Your Boss Is Not Your Mother

Why are so many people chronically unhappy at work? According to renowned psychologist Dr. Debra Mandel, many people experience unhappiness on the job because they continually get sucked into needless workplace drama—with coworkers, bosses, subordinates, and clients. Unknowingly, they are often playing out problems they had with parents, siblings, or other important figures from their childhood and they don’t have the tools to escape these traps. Dr. Debra Mandel has worked with hundreds of people whose unhealed childhood hurts have caused them problems at work. She explains how once those familiar buttons get pushed, we might react to our judgmental boss as though she is the mother who failed to applaud our achievements, or transform our overbearing coworker into our bullying older brother. Full of interactive features—self-tests, exercises, check lists—and real-life stories and anecdotes, Your Boss is Not Your Mother attacks these problems at the roots.