How to Work for an Idiot

Released November 2003

Publisher(s): Career Press

ISBN: 9781564147042

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Book description

Praise for Hoover’s bestseller How to Work for an Idiot:

“Anyone who has to work should read How to Work for an Idiot.”

– USA Today

“Dr. Hoover recommends admitting that you are ‘powerless’ over the jerks in your life. Otherwise, ‘harboring all that resentment is like drinking a cup of poison and waiting for the jerk to die’.”

– The Wall Street Journal

“‘How to Work for an Idiot’ contains a lot of humor, with plenty of good information as well.”

– Campbell Brown, Weekend Today Show

“There is no question that How to Work for an Idiot is a subversive book. People will pick it up expecting a tasty blend of commiseration and advice. They will put it down thinking, to paraphrase the famous line from the cartoon character Pogo, ‘We have met the idiot, and he is us’.”

– The New York Times

“Dr. John’s ‘How to Work for an Idiot’ is very funny stuff, with some stinging jabs in there.”

– Neil Cavuto, FOX News

“...an irreverent and realistic look at what people must deal with every day at work.”

– CNNfn

“After reading How to Work for an Idiot, I feel that I have become a better boss myself.”

—Stew Leonard, owner of Stew Leonard’s Inc.

How to Work for an Idiot is the confession of a recovering “I-Boss” (Idiot Boss). After decades of writing and consulting, John Hoover, also known as Dr. John, finally realized that the vast majority of people he kept trying to energize, to motivate, and to enlighten were, well—idiots. He also realized that he was an idiot for trying to change them.

Instead, he has decided to enlighten you, the poor schlubs, who actually must continue working for these idiot bosses. You cannot change them. You cannot challenge them. And, no, you cannot practice anything on them you saw on CSI or even CSI: Miami. But, you can survive them, even thrive under them, if only you know how to deal with them.

How to Work for an Idiot contains real solutions for real problems that employees must deal with every day:

• Idiot-speak—How to speak and understand your I-Boss’s language.

• Idiot-eat—What to do when your I-Boss gets lettuce stuck in her teeth at lunch.

• How to appear dumber than your boss—a key way to save your job and go far in it.

So, despair no longer—this book offers hope for the spirit, strategy for the mind, and the essential ins-and-outs of dealing with an idiot boss. And it wouldn’t hurt idiot-bosses themselves to take a look at what Dr. John says in this book.

John Hoover, Ph.D. is an organizational leadership consultant, a former publisher of books on tape, a middle executive with Walt Disney Productions, and a divisional general manager with McGraw-Hill. He has helped dozens of clients in the corporate and public sectors overcome the disease of idiocy, including Delta Air Lines, IBM, Hilton Hotels, and Xerox.