30 Reasons Employees Hate Their Managers: What Your People May Be Thinking and What You Can Do about It

By Bruce L. Katcher and Adam Snyder

Book Overview

Quietly seething...secretly resenting...and ultimately affecting performance, employees negative feelings toward their managers can lurk beneath the surface of even the most pleasant-seeming work relationships. These issues, if gone unchecked, can result in organizational catastrophe. To find out whats really going on, the authors surveyed more than 50,000 employees in 65 organizations of all types and sizes, and discovered the 30 main causes of ill will. This book provides solutions for these fundamental symptoms of employee-manager discomfort, including employees sense that:

they're being treated like childrentheir contributions aren't respectedtheir manager doesn't listen to themsenior managers are incompetentthey lack the resources and training they need to do their jobs wellthey get insufficient feedbacktheir pay isn't fairly linked to job performancethey are burdened by heavy workloads or inflexible schedules.

Featuring real-life examples, this eye-opening book empowers managers to make their workplaces more productive, congenial, and satisfying for their people and for themselves.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0814417647
• ISBN13: 9780814417645
• Release Date: March 2007
• Publisher: Amacom
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Not just another "How to manage book"

Unlike many books on management and supervision that are mostly theoretical with very little practical application, 30 Reasons Employees Hate Their Managers takes a different approach. Based on surveys of more than 50,000 employees, the author has defined 30 big problems that managers and supervisors have - even though they may not know it. Each reason is addressed from four perspectives: -An illustrative story -The problem for employers -The psychological reasons for the reality -Solutions This approach leads to a very practical and usable book. You can search the index for the problem your having and, within 5-10 minutes, you'll have a better understanding of the problem and three or more potential solutions. This should be a reference book on every manager's desk. I know it will stay on mine.

Practical Advice for Managers

30 Reasons Employees Hate Their Managers is a must read for any manager at any level in any organization. It presents practical advice in a very interesting and novel manner. Bruce Katcher presents real-life stories from his consulting experience that make the book very easy to read. The advice he offers makes a lot of sense. If you're looking for a good new "how-to" book on management that is based on theory and research, this book fits the bill.

A must read for all managers and those who aspire to be managers!

Bruce Katcher takes a refreshingly practical and realistic approach to one of the most critical challenges in organizations today standing in the way of productivity and results. An excellent handbook that not only clearly identifies the issues that exist within the employee-manager relationship but effective solutions and best practices to resolve and/or prevent these issues. Employees, managers, and executives should all read this book with an open mind to acquire helpful tools and effective techniques in creating meaningful dialogue and positive relationships.

Most offfice work is intolerable - here's why, and how to fix it.

Bruce Katcher has done a painfully excellent job of describing how awful most work situations are for employees. What saves this book from merely being an indictment of modern corporate life is the elegantly simple solutions the author includes at the end of each of the thirty short chapters. After describing each downside to being an employee, the author first efficiently describes the research and psychological theory related to each problem, which then motivates his list of solutions for managers (and upwardly-managing employees) to consider. So many business books are just filled with vague catch-phrases. In contrast, Bruce Katcher's book is precise, accurate, and based on real data and real research. The content and the style are a breath of fresh air. Highly recommended.

It makes me a better manager.

As an owner-manager of a small business, I have always found it difficult to bridge the gap between me and my employees. Dr. Katcher's easily-digested essays have illuminated many of my management "blind spots". I find myself referencing his sensible observations regularly. "30 Reasons..." has made me a better manager, and the office a much more pleasant place.