Mean People Suck Blog

Before I sat down to write Mean People Suck, I read a lot of books that looked relevant to my research. When I first saw this title – Hug Your Haters – I thought, “Are you nuts? Why should I hug my haters?” I mean, aren’t haters the very definition of mean people? And...

When I was researching Mean People Suck, I came across this research by Fortune. Many people are already familiar with Fortune’s list of the World’s Most Admired Companies, but for the last three years, Fortune has also asked survey respondents to give their personal...

In the first chapter of Mean People Suck, I discuss “The Illusion Point” – the concept that many people think they understand marketing and have great ideas, even when they’re going against the evidence provided by data. This is especially true in the case of CEOs,...

Does your company put the needs of employees ahead of self-preservation? Is employee engagement or customer satisfaction measured and rewarded? Do you force contracts to pay your vendors in 45 days and then pay 3 weeks late? Have you defined a purpose for your...

In case you haven’t heard, empathy in the workplace has made a big splash in the business world. Turns out, making empathy a priority at your workplace is incredibly profitable for business. Skeptical? Read on. Quick Takeaways Empathy has become the newest workplace...

Show me your company’s organizational chart, and I’ll show you everything that’s wrong with your company culture. You’re probably familiar with the traditional organizational chart – a neat, orderly visual representation of the hierarchical structure at your company....

It's The Key To Happiness. With 53 different jobs under my belt, I’ve seen my share of bad bosses. I’ve also seen some co-workers who undermine their colleagues every chance they get. Part of the reason people yell at, gossip about, and undercut others at work is...

When was the last time you cried at a movie? Or felt compassion when a co-worker told you his child was getting bullied at school, or that his father just passed away? Does your heart go out to the neighbor’s three-legged dog when you see her hobble along the sidewalk...

"Want the secret to getting what you want in life?" It's a question posed by every online life coach, fad diet, and late-night infomercial. However, the solution I have for getting what you want in life is not a product or a diet. It may be as simple as kindness and...

Imagine you are hired as a marketing manager at Company 123. One of your first tasks is to analyze the ROI of digital marketing campaigns from the past six months. You look at the numbers and think your eyes are fooling you. Not one of those campaigns has resulted in...

A recent public opinion survey indicates that since 1990, the number of Americans who report being "not too happy" increased by 50%. Even more so, Americans report a 6% decline in overall life satisfaction between 2007 and 2018. Another indication that people are...

We all want the same things, don’t we? We want to be happy in our lives and jobs. I hope and pray very few of us wake-up and say, “How can I make today worse than yesterday?”   We want to make a difference, to do great things with our “one wild and precious...

In 2004, a Carnegie Mellon University study looked at the impact of empathetic storytelling. They studied participants who received two different kinds of donation requests from the well-known nonprofit Save the Children, an organization that aims to promote all...

When I was researching my book Mean People Suck, I came across many useful resources, which I reference throughout the book and in the end bibliography. In this series, I want to explore these resources more in-depth, and explain how they helped me to uncover some of...

Think back to a time when you realized that the project your boss asked you to do was flawed. Maybe it included trying a new software application, or implementing a new process, or chasing the latest buzzword in your industry. You know it won't work. However, because...