Mon boss est nul, mais je le soigne !

Bob is the worst manager you can imagine. He probably did well in his previous positions. But today, he seems to have risen to his level of incompetency. He’s got every flaw in the book—tyrannical, disrespectful, a tad manipulative, etc. In this book, Bob is a caricature. But, by putting him in the limelight, Gaël Chatelain highlights a very real problem: the difficulty of being both a manager and a human being. Because, yes, Bob is a human being, with his doubts, moods, and feelings. The problem for Bob is that because he is a manager, he can’t simply “be himself”: his actions, attitude and the judgments he passes affect his team. So how can a manager be simultaneously benevolent, inspiring, and a necessarily imperfect human being? The author follows Bob from the moment he gets out of bed in the morning to when he goes back to sleep at night. He dissects day-to-day situations we have all experienced, on both sides of the line: the employee who comes to complain about a seemingly trivial problem, the meeting where Bob interrupts everyone, etc. He deciphers Bob’s thoughts, shows how his reactions work against him, and suggests alternatives.

An enjoyable and practical book: the format is attractive—dialogues between Bob’s good and bad conscience, rather than expert advice—and the substance is rich and treated with humor.