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Human Relations
Career, Relationships, and You

v3.1 Laura Portolese

Chapter 1 Human Relations in a Nutshell

I present myself to you in a form suitable to the relationship I wish to achieve with you.

—Luigi Pirandello

If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.

—Maya Angelou

No One Wants to Work with Her

At work, Jenny avoids interpersonal relationships and small talk because she is uncomfortable revealing too much of herself. When Jenny attends meetings at work, she sighs impatiently when someone is late and when people veer too far from the topic, and she makes sure to bring people back to reality. When choosing project teams, people rarely want to work with Jenny, even though she is very competent at her job. Some of the people from the office get together for lunch on Tuesdays, but Jenny is never invited. Needless to say, Jenny isn’t well liked at work because she comes across as disagreeable and unfriendly. 

We have all met someone like Jenny, who is seemingly uncomfortable with herself and unpleasant. We may even try to avoid the Jennys we know. Despite Jenny being good at her job, no one wants to work with her. You would think that success at work only takes talent at job-specific tasks. However, this isn’t the case. As we will discuss throughout this chapter and the book, successful people have the skills to do the job, but they also have the human relations skills to get along with others. The focus of this chapter will be personality (and tools you can use to measure personality), attitudes, empathy, self-esteem, and perceptions—all of these topics and more impact our ability to get along with others.