Your Boss Is Not Your Mother: Eight Steps to Eliminating Office Drama and Creating Positive Relationships at Work (AgatePro)

According to CareerWomen.com, 66 percent of women who are unhappy at work attribute it to their relationships with coworkers. These women suffer because they continually get sucked into needless workplace drama-with co-workers, bosses, subordinates, and clients. In doing so, they're usually replicating problems they had with parents, siblings, or others in childhood. Once ensnarled, these women don't have the knowledge or tools to escape these traps.

Debra Mandel has worked with hundreds of women whose unhealed childhood hurts have caused them problems at work. Although most of us understand that childhood wounds can affect intimate relationships, we're caught off guard when they affect workplace interactions. Nevertheless, once those familiar buttons get pushed, we may transform our overbearing boss into our bullying older brother, or we may respond to the judgmental co-worker as though she is the parent who failed to applaud us for our achievements.

Your Boss Is Not Your Mother attacks these problems at the roots. Using real-life stories and anecdotes, it demonstrates how readers can learn how to respond to people in the workplace with a clear head. They'll also learn about how to distinguish a truly abusive boss or co-worker from one who is actually harmless, how to deal with flirtations and office romance opportunities, and how to negotiate the unique and often unexpected dilemmas of dealing with other women at work. It's full of interactive features-self-tests, exercises, checklists-designed to help readers explore and assess their workplace interactions.

Your Boss Is Not Your Mother will benefit any woman who wants to let go of old, negative influences and take charge of her professional life.

Debra Mandel, PhD, is a clinical psychologist with more than 20 years of experience. Her radio show, Shrink Rap, airs weekly on KCSN in Los Angeles. She is a regular contributor to the syndicated TV talk show The Larry Elder Show and has appeared on numerous other TV shows.