A Survival Guide for Working With Humans: Dealing With Whiners, Back-Stabbers, Know-It-Alls, and Other Difficult People

by Gini Graham Scott

Between dealing with difficult people and navigating through unexpected and complicated situations, the typical day at the office involves making countless choices on how to engage with others. To succeed in the long run, good work relationships must be carefully developed and maintained. A Survival Guide for Working with Humans presents real-life scenarios of specific work relationship problems, along with interactive quizzes, and answers on how to solve each of the problems. The book shows readers how * Deal with ethical dilemmas in the workplace * Resolve everyday conflicts * Know when to speak up, when not to, and what to say * Make a graceful retreat from an unwinnable confrontation A snappy, conversational style combines with dozens of practical tools and examples to make a fascinating, essential book.

Genres: Nonfiction, Self Help

176 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 2003

About the author

Gini has published over 50 books with major publishers, including books on work relationships, professional and personal development, creativity, law, criminal justice, popular culture, and social trends. She has published over 200 books through her company Changemakers Publishing, and has recently written a series of books on self-publishing.
She has been a guest on 100s of radio and TV talk shows including Oprah, Good Morning America, and CNN.

She helps clients write, publish, market, and promote any type of book through her company Changemakers Publishing and Writing at www.changemakerspublishingandwriting.com She also helps clients find publishers and agents.

In addition, she writes scripts and produces films through her company Changemakers Productions. She has written and produced 14 feature films, TV pilots, and documentaries, with 8 of them in distribution, the others in post production. Details are on her website for films at www.changemakersproductionsfilms.com. She helps clients turn their books into scripts and she reviews books for their film potential.

She also has written and produced over 60 short films. Examples are featured on her YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/changemakersprod.

She speaks and does workshops and seminars on the topics of her books and on self-publishing, writing and promoting books.

She has written over 200 songs featured at Changemakers Music (www.changemakersmusic.com). Her latest songs are on her Changemakers Music YouTube Channel.

She is a game designer who has published over two dozen games, featured at Changemakers Games (www.changemakersgames.com) .

Reviews

[Noha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though I planned to read this book before my internship, I never got the time to finish till 5 months after. I must say it's not a guideline or handbook to follow but it has situations every normal person would face and can relate to. Despite the differences between doctors and business investors, difficult people are found in every work field and handling them is an impossible task. Reading this book may not give you the right answer in every situation but at least it gives the options you may have and it's up to you whether you take it or not. All in all I enjoyed it, read it.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book to be extremely helpful! The scenarios were about very different types of workplaces than mine, but I was able to see how those lessons can apply to my workplace. There are even a couple of scenarios that sound exactly like what I’m going through. After reading the book and taking the self-assessment at the end, I definitely feel better equipped to handle situations in future.

[Jennifer Heise · Rating 3 out of 5]

This self-help book for professional life is a collection of short 'case studies' related to work dilemmas, from how to work with specific types of difficult colleagues to where and when to leave-- and whether to consider legal action. The author wrote these for periodical publication as a series, but it doesn't show that much. I like the format in which she poses different questions about what you would do, and then talks about what she thinks would be the best option. She is very clear that sometimes the option she suggests wouldn't work, but that some options are usually better than others. A decent tool for thinking through at-work behavior. A little simplistic for me, but the case studies kept it from being boring. I wouldn't read it again, but would suggest it for those who may be looking for something between Difficult Personalities: A Practical Guide to Managing the Hurtful Behavior of Others (and Maybe Your Own) and Working With You is Killing Me: Freeing Yourself from Emotional Traps at Work .

[Ha Truong · Rating 2 out of 5]

It doesn't have much knowledge to learn. You'd rather trust yourself than things told in this book. Just take some deep breathes, calm down for seconds and think over your situation, you should have a better solution.

[Saaeed]

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