Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant™ (TOT): How to Manage Childish Boss Behavior and Thrive in Your Job

Special Section: Advice for Bosses—TOT Proof Your Company

What Is a TOT?

Although you may be concerned by the title, which includes the phrase Terrible Office Tyrant (TOT), this book is not about boss bashing. As a matter of fact, it's a solutions-oriented book intended to foster better relationships between managers and employees. My hope is that a little humor will help break through some barriers—and help us see the kid in all of us at the office—for a more humanized, productive, and profitable workplace.

The humorous slant might also help ease any tensions you may have with your boss (or difficult board members, peer managers, or clients, for example). Similarly, "terrible tyrant" is intentionally offset by "TOT," because all adults share childlike traits at some point.

What exactly is a TOT? Terrible Office Tyrants, or TOTs, are managers who can unwittingly slip into childlike behavioral modes. There are a number of striking parallels. Behaviors can range from the more aggressive category: demanding, territorial, stubborn, or tantrum-throwing—to the more benign, such as neediness, whining, fickleness, or short attention spans.

In the book, your boss is usually referred to as Big TOT, or Super TOT if he or she is your boss's boss. (The term TOT does seem funnier now when it applies to others, doesn't it?) So, now you can officially use this book to tame your own TOT, if you'll promise ...