Tessa West is a Professor of Psychology at New York University and a leading expert in the science of interpersonal communication. Her research focuses on understanding the nature and dynamics of social perception, addressing issues in the study of interpersonal and inter-group relations.

In this episode, Subbu and Professor West explore the topic of Jerks at work – toxic co-workers and what to do about them, incidentally also the name of the book authored by Professor West.

Key Topics

1:00 - Prof West's journey into academia, research and writing

5:00 - How common is the phenomenon of toxicity in the workplace?

7:40 - Why we are in a state of denial about toxicity at work

10:25 - Common misconceptions about jerks at work

14:40 - How toxicity can negatively affect our physiology

19:00 - The kiss-up kick-downers and how to deal with them

24:30 - Why the credit-stealers behave the way they do

30:00 - The impact of biases on how we gauge our contributions at work

32:00 - The bulldozers - people who take up all the airtime in a meeting

36:30 - Are micro-managers really just neglectful?

41:00 - Beware of the gaslighters

46:00 - Becoming better allies to each other

50:00 - Rapid fire round!

51:20 - We can do far better than virtue-signalling