How to Work for an Idiot is the debris scraped off the wall after a management consultant's head exploded. For over a decade, Dr. John wrote books on leadership, creativity, and organizational performance. He traveled far and wide, extolling the virtues of flattened organizations, collaborative leadership, and shared responsibility in the workplace. His clients welcomed him and nodded approvingly as he taught the principles of teamwork and open communication. They even politely waited until he finished and left the building before ignoring his advice.
Accepting personal powerlessness over his own cluelessness, Dr. John sketched a map that leads from the brink of suicide to idiot-free serenity. By studying the evolutionary hiccup that resulted in idiot bosses, Dr. John finally discovered why females in some species eat their young. Speaking of eating, Dr. John has consulted with numerous organizations over the years including: Boeing, Delta Air Lines, IBM, Hilton Hotels, Motorola, Printronix, Sanyo Fisher USA, and Xerox.
John Hoover, PhD is a recovering idiot who successfully made the transition from idiot boss to servant-leader using the self-cleaning techniques in this book. He is an organizational leadership consultant and co-founder of the CompsiTeam Leadership System with Dr. Angelo Valenti. Dr. John is a former publisher of books-on-tape, Entertainment Division manager at Disneyland, and divisional general manager with McGraw-Hill. Dr. He holds a Master of Arts degree in Marriage & Family Therapy in addition to Master of Arts and Doctorate degrees in Human & Organization Development. He is an adjunct faculty member at several colleges and universities, a member of numerous professional societies, and a Tennessee state supreme court-listed civil mediator. He is the author or co-author of eight other books, not all of them disasters:- How to Sell to an Idiot: 12 Steps to Winning Over Your Toughest Customer (John Wiley & Sons, Fall 2005)
- The Art of Constructive Confrontation: How to Achieve More Accountability with Less Conflict (John Wiley & Sons,
July 2005) - Unleashing Leadership: Aligning What Your People Do Best with What Your Organization Needs Most (Career Press, March 2005)
- How to Live with an Idiot: Clueless Creatures & the People who Love Them (Career Press, 2004)
- How to Work for an Idiot: Survive and Thrive without Killing Your Boss (Career Press, 2003)
- Leadership When the Heat's On (McGraw-Hill, 2002) with Danny Cox
- Think Out of the Box! (Career Press, 1996) for Mike Vance & Diane Deacon
- Seize the Day: How to be an Extraordinary Person in and Ordinary World (Career Press, 1995) with Danny Cox
- An American Quality Legend: How Maytag Saved our Moms, Vexed the Competition, and Pre-saged the Quality Revolution (McGraw-Hill, 1994)
Do not engage in this or any recovery program without consulting last year's horoscope. Reading this book in a meeting when you are supposed to be paying attention is not recommended as laughing at your Idiot Boss is grounds for termination. Reading this book during church sermons, funerals, or weddings is also not recommended if you ever want your spouse or children to speak to you again. Use caution when reading this book on a commercial flight. Many pilots now carry weapons. With luck, you will merely be ushered off the aircraft by local authorities and placed on 72-hour observation at a psychiatric facility in your destination city. Do not leave How to Work for an Idiot lying around the office unless it's on your worst enemy's desk. If you have a complaint about this material, save your breath, the author has probably heard it before. Writing this book isn't the first mistake he's ever made.
How to Work for an Idiot in the News
Wall Street Journal/March 2004:
“Dr. Hoover recommends admitting that you are 'powerless' over the jerks in your life. Otherwise, 'harboring all that resentment is like drinking a cup of poison and waiting for the jerk to die'.”
USA TODAY/March 2004:
“Anyone who has to work should read How to Work for an Idiot.”
New York Times/January 2004:
“There is no question that How to Work for an Idiot: How to Survive and Thrive Without Killing Your Boss is a subversive book. People will pick it up expecting a tasty blend of commiseration and advice. They will put it down thinking, to paraphrase the famous line from the cartoon character Pogo, 'We have met the idiot, and he is us'.”
FOX NEWS/Neil Cavuto/January 2004:
“Dr. John's How to Work for an Idiot is very funny stuff, with some stinging jabs in there.”
Weekend TODAY SHOW/Campbell Brown/January 2004:
“How to Work for an Idiot contains a lot of humor, with plenty of good information as well.”
The Miami Herald/January 2004:
“As amusing as his vignettes may be, the proffered advice is pretty sound and includes solid steps for coping and surviving a daily dose of determined and authoritative stupidity without committing any capital crimes. Hoover closes with a bibliography that includes three of the author's own books, so maybe he's not as much of an idiot as he claims to be.”
Dallas Morning News January/2004:
“[Dr. John Hoover] is creating a New Year's buzz with his just published How to Work for an Idiot.”
Bloomberg Television/December 2003:
“If you have the unhappy experience of working for someone you think is a real jerk, Dr. John Hoover says there is hope.”
CNN/December 2003:
“How to Work for an Idiot is an irreverent and realistic look at what people must deal with every day at work.”
Philadelphia Daily Local/December 2003:
“Hoover, a self-acknowledged idiot boss himself in recovery, says American workers should stop whining about their clueless bosses and learn to make the most of it.”
Minneapolis Star Tribune/December 2003:
“There's more than humor in this fresh look at the perennial problem of incompetent leadership at work.”
Orlando Sentinel/December 2003:
“Idiot bosses are so common, writes John Hoover, that he shortens the term to I-Bosses in How to Work for an Idiot.”
For over ten years, Dr. John wrote books and consulted on creativity, communications, and organizational performance, extolling the virtues of collaborative leadership and shared responsibility. His clients welcomed him, praised him...then patiently waited until he had left the building before ignoring his advice! Learn about idiot-speak, idiot-eat, and idiot-think.
