Working Without A Boss

From the creator of the popular website Ask a Manager and New York’s work-advice columnist comes a witty, practical guide to 200 difficult professional conversations—featuring all-new advice! There’s a reason Alison Green has been called “the Dear Abby of the work world.” Ten years as a workplace-advice columnist have taught her that people avoid awkward conversations in the office because they simply don’t know what to say. Thankfully, Green does—and in this incredibly helpful book, she tackles the tough discussions you may need to have during your career. You’ll learn what to say when • coworkers push their work on you—then take credit for it • you accidentally trash-talk someone in an email then hit “reply all” • you’re being micromanaged—or not being managed at all • you catch a colleague in a lie • your boss seems unhappy with your work • your cubemate’s loud speakerphone is making you homicidal • you got drunk at the holiday party Praise for Ask a Manager “A must-read for anyone who works . . . [Alison Green’s] advice boils down to the idea that you should be professional (even when others are not) and that communicating in a straightforward manner with candor and kindness will get you far, no matter where you work.”—Booklist (starred review) “The author’s friendly, warm, no-nonsense writing is a pleasure to read, and her advice can be widely applied to relationships in all areas of readers’ lives. Ideal for anyone new to the job market or new to management, or anyone hoping to improve their work experience.”—Library Journal (starred review) “I am a huge fan of Alison Green’s Ask a Manager column. This book is even better. It teaches us how to deal with many of the most vexing big and little problems in our workplaces—and to do so with grace, confidence, and a sense of humor.”—Robert Sutton, Stanford professor and author of The No Asshole Rule and The Asshole Survival Guide “Ask a Manager is the ultimate playbook for navigating the traditional workforce in a diplomatic but firm way.”—Erin Lowry, author of Broke Millennial: Stop Scraping By and Get Your Financial Life Together

Widely acclaimed for its engaging style and provocative perspective, this book has helped thousands transform their working lives. Now including a 30-page resource guide that explains the basics of working for oneself. It's about fulfillment. A revolution is sweeping America. On its front lines are people fed up with unfulfilling jobs, dysfunctional workplaces, and dead-end careers. Meet today's new economic icon: the free agent-men and women who are working for themselves. And meet your future. It's about freedom. Free agents are the marketing consultant down the street, the home-based "mompreneur," the footloose technology contractor. Already 30 million strong, these 21st-century pioneers are creating lives with more meaning-and often more money. Free Agent Nation is your ticket to this world. It's about time. Now, you can discover: The kind of free agent you can be-"soloist," "temp," or "microbusiness"-and how to launch your new career. How to get the perks you once received from your boss: health insurance, office space, training, workplace togetherness, even water cooler gossip. Why the free agent economy is increasingly a woman's world-and how women are flourishing in it. The transformation of retirement-how older workers are creating successful new businesses (and whole new lives) through the Internet.

Don’t let a bad boss or manager hold you back from being successful! Every day millions of people with high potential are frustrated and held back by incompetent leaders. New York Times bestselling author and leadership expert John C. Maxwell knows this because the number one question he gets asked is about how to lead when the boss isn’t a good leader. You don’t have to be trapped in your work situation. In this book, adapted from the million-selling The 360-Degree Leader, and now distilled down for busy professionals, Maxwell unveils the keys to successfully navigating the challenges of working for a bad boss. In How to Lead When Your Boss Can’t (or Won’t), Maxwell teaches you how to: position yourself for current and future success, take the high road with a poor leader, avoid common pitfalls, work well with teammates, and develop influence wherever you find yourself. Practicing the principles taught in this book will result in endless opportunities—for your organization, your career, and your life. You can learn how to lead when your boss can’t (or won’t).

W. L. Gore & Associates, established in 1958, is renowned for several innovative products such as the "waterproof while breathing" textile material Gore-Tex, but it is also known for its remarkable "lattice" organizational structure. Borrowing the lattice concept from architecture and crafts, where it refers to intertwined materials, the company operates as a system of intertwined associates in which no one is anyone's boss. The various activities within the company have leaders who are selected based on their merits and abilities to attract followers. As a company with more than 10,000 employees, Gore does have the equivalent of a chief executive officer who may be contacted by partners and others outside the company, but in recent history, even this person has been selected from among staff.

Everything about work changed in 2020. Billions of people were sent home from the office, unsure of what they'd be coming back to, or when. Organizations crammed decades of transformation into weeks. And every leader was asked for the same, impossible thing: clarity. Bestselling authors and management experts Johnathan and Melissa Nightingale capture a year of leadership lessons, from the first COVID lockdowns to the first anniversary. Unmanageable is the definitive read on how it felt to adapt, reinvent, and lead during the most tumultuous time in a generation. From the early chaos, to unending burnout, and the unprecedented turnover that followed, the pandemic laid bare the cracks in the old rules of work. Unmanageable introduces the new rules, and offers a practical and essential guide for what comes next. If you want to understand the future of work, start here.

Fire Your Boss is the disruptive alternative blueprint for charting a new life-giving career path that gives you control, allowing you to set your own rules for your work life. Provocative, liberating, and universally appealing, Fire Your Boss seeks to help readers resolve the deepest root of workplace unrest—namely, fear and self-preservation. This book upgrades readers’ core belief systems, demonstrates how to liberate their careers forever, and ultimately, join a heretical uprising without becoming an entrepreneur, changing jobs, or simply white-knuckling their way to retirement. Aaron McHugh maps out how to make philosophical, emotional, tactical, and heart-centered shifts at every intersection on the career journey. Firing your boss does not require you to leave to your job. Firing your boss does not require you to start a new business. Firing your boss becomes the life-altering daily mantra that transforms the disengaged into hopeful leaders. Discover how to plot a new course of career freedom and independence, empowerment, and self-reliance. Find your smile again, rekindle your mojo, recapture the art of your work, and start enjoying your work every single day.

The landmark study of how medical errors are managed among surgeons and other hospital staff—now in an updated edition with a new preface and epilogue. When it was first published, Forgive and Remember offered groundbreaking insight into the training and lives of young surgeons. It quickly emerged as the definitive sociological study on the subject. While medical errors are both inevitable and potentially devastating, Bosk found that they could be forgiven—as long as they were remembered and never repeated. In this second edition, Bosk reflects more than twenty years later on how things have changed, both in the medical profession and in sociology. With an extensive new preface, epilogue, and appendix by the author, this updated edition of Forgive and Remember is as timely as ever.

One of the New York Post's Top 10 Career Books of 2012 and a Booklist Top 10 Business Book DO YOU WORK WITH A MEAN GIRL? A woman’s field guide to the new frontier of professional development—working with other women Women-to-women relationships in the workplace are . . . complicated. When they’re good, they’re great. But when they’re bad, they can ruin your day, your week—even your year. Packed with proven advice from two of today’s leading experts in workplace relationships, this one-of-a-kind guide gives women the tools they need to navigate difficult situations unique to women-to-women relationships—whether with a boss, a colleague, a client, or an employee. Have you dealt with a woman in the workplace who: “Accidentally” excludes you from important meetings? Seems intent on taking you down professionally? Gossips about you with other coworkers? Makes you look bad by missing deadlines? Forms a “pack” of mean girls to make your life miserable? Mean Girls at Work isn’t just about surviving difficult situations. It’s about transforming a toxic relationship into one that benefits and supports both of you. This book is also for women who engage in mean behavior . . . but don’t know it. After all, who hasn’t gossiped about a female coworker? Who hasn’t rolled her eyes in the presence of a woman she doesn’t like? Who hasn’t scanned another woman head to toe—which is just a nonverbal way of saying, “You’ve just been judged”? The authors provide invaluable advice to the more subtle ways of being mean—even if they’re not intended. With a workforce composed of a higher percentage of women than ever, workplace dynamics have changed. Crowley and Elster cover every conceivable scenario, providing critical advice on how to rise above the fray and move forward professionally. Mean Girls at Work is your map to dodging the mines and moving forward in today’s transformed workplace. Praise for Mean Girls at Work “An invaluable suit of armor for surviving nine to five!” —Leil Lowndes, bestselling author of How to Talk to Anyone “If you think the emotional cruelty of comedies like Mean Girls and Heathers doesn’t exist in the real world workplace, think again. In Mean Girls at Work, Katherine Crowley and Kathi Elster valuably chronicle female vs. female predators and offer solid defensive strategies.” —Ann Kreamer, author of It’s Always Personal: Navigating Emotion in the New Workplace “Whether you are in your twenties and just starting your professional career, your midcareer forties, when you are supposed to have figured it out already, or a woman in her fifties or sixties who’s seen it all—this book is a must-read. . . . The authors have finally given women the tools and the sound advice necessary to deal with . . . conflicts that keep us all from succeeding. . . . Carry this book with you to work every day!” —Carolyn Cassin, President, Michigan Women’s Foundation “A must-read for women of all ages in today’s workforce. This book offers what we all need to develop the capacities to endure this ever-changing workplace. We know it is all about relationships and you need the skills outlined in this book to survive and thrive when the Mean Girls attack.” —Kim Harrington, Coordinator, Professional Development and Training, Office of Human Resources, California State University, Sacramento