In your book, Jerks at Work, you outline four types of destructive colleagues. Who are they?
The first type is the ‘kiss-up, kick-downer.’ This is a person who is really talented at work; they have the skills needed to get on their boss’s radar, and their bosses often value them because they are high performers. But behind the scenes, they will do things like insult the competence of team members or ask interns to do work so they can get ahead. If you work with them, you’re in this infuriating position. They sometimes sabotage you, but it’s hard to get the boss to want to intervene on your behalf because they are very effective at their job.
The second type is the credit-stealer — someone you work closely with who steals credit for your work or ideas. They will do this in private meetings with the boss where they overemphasize their contributions. These people tend to be very articulate and well-spoken, and they have what scientists call ‘voice’ at work, which means when they speak up, people listen.
The next one is the bulldozer. All of us screen because they talked over everybody. But there’s more to this than talking too much. They are also conniving. They tend to be people who have held positions of power in the past, and they know how to get their way by going up the chain of command. If they don’t like a decision your group made, they will go up the chain of command and complain about the process through which that decision was made, not necessarily the outcome.
