51: Tricky Colleagues and Contagious Emotions (with Tessa West)

How do we respond wisely to foolish behaviour in the workplace? Tessa West joins Igor and Charles to talk about the most common types of ‘jerks at work’ - including the bulldozer, the credit stealer, and the gaslighter, discussing what drives such unhelpful behaviour, and how best to deal with it. Igor explores the different ways we can respond to uncertainty in the workplace, Tessa suggests that we’re surprisingly nice to moral violators, and Charles learns the importance of building ‘affect contagion buffers’ into his day! Welcome to Episode 51.

Special Guest: Tessa West.

Links:

• Tessa West's homepage
• Tessa West's NYU page
• Jerks at Work: Toxic Coworkers and What to Do About Them - Tessa West (2022) | Book
• Stress Contagion: Physiological Covariation Between Mothers and Infants - Waters, West, Mendes (2014)
• 5 Signs You're The Jerk At Work | Huffington Post