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For more information, contact:
Tara Delaney Gilbride, Director of Publicity
(212) 572-2872
tgilbride@randomhouse.com       

Do you want to understand office politics? Or how gossip works?
Or why it is that jerks seem to prosper?

The Ape in the Corner Office

Understanding the Workplace Beast in All of Us

By Richard Conniff
Crown Business, on-sale September 13th, 2005

Every workplace is confusing and we all need help to find our way. How you manage conflicts, build alliances, or understand the unspoken emotions of your colleagues will determine whether you get to the corner office, or end up back on the street. In THE APE IN THE CORNER OFFICE: UNDERSTANDING THE WORKPLACE BEAST IN ALL OF US (Crown Business, September 13, 2005), award winning journalist Richard Conniff shows how we can become more effective by understanding how other species negotiate the tricky balance between conflict and cooperation.  A must-have guide to survival in the workplace, this book combines real-life examples with humor and a deep understanding of how the world of nature works.

 So why should working people care about how chimpanzees or baboons resolve conflicts? Because our social behaviors have evolved from the same ancestry and still follow many of the same rules—most of them not so obvious.  Many might think you only need to swim with the sharks or roar like a lion to devour the competition. Yet while this attitude may be entertaining, Conniff explains, it’s simplistic and wrong. Did you know, for example, that chimpanzees engage in aggressive encounters only 5% of the time while they spend as much as 20% of it in grooming and other social interactions?  In other words, despite conventional thinking, nature built us to be nice.
 

However, this doesn’t automatically mean the absence of conflict or hierarchy, as both are natural to apes and humans. In APE IN THE CORNER OFFICE, what Conniff reveals is how to understand these two seeming contradictions—our instinctual tendencies towards niceness and conflict—to be more effective. In one case described in the book, a better understanding of the nature of reconciliation saved a company $75 million in litigation and insurance costs.  In fact, says Conniff, most of us would do better if we understood just how far a dumb ape will go to achieve harmony after a conflict. Conniff also reveals:
 

• How to be good at gossip and use it as a form of bonding or a source of news. At one large company a middle manager makes a point of cultivating colleagues as spies and allies. She tests them first to establish trust by leaking a piece of useful information, something that won’t be too damaging if it gets around. Then she waits to see if they heed her request to keep it confidential and also if they understand that reciprocity is expected. 

• Facial expressions: why people get hired and fired on the basis of appearance and what you can tell from the way people meet and greet each other.

• How to understand that being a predator really means the art of being shrewdly opportunistic, not 24/7 tooth and claw.

• Being a subordinate doesn’t mean being spineless or a yes–man.

• Why being a lone wolf means being a loser.

• And yes, why it is that jerks seem to prosper – why difficult behavior works at least in the short run. Would Intel have had the same fire in the belly without Andy Grove being totally impossible? Predators like Grove seem to make for healthy herds.
   

Shining an evolutionary light on the workplace isn't just a clever way to rationalize bad behavior, or to find simple-minded justifications for maintaining the status quo. In fact, says Conniff, ignoring evolutionary and biological propensities can prove disastrous.  Whether you are greeting customers at a Wal-Mart, running a donut shop in New England, or stamping out toasters at a company plant in China, this book will prove to be a lively and entertaining read, as well as an indispensable guide to success at work and in life.  The APE IN THE CORNER OFFICE is smart, sophisticated and counterintuitive, but most of all a highly practical look at the worlds of work and getting ahead, providing real insight into our nature and why we do what we do.
 

ABOUT RICHARD CONNIFF: Conniff's work as a journalist now takes him to the extremes of the earth, from an audience with Prince Albert at the Grimaldi Palace in Monaco to a casual swim with the piranhas in the upper Amazon, from tea in the members dining room at the House of Lords to the driver's seat in a demolition derby. He writes about an eclectic mix of subjects—human cultures and wildlife, among others, for Smithsonian (for which he won the 1997 National Magazine Award), Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times Magazine, and National Geographic. His work was selected for The Best Science and Nature Writing in 2000 and 2002 and he was the winner of the 2001 John Burroughs Award for Outstanding Nature Essay of the Year. He is the author of The Natural History of the Rich.

RICHARD CONNIFF IS CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS

 The Ape in the Corner Office:

Understanding the Office Beast in All of Us

By Richard Conniff

Publication: September 13, 2005 * Hardcover, $25.00 * ISBN: 1-4000-5219-X

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