Mary Abbajay

A pipe dream in college students is that your boss will always agree with your professional direction as you free yourself from teachers. The realities of the workplace often shatter this puerile dream. A boss’s personality quirks can sometimes drive their direct reports crazy. Mary Abbajay seeks to identify these personality traits and suggest adjustment strategies so that workers can get on with succeeding at their careers.

I fully support the concept of managing up. I’ve certainly had mistakes with bosses in the past that I now regret. I will continue to learn ways about how to manage up effectively. My organization deserves that. This book provides an introduction to this issue by analyzing the boss’s personality.

The problem that I have is that this book is just so simple. It’s indeed appropriate for new employees who need to hear these truths articulated and validated. Nonetheless, it doesn’t push the envelope in any way. In business books, I look for some point of new information and original research that teaches the wider community something. Instead, this book mostly revisits well-explored themes.

Again, it might be helpful to a person new to the workplace, someone who needs exposure to these ideas for the first time. Anyone who has been in the workplace for a longer period of time won’t find more to push them forward, unfortunately. I’ll keep looking for a book on managing up that aids my improvement more directly.… (mehr)