BOOK: CHANNELING FRUSTRATION
Channeling Frustration in the Workplace: How to Be Productive Despite Philosophical Differences
The Problem
You’ve tried everything. The open conversation. The team-building exercise. The carefully worded email. And your coworker still drives you absolutely crazy.
Here’s what nobody wants to admit: some workplace frustrations aren’t fixable. That vendor will always overpromise and underdeliver. Your cross-functional partner will never care about deadlines the way you do. The person in the next cubicle will continue to approach problems in a way that makes your eye twitch.
Most workplace advice pretends this isn’t true. It suggests that with enough emotional intelligence, active listening, or trust falls, every conflict can be resolved. That’s nonsense. Some people just see the world differently than you do—and no amount of communication training will change that.
The Promise
This book offers something different: an honest acknowledgment that workplace frustration is inevitable, paired with practical frameworks for channeling that frustration productively instead of letting it poison your work.
You’ll learn to distinguish between philosophical differences (which you can work with) and performance issues (which you can’t). You’ll get tools for eliminating passive-aggressive behavior—starting with your own. You’ll discover how to rebuild trust with people you don’t particularly like, and how opposing viewpoints can actually sharpen your thinking when you stop fighting them.
And yes, you’ll learn when frustration is a signal that it’s time to leave—and how to do it well.
Who This Book Is For
This book is for mid-level managers, team leads, and senior individual contributors who work in high-tension environments where conflict is the norm, not the exception.
It’s for people who can’t just quit when things get hard, who need strategies to stay productive and sane while navigating vendor relationships, agency conflicts, cross-functional team dynamics, and organizational transformations that never seem to end.
If you’re tired of workplace advice that assumes everyone means well and communicates clearly, this book is for you.
What You’ll Find Inside
The book is structured in three parts:
Part I: Diagnosis – Understanding what’s really happening when frustration shows up, including whether you might be the problem (spoiler: sometimes you are).
Part II: Action – Practical tools for working through conflict, from eliminating passive-aggressiveness to having difficult conversations that don’t blow up in your face.
Part III: Transformation – Making frustration productive by repurposing opposing viewpoints, rebuilding trust after conflict, and knowing when it’s time to walk away.
Each chapter includes frameworks you can use immediately—not theoretical concepts, but tools built from twenty years of managing teams, vendors, and organizational chaos.
About the Author
Jeff Haddox has spent over two decades in retail and ecommerce operations, including building Pier 1’s ecommerce business from startup to $500 million. He currently serves as Chief Technology Officer at Omni Retail Enterprises and teaches as an adjunct professor at the University of North Texas and Southern New Hampshire University.
This book isn’t written from theory; it’s distilled from real experience managing cross-functional teams, navigating vendor relationships, and surviving organizational transformations. The dedication says it all: “To all those coworkers who frustrated the hell out of me over the last two decades.”
Get Your Copy (coming soon)
