Read Working with Monsters How to Identify and Protect Yourself from the Workplace Psychopath John Clarke 9781740511544 Books

Product details Paperback 304 pages Publisher Random House Australia; 1st edition (February 1, 2002) Language English ISBN-10 1740511549

Working with Monsters How to Identify and Protect Yourself from the Workplace Psychopath John Clarke 9781740511544 Books Reviews

• I purchased this book because I truly thought the type of behavior I was observing at work once our company was bought out by one of the largest, global corporations in the world was insane. The book confirmed that it was quite insane; however, it is what people face daily in the workplace everywhere. It explains how many high-level executives and top decision-makers within a company have sociopathic behavior, but the best part, it provides guidelines on how to deal with sociopaths, bullies, and survive in the toxic environment that has become prevalent in recent times, for as long as one chooses to remain.
  
  A must read for those people that find themselves working in the midst of insanity and are too young to retire!
• Very clearly explains what seems to be an increasingly common problem in workplaces run by managers who don't understand the technical functions of their staff and so can overlook people of real worth while being beguiled by people to excel in making themselves look good at the expense of others. A valuable lesson for anyone in a command or leadership position - identify and root out such people at every opportunity.
• Read this book if you want to understand what makes these monsters tick. They're out there making life miserable for untold numbers of workers. Knowing something about them will help you cope with these horrible people.
• This book provides excellent insight into the minds and actions of psychopaths in the workplace and as such can save your sanity if confronted by one of these people. Most management books about interpersonal conflict assume that people are acting more of less in good faith. This is not always the case - some people are just psychos! I read this book a few years ago and re-read it recently when confronted by a boss who was behaving like a manipulative arsehole. I took a copy to the CEO and he is currently taking action. Very readable and accessible and possibly life changing.
• I work with a monster like one presented and evaluated here.
  I kept thinking perhaps I was the problem with this employee, perhaps
  if I had been this or that, done this or that. After reading Clarke's
  essay I am somewhat relieved. I did all the things right, but this
  person must be a psychopath. Unfortunately,as Clarke says, they usually
  are smarter and more experienced than you. So read it and see for yourself
  to see who can come out on top. I recommend it.
• Great
• WORKING WITH MONSTERS HOW TO IDENTIFY AND PROTECT YOURSELF FROM THE WORKPLACE PSYCHOPATH
  John Clarke, Random House, 2005
  
  Reviewed by Darren Cronshaw
  
  A decade ago a young pastor enthusiastically preached on work and God's interest in that sphere of life. After the church service, a person who worked as a senior lawyer approached the new pastor and said, "That's all very well and good, but what about when work doesn't work? What have you got to say about a Christian perspective on problems in the workplace?" The next week the young pastor took up the challenge and preached on "when work doesn't work", looking particularly at interpersonal difficulties in the workplace.
  
  How to deal with difficult bosses or colleagues is a challenge for many workers. The interpersonal and ethical dilemmas are many and varied. The potential entanglement gets all the more complex when the person involved does not relate logically or honestly - when there is some form of dysfunctional behaviour involved.
  
  John Clarke explores an extreme form of problem worker - what he calls the workplace psychopath. These troubled people present themselves as charming and proficient, but are self-centred, unethical, parasitic con-artists. Their skills at impression management are matched by their underhanded intimidation and manipulation of those around them, and their characteristic lack of remorse. Some express themselves with violence or `white-collar crime', while others more subtly indulge in inappropriate use of power or other forms of self-seeking behaviour.
  Clarke draws on his work in criminal profiling and consulting for corporations with `difficult employees'. He offers some basic tools for analysing whether someone might by a psychopath, being quick to say that diagnosis needs proper investigation and testing. He explains their human and organisational costs, processes for screening and profiling them, and other possible explanations of dysfunctional behaviour.
  
  Working with Monsters is disturbing in revealing the extent and damage of workplace psychopaths. It is also reassuring for worried organisations or bullied workers for whom the workplace has become a place that doesn't work.
  
  I would love to read more about workplace psychopaths in Christian organisations. Are psychopaths attracted to work for churches because of the power, ego-stroking and access to vulnerable people they provide? Do Christian organisations more readily ignore or tolerate dysfunctional behaviour? What mechanisms exist to screen dysfunctional workers? What sort of organisational dysfunction is it that marginalises people who make allegations, or that protects the high-flyers who use and abuse people around them? Duty-of-care and a comprehensive theology of work urges these questions. Clarke offers some helpful frameworks.
  
  I am not brave enough to pull out my old "when work doesn't work" sermon notes, let alone admit how naïve I probably was. I suspect my lawyer friend was subtly asking me to explore the sort of issues suggested by Working with Monsters.
  
  Darren Cronshaw is a Baptist pastor at Auburn Baptist Church and Coordinator of Leadership Training with teh Baptist Union of Victoria. He forgets where this review was published but will look it up - whether Zadok or The Witness.