w trakcie lektury.

Bezsprzecznie, największą zaletą tej książki są w mojej opinii źródła. Autorka powołuje się na wiele badań, czy artykułów naukowych. Mamy więc pewność, że informacje przedstawione w książce nie są wyssane z palca, a mają swoje naukowe poparcie. Wśród źródeł znajdziemy takie pozycjem jak: "Journal of Personality and Social Psychology", "Journal of Applied Psychology", czy "Harvard Business Review". Ta książka zapoczątkowała moje eksplorowanie świata palantów w pracy, w trakcie czytania sprawdzałam źródła i zgłębiałam badania, o których autorka wspomina. Autorka powołuje się również na badania własne, co jest dodatkowym atutem.

Polecam wszystkim, którzy są zainteresowani psychologią w biznesie. W tej książce znajdziecie bardzo dużo ciekawostek, badań i miło spędzicie czas!

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, it provided some new and useful and novel ideas and tips. Some previous books gave vague ideas such as "just talk to them/confront them/find a new job!" that in actuality are useless and overused advice, so that was nice. Also explained why and how dealing with each specific behavior would or would not work and provides relevant studies (the author is a social psychologist I believe, and a lot of her authority and evidence is based on scientific research, not just anecdotal evidence from her career). This is more suitable for people where group projects comprise most of their time at work. I like that there are 2 different quizzes at the end that can help you to see if your own behavior is problematic or if you're effective at being an ally at work (aka do you contribute to a crappy working environment?).

My big complaint I have with this book is that I noticed several grammatical errors and typos. Look, I know that typos are bound to be a thing in even mainstream published novels, you can have all the proofreaders and editors looking over your manuscript and still an error can slip through the cracks, but I found several and it was super distracting for me. This could just be me being petty, but a few of the mistakes I paused because entire words skipped over that with the missing words, they changed the meaning of the sentence a little bit. I'm pretty sure this book was published by a super mainstream publisher, so I was frankly surprised to find glaring errors like those in this book as I expected to find these errors in some self-published novel, but alas.

[Chris Boutté · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was excited about this book when it first came out in 2022 because it was a few months after I left a terrible job. Then, I got this new job, and I have the most amazing co-workers and managers I could hope for, so I never came around to reading it. Fortunately, I was at the bookstore and saw it and decided to read it just so I can review it for all of you who work with terrible people.

Tessa West killed it with this book. I’ve worked so many terrible jobs where the only issues with where I worked were my awful coworkers. Whether it was when I was in sales and had people who stole clients and sales or when I worked at other places with managers who only pointed out your mistakes, I’ve dealt with it all. Tessa West’s book was giving me flashbacks and made me appreciate my current job even more.

West breaks down all of the different types of jerks we work with as well as how to deal with them. There are a ton of anecdotes in the book, but she also turns to a bunch of different studies (some of which, she conducted). I loved this book and highly recommend it.

My only concern is that the reader will think they’re dealing with a jerk at work when they aren’t, but Tessa West does a good job reminding the reader that they may be the jerk.

[Prabhash Gokarn · Rating 5 out of 5]

All of us have faced Jerks at Work. For many of us who have said, “I can’t stand that jerk!” more times than they’d like to admit, Jerks at Work is the ultimate playbook you wish you didn’t need but will always turn to.

While these jerks stress us out in small ways throughout the day, they aren't technically breaking any rules, so we're expected just to put up with them.

West, the author has profiled classic workplace archetypes: the Gaslighter, the Bulldozer, the Credit-Stealer, the Neglecter, and the Micromanager; and gives advice to tackle each type of boss/ colleague.

She digs deep into the inner workings of each bad apple, exploring their motivations and insecurities, and offers clever strategies for stopping each type of jerk in their tracks.

Report a Kiss Up/Kick Downer to a manager who idolizes them without looking like the bad guy (much needed)

Protect your high-achieving team from Free Riders without stifling collaboration (credit stealers are everywhere - success has many fathers)

Beat a Gaslighter at his own game - people who use emotions to abuse you and the game the system.

[Debra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to Portfolio Penguin for my copy. My opinions are my own.

This is my second read from Tessa West, and what I love about her writing is how eminently readable it is. Working with jerks at work can be a highly complex matter, but West presents achievable solutions based in social science in a way that I could replicate if needed. Most of us have never formally learned the skills to manage different types of jerks, but if we can predict and strategize for problems, most of us can actually handle them well. And the key is leveraging social relationships. The book is formatted such that each of the seven different kinds of "work jerks" are presented separately (though the traits are certainly not mutually exclusive), such that it can be used as a reference guide and does not have to be read in order for it to be useful. She lays out what characterizes each type, how their jerkiness affects you, and what you can do about it. One thread that I saw throughout is that uncertainty and a lack of control are a common reaction to jerks, and that this is fixable.

[Synthia Salomon · Rating 3 out of 5]

you don’t have to just put up with toxic coworkers. There are alternatives to venting to your friends about them and hoping that all your problems will go away.

For starters, try to pinpoint  their behavior. What exactly are they doing? Are they micromanaging, neglecting, bulldozing, free riding? Once you figure that out, try to address it. Again, that doesn’t mean you have to confront them directly. Sometimes, the solution could be something as simple as setting up a non-confrontational meeting to help you get on the same page — but other times, a more drastic action will be needed, and you may need the help of people higher up in your company’s hierarchy. Either way, you need to be thoughtful, strategic and open-minded about any and all possible solutions

gaslighter — someone who psychologically manipulates you into having a false sense of reality. 

Put things in writing because gaslighters take advantage of your memory!

[Todd Kashdan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The cover art gives you an inkling of what is in store for you. Dr. Tessa West clearly knows her research but she does something few scientists do well. She produces exceptionally interesting ideas and keeps the science in the background. You already know the different archetypes of horrible coworkers that she shares. What you might not now is the motivations behind their crappy behavior or concrete techniques for neutralizing them.

I love the real-world relevance of her strategies.
I love the detailed stories in each chapter (another area that few social scientists do well).
Most of all, Dr. Tessa West is freaking hilarious. This is a somber topic that does not need to be shared in a somber manner. I found myself highlighting both content and beautifully constructed phrases.

Enjoy the writing, relish the methods to improve the quality of your life.

[A.J.M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this book helped me realize that I needed to change locations at my job. Although it was kind of a sloppy exit the way I did it, I also managed to save enough face to move without anyone talking about what had happened. But let's not give that jerk at work any spotlight shall we?

Thanks to this book, today, I am now working in an office higher than herself. Thankfully, in another location. My housing off-duty is as far away from her as they could get me. And on top of all things, everyone where I now am wants me to advance in my position to a higher level. To top it all off, my work performance has overall skyrocketed in the improvement department.

Big kudos to you Tessa! You are a hero!

[Avi Poje · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book more.

Some technical notes: I listened to the audiobook version, which was read well. Whoever edited it for audiobook format needed to understand that the surveys at the end needed to be converted to a PDF and not translated to audio. It ruined the ending.

It was easy to read. The descriptions seemed accurate for most of the jerks she talked about, based on personal encounters with people in my life. However, her solutions to overcome the jerks seemed like milquetoast pabulum. I found no comfort in what she said, and don't feel like her offerings would be effective.

The worst part of the book was that she said, "Press the flesh" three times, which is right up there with the word "moist" for leaving me with an unsettled feeling in the pit of my stomach.

[Melissa Whitney · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of FORBES Magazine's must reads of 2022 and I can see why! This easy read waves in psycho-social theory/study with story-telling. An refreshing professional book that uses cutting wit and real world advice to help you identify those "jerks" and how to deal with them. Whether new to the workplace, struggling, serving as a manager or member of a team this book is definitely perfect for ANYONE. You may think you don't have a jerk (likely you may be that jerk). This is a great guide in not only how to spot and deal with them, but to see the times you play that role. The assessments at the end are a wonderful added bonus.

[Katsiaryna Rudzko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Неплохая книга. Материал структурирован по типу токсичных коллег на работе. Система автора лично для меня не самая четкая, но это субъективно. В целом автор по каждому типу проводит детальное описание характеристик токсичного коллеги. Самая полезная часть - это собственно рекомендации автора на предмет того, как избавиться от нездорового влияния токсичных коллег и в целом на будущее не попасть под него. Советы в целом ценные, разъясняются и раскрываются достаточно детально, чтобы читатель не просто запомнил совет, а понял принципы, лежащие в его основе.

Считаю, что как первая базовая книга по работе с токсичными коллегами - весьма достойный вариант.

[Katsiaryna Rudzko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Неплохая книга. Материал структурирован по типу токсичных коллег на работе. Система автора лично для меня не самая четкая, но это субъективно. В целом автор по каждому типу проводит детальное описание характеристик токсичного коллеги. Самая полезная часть - это собственно рекомендации автора на предмет того, как избавиться от нездорового влияния токсичных коллег и в целом на будущее не попасть под него. Советы в целом ценные, разъясняются и раскрываются достаточно детально, чтобы читатель не просто запомнил совет, а понял принципы, лежащие в его основе.

Считаю, что как первая базовая книга по работе с токсичными коллегами - весьма достойный вариант.

[Chris Jaffe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great title - I picked it up from the library based on that alone. But ... yeah, not for me. I've been fortunate not to have many jerks at work. Also, this is less about jerk coworkers and more about jerk bosses, and most jobs I've had have required very little oversight. The jerk bosses I've had don't really fit the categories here that well. They're just tyrants.

I ended up skimming the last few chunks of the book. I feel bad about doing that, but I wasn't getting much from what I was reading anyway.

[Melody · Rating 3 out of 5]

I checked this book out through the library and it was definitely worth reading. I was pretty certain I could already identify individuals that: step on you to get ahead, the credit stealers, the bulldozers, the neglectful and the gaslighters in this world. I took more thought on key phrases and words in the book, like: Contribute Solutions, Not Problems and words like; perspective and invisible labor. I liked her candor about boundaries; setting the tone early that "you won't get away with that shit here.."

[Sandi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jerks are everywhere, not just at work. Can't go a day on earth without running into one.
It only takes one to ruin the work place though.
Definition of a jerk: treats other people badly.
One thing I like about this book is that it has scenarios with multiple choice answers about what to do and to see if you are acting like a jerk at work yourself. But, then what jerk would read this book? or take the quiz?