The Find: A much buzzed about new book argues that teamwork is for suckers, and those who really want to get the most out of their careers should become “soloists.”- The Source: A post on Knowledge@Wharton about the aptly titled new book, I Hate People!: Kick Loose from the Overbearing and Underhanded Jerks at Work and Get What You Want Out of Your Job.
The Takeaway: What causes burn-out? Long hours? Lack of management support? Lack of caffeine? No, argue Jonathan Littman and Marc Hershon, the authors of I Hate People. “Workers don’t burn out just because they work too hard. Workers burn out because of people.” According to this provocative duo your co-workers aren’t potential collaborators or fellow travelers who can shoulder some of your work burden, oh no, they are “jerks,” “oafs,” “Stop Signs who block your every idea,” “Switchblades who take credit for your work”, “the Flim flam with a snarky tendency to trick you into doing his work for him” and “the Minute Man who steals your time in bite-size chunks.” What’s to be done about this not very appealing cast of characters? In short, ignore them. Littman and Hershon advise those on the road to career burn out,
to be a “soloist” — someone who “is bold enough to create the attitude, space, and time to stretch [his] career and expand [his] life,” and who “deftly works alone or collaborates with just a handful of other talented people … while artfully deflecting all the rest.”
Intrigued? Check out the book (Bob Sutton loved it) or the authors’ blog.
The Question: We’ve all had days when we end up hating the human race because of work drama, but can you really get away with simply opting out of the worst of office politics?
(Image of soloist by jdl_deleon, CC 2.0)
