Workplace Drama

OFFICE: AN AMERICAN WORKPLACE, THE (2005) - FISCHER, JENNA. Photography. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.
quest.eb.com/search/144_1563023/1/144_1563023/cite. Accessed 25 Oct 2017.

If your workplace is a drama-free zone, consider yourself lucky. Many workers deal with unfairness, questionable activities, abusive bosses, unprofessional colleagues, or just a "culture of dysfunction" in the workplace. Life coach Lori Scherwin says "No one should ever have to work in an environment that causes your stomach to go in quivers but the unfortunate reality is it's more normal than we'd prefer. Often professionals 'accept it' as is, which can do more harm for you in the long-run, both professionally and also personally." Everyone has bad days, but there are a whole lots of red flags that indicate your workplace is toxic - backstabbing, micromanaging, bullying, internal competition, with no concern from management about work-life balance and dissent being discouraged. Depending on how toxic your workplace is, you might need more than good advice, but Mashable, The Muse, Lifehacker, Huffington Post, and even Ivanka Trump all have suggestions for coping with workplace drama. Us? We don't pretend to have the answers, but we're always willing to take a look in a book. The Rumpus and The New Yorker had some suggestions of  "books with bad bosses" that you might find useful, and we've added a few of our own.


Fiction

Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville [eBook]

Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris

The Assistants by Camille Perri

The Circle by Dave Eggers

Lightning Rods by Helen Dewitt

The Beautiful Bureaucrat by Helen Phillips

A Window Opens by Elisabeth Egan

Non- Fiction

Cubed: A History of the Office by Nikil Saval

Making Work Work: The Positivity Solution For Any Work Environment by Shola Richards

The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work by Alain de Botton

No More Work: Why Full Employment Is a Bad Idea by James Livingston

First Jobs: True Tales of Bad Bosses, Quirky Coworkers, Big Breaks, and Small Paychecks edited by Merritt Watt

Shop Class As Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work by Matthew B. Crawford

The Three Signs of a Miserable Job: A Fable For Managers (And Their Employees) by Patrick Lencioni

A World of Work: Imagined Manuals For Real Jobs edited by Ilana Gershon

A Day In The Life

For many of us, much of our waking time is spent at work (for better or worse), and every now and then, someone will decide to sit down and write about his or her experiences on the job. While memoirs from high ranking officials may get more buzz, readers often think of the heartwarming tales from veterinarian James Herriot or the brash, unapologetic stories from chef Anthony Bourdain. Workplace memoirs give us a deeper understanding of what it’s like to spend a day as someone else – the environment they work in, the challenges they face, and the interesting things that happen along the way. From the juicy tell-all to the fascinating look into a profession, these memoirs help us find new ways to relate to people, have a better understanding of their lives, and even provide us with a chuckle or helpful tidbit.

If anything, after reading them you can say, “thank goodness I don’t have that job.”

Check out these workplace memoirs:

How About Never--Is Never Good for You?: My Life in Cartoons by Bob Mankoff

Cruising Attitude: Tales of Crashpads, Crew Drama, and Crazy Passengers at 35,000 Feet by Heather Poole

I Wasn't Strong Like This When I Started Out: True Stories of Becoming a Nurse edited by Lee Gutkind

Confessions of a Surgeon: The Good, the Bad, and the Complicated by Paul A. Ruggieri

Slow Getting Up: A Story of NFL Survival from the Bottom of the Pile by Nate Jackson

Whatever You Do, Don't Run: True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide by Peter Allison [ebook]

Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian by Avi Steinberg

Waiting: True Confessions of a Waitress by Debra Ginsberg

Waiter Rant: Thanks For The Tip by The Waiter

Curtains: Adventures of an Undertaker-In-Training by Tom Jokinen [ebook]

Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise by Ruth Reichl