The Working Week 95

The first organisation we all signed on for – whether we wanted to or not – was our family. And as psychologist and author, Sylvia Lafair, tells Wayne this week, we bring our family dynamics from childhood with us to work – and the results are often not pretty.

In her new book, Don't Bring it to Work: Breaking the Family Patterns That Limit Success, Sylvia explores what happens when patterns originally created to cope with family conflicts are unleashed in the workplace.

As she explains, patterns from childhood translate into characters familiar to anyone who has ever worked in an office. That's the guy on your team who never stops complaining. The manager who steamrolls his ideas and never listens to others. The co-worker in the next cubicle you can hear on the phone all day, spreading gossip and rumors. The Board member who always challenges yet never adds anything useful.

But start to understand how past family life and work behaviors connect and you'll know where performance problems originate and conflict starts.

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