Press Room

"Concrete and insightful...These 100 solutions are 100% useful."

Katherine Crowley & Kathi Elster, bestselling authors of Working with You is Killing Me

Some days at work, nothing makes sense.

The CEO is getting another huge bonus.

Work is piling up due to the hiring freeze.

The server's down. IT isn't answering the phone.

The bad economy is making your team totally freak out.

Sales keeps making promises they can't keep. But you have to deliver.

And management's only response is, "Rah Rah Team!"

It all seems so crazy...sometimes you have to ask yourself if you're the last sane one left.

AM I THE ONLY SANE ONE WORKING HERE? 101 Solutions for Surviving Office Insanity (McGraw-Hill Professional; August, 2009; Paperback, $16.95) offers the secrets to staying sane in a gonzo work environment using techniques that will help you rise above the most hair-raising behaviors and the most pessimistic of colleagues.

Business is supposed to be rational and professional. The unfortunate truth is, most companies are totally dysfunctional. On top of that, crazy people are getting in the way - in your way, in their way, in the way of getting the job done. You'll be able to cut through the crazy, protect yourself, develop secret techniques, and maybe get yourself promoted in the process.

If you work alongside a nagging micromanager, a brownnoser, pathological liar, narcissist, basket case, or raging hallway maniac... If you have ever had to give (or receive) a pink slip, or a barely-passing-grade review...if you've had to handle (or being the subject of) hair-raising gossip... from picking your way through poorly managed systems to surviving in organizations that practice human sacrifice...here are dozens of techniques that won't help you control the behaviors of others, but keep your responses to the insane level-headed - and sane.

If you're swimming against a strong current of crazy co-workers, you're the sole beacon of sanity, swimming against a strong current of crazy, you can still manage it by changing your reactions, not their actions. Author Albert J. Bernstein's guidance helps you go from puzzled to powerful just by changing your attitude and your understanding of office madness.

Here's just a portion of what you'll learn:

Why the people you work with do stupid and annoying things, and what you can do to get them to stop
The one rule you must follow to avoid being fired, laid off, cut back or demoted during difficult economic times
Why doing a good job and succeeding are not necessarily the same thing
How to figure out the critical unwritten rules that no one will ever tell you
How to get people who never listen to listen to you
How to protect yourself from lies by learning how to think like a liar
How to get immature and recalcitrant coworkers off their lazy butts
Why being creative may be more trouble than it's worth
The three things you should say, and the one you shouldn't if you want to survive being chewed out
How to keep your inner teenager from making your business decisions
How to promote yourself without sounding like an ego-maniac
How to tell whether an office romance will warm your heart, or blow up in your face
Why a good attitude is like pornography

AM I THE ONLY SANE ONE WORKING HERE?

is a funny, smart, thought-provoking guide to surviving the workplace crazies with your own sanity intact.

Three Questions for Albert J. Bernstein , PhD, An expert on office sanity

Q: Why is it that so much that goes on at work seems crazy and irrational?

A: Businesses are supposed to provide good products and services so that people will buy them and the company makes money. We expect things to be organized and run so that everybody is working together to accomplish these goals. Unfortunately, no company actually operates this way. What we find instead is that people confuse their individual goals with the stated goals of the company, and this is when conflicts and complexities appear between corporate goals and personality types responding to those goals. That's how you end up with the clueless VP, the control freak terrified of making mistakes, the salespeople who promise miracles, the guy in the next cubicle who hates to be given instructions. The list goes on and on.

Q: Don't these people know what they're doing?

A: No. Most people operate on automatic pilot, seldom thinking about motives. People at work often say one thing and do another because they are aware only of the conscious intentions at the top of the pile, even though the driving force for most of their actions bubbles up from the depths.

Think of human motivation as a pile of thoughts, feelings, fears, and desires. When people do crazy things, we are likely to choose our responses based on what is happening to us rather than to what is happening with them, even though the latter is always more effective. The secret to staying sane in a dysfunctional workplace is to make rational choices about your own thoughts and actions even when the people around you are not making rational choices about theirs.

Q: Is there a downside to knowing more about people than they know about themselves?

A: Nobody likes being analyzed by an amateur shrink, but you can manage from being attacked by people who are defending their incomplete but comfortable view of themselves.

Never diagnose! Any statement that begins with "you are" not followed by the word "wonderful" will be taken as an attack. Use psychological terms with them same restraint you would show with four letter words, because the reaction will be exactly the same. Making an issue of people's issues is, at the very least, accusing them of being less sane than you are. At worst, you may hurt or enrage them.

Approach people from their point of view, not yours. This is the rule real therapists follow. Use your understanding of people's internal dynamics to speak to them in a way that is consistent with their view of themselves. This is the only way to get them to listen.

Do the unexpected. People's actions may be crazy, but that doesn't mean they don't make sense. All human behaviors follow patterns. If you recognize the patterns, you do not have to participate. Most interpersonal difficulties are dances that cannot continue if one person purposely stays out of step. You can think of my book is a series of lessons in declining dances that will drive you crazy.

About the Author:

Albert J. Bernstein, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and nationally recognized expert in conflict resolution. He is the author of two bestselling books, Dinosaur Brains an Emotional Vampires, both of which offer people practical lessons in dealing with difficult types at work and in life.

AM I THE ONLY SANE ONE WORKING HERE? 101 Solutions for Surviving Office Insanity by Albert J. Bernstein; McGraw-Hill; August, 2009; Paperback, $16.95; 304 pages; ISBN-10: 0-07-160872-9; ISBN-13: 978-0-07-160872-5.

Watch the YouTube Videos!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMp5zUlxe6Q (The Depressed Coworker)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_ZAXm34qk0 (The Inconsiderate Cubemate)