The Cranky Middle Manager Show #101 You Drive Your Boss Crazy- Anita Bruzzese
The Cranky Middle Manager Show #101 (MP3 13.1MB 32:34 Min)
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Welcome to our next 100 shows. Today we speak to Anita Bruzzese, the workplace columnist for Gannett newspapers and USA Today.com about her book “45 Things You Do That Drive Your Boss Crazy- and How To Avoid Them“.
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Show Notes
0:00 Welcome to show 101. This is the podcast dedicated to middle managers- too low on the food chain to claim omnipotence, too high to claim ignorance. This show is dedicated to King Lear. I got the idea from this article on Management-Issues about using Shakespeare to demonstrate business problems. Lear’s issue was poor succession planning, and of course his employees drove him literally crazy.
3:33 The quote of the week is from the Roman orator Seneca. The pressure of adversity does not affect the mind of the brave…. yeah right. I’d stab this guy myself for that one.
5:16 Welcome Anita Bruzzese, columnist and author. We don’t intend to drive our bosses crazy, for the most part, it just kinda works out that way. What kind of stuff drives your boss crazy? A lot of it has to do with communication- particularly email. If you want to impress your boss, learn to write a memo that people can actually decipher. Oh, and get a grip on the email as well.
10:46 Why do otherwise normal competent people not write like grownups? It’s a huge business issue. Pee in a cup and write me an email kid.Oh, and give some thought to using the telephone.
15:57 We are all working closely together- maybe too closely. Mind your ps and qs darn it. A little common decency here, people.
19:12 What is it with people not being able to use their heads. Dirty jokes, racist behavior and sex in the workplace (where are these people working????). If you’re offensive, someone will take offense.
24:00 Not getting to know your co-workers presents its own set of problems. We don’t operate in a vacuum. My wife doesn’t think I can operate a vacuum but that’s not your problem…..
25:00 At the end of the day, what really makes your boss crazy is not paying attention to the bottom line, and not helping your boss and co-workers make their numbers. Oh, and Anita confesses what she does to her poor boss.
28:00 Oh, Anita’s book has blurbs by Marshall Goldsmith and Judith Glaser, both past guests on this show. The universe is shrinking at an alarming rate. Check out her blog here.
Other resources she likes are
Seth Godin’s blog and his book The Dip.
“I Didn’t See It Coming”, a book about getting laid off unexpectedly and how to avoid it.
That’s all gang, don’t let the weasels get you down.
July 16th, 2007 at 12:39 am
[...] Looky here! Episode 101 guest Anita Bruzzese is a workplace columnist who’s “On the Job” is syndicated in dozens of Gannet-run US newspapers and sometimes USAToday.com. Here’s an article that came out in a bunch of papers this week, this one is from the Salt Lake City Tribune. [...]
July 16th, 2007 at 9:41 am
[...] On The Cranky Middle Manager Episode 101, Wayne interview guest Anita Bruzzese, a workplace columnist who’s “On the Job” is syndicated in dozens of Gannet-run US newspapers and sometimes USAToday.com. [...]
July 16th, 2007 at 9:43 am
[...] On The Cranky Middle Manager Episode 101, Wayne interviewed guest Anita Bruzzese, a workplace columnist who’s “On the Job” is syndicated in dozens of Gannet-run US newspapers and sometimes USAToday.com. [...]