At the heart of dealing with difficult people is handling their–and your own–emotions. How do you stay calm in a tough conversation? How do you get past passive aggressive comments? And how do you know if you’re difficult to work with? This book explains the research behind our emotional response to awful colleagues–and how to build the empathy and resilience to make those relationships more productive.

How to be human at work. HBR’s Emotional Intelligence Series features smart, essential reading on the human side of professional life from the pages of Harvard Business Review . Each book in the series offers proven research showing how our emotions impact our work lives, practical advice for managing difficult people and situations, and inspiring essays on what it means to tend to our emotional well-being at work. Uplifting and practical, these books describe the social skills that are critical for ambitious professionals to master.