Modern Madness: The Hidden Link Between Work and Emotional Conflict

Corporations often don't like to expose how workers are treated. That can make it extremely difficult, if you are seeking a job at a particular company, or looking for a job in a new career. Labier, unexpectedly, uncovered damning evidence of what the modern work world can be like. As a psychiatrist treating people in white-collar professionals who were bothered by their jobs, he used standard psychological tests as a quantitative tool. He hit upon the idea of going to the companies where these people to find out, using the same psychological tests, what the people who liked their jobs were like. The results floored him. There was a significant difference but not in the direction he had expected: on a dominance-submissive scale, people who liked their white-collar corporate jobs tended to either be significantly more dominant or significantly more submissive. Labier apparently made an effort to call this state of affairs to the governments attention. If you are an individual bothered by your white-collar job, it's possible you are facing the kinds of dominant or submissive co-workers Labier uncovered. When you throw in the downsizing, belittlement and growing gap between worker and executive compensation seen in the 1990's and 2000's, it isn't that hard to believe what Labier found, is it? So which comes first, do the corporate practices attracts the dominants and submissives or is it the other way around? Best to be as much out of the way as possible, perhaps. At the least, it can be helpful to understand how psychologically unhealthly a corporate atmosphere can be - as confirmed using standard psychological tests by a psychiatrist testing inside corporations.

This book was a recommended text in my Organizational Behavior class. I'll need a new copy because I have underlined and highlighted so much of the text! Dr. LaBier has deftly identified theoretical and practical "gaps" in the fields of clinical psychology, organizational psychology, organizational development and management consulting. The Big Question ... What type of organizational context/environment are individuals being encouraged to adapt to? The personal costs of so-called healthy adjustment to one's work environment often include suffering from symptoms of value conflicts, negative coping and overadapting? These symptoms are exacerbated if you are a healthy well-adjusted individual. They are significantly diminished if you are an individual whose daily interactions are already rife with maladaptive behaviors! Have you discovered that many managers and leaders seem to make others sick? Then you've been exposed to the individual that Dr. LaBier describes in great detail. The workplace winner could be a very disturbed individual whose mental aberrations are valued as strengths in our workplaces. Unchecked, these individuals spread malaise, low morale, mistrust and other damaging workplace dynamics.One of the key paradoxes illuminated in this book... what are the implications for individuals and society when the maladaptive individual can adjust and flourish in a corporate (disturbed) environment and the healthy, adjusted person is depleted mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually by the same (disturbed) environment? What are the responsibilities of organizational experts whose primary task is to develop or "fix" individuals or teams so they may successfully "adjust" to their disturbed work environments? There are positive and negative repercussions to the pursuit of career success, Dr. LaBier encourages his readers to question the assumption that adaptiveness equates to healthy functioning.