Working With People Who Suck

This post has been formulating in my head for a while now, as I thought how much I loved 7 Habits and The 4-Hour Work Week (Amazon) and all the other great stuff I’m reading. However there’s one question they don’t seem to answer – what if you have to work with someone who sucks?

I mean, the boss who makes a mistake, causes you more work, but never apologizes, or the one that makes you take the fall for his mistake? The one that calls you incessantly, at all hours and at the weekend until your partner begs you to quit? The person who screws up every small task, from booking a car or buying stationary, to transporting something from A to B? The guy who doesn’t run his code before committing it, and doesn’t know what a test case is? The coworker who’s been there 10 years but can’t write an SQL statement? The person who makes their ignorance your problem? The guy you’re continually covering for because his drinking is out of hand?

(Yes these are all situations that either I, or people I know have been in.)

Tribes is the first book to give me that answer. Here it is: make change happen.

And then I thought, what if it’s just a job, not a career?

So? Make change anyway.

I’ve been struggling a bit with the organization of WISE lately – I don’t feel like some people are committed and I’ve ended up micromanaging and I don’t want to! I think this book has given me the answer though – I need to have more faith in what I’m doing and in myself, and lead.