Pistols at Dawn

This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice. Chances are, you’re stuck at a dysfunctional company, work for a power-hungry bully, or the whole place is more toxic than a porta-potty at a chili cook-off. And for whatever reason, you can’t leave. Your company has rules. Your boss has rules. HR has enough rules to wallpaper the building. Funny how most of them seem to apply to you. Maybe it’s time you learned a few rules of your own. Pistols at Dawn takes the centuries-old Code Duello, a set of rules created to bring order to disputes when honor, reputation, and occasionally life itself were on the line, and drags it into the modern workplace. Dueling. Yes. Dueling. Those old rules understood something modern companies often forget: power needs limits, conflict needs structure, and even the person holding the weaker hand deserves a fighting chance. Through three fictional workplace battles involving toxic personalities, toxic management, and toxic ambition, Pistols at Dawn explores how conflicts begin, escalate, and end, sometimes with someone shooting themselves in the foot. The men who founded this country lived in a world where disputes had rules, adversaries had obligations, and even bitter confrontations had limits. Arguably, those same principles helped shape the nation’s foundation and, over time, found their way into your company’s policies and procedures. Nobody is suggesting you bring a pistol to the office. But understanding those rules might help you recognize the game being played and beat them at it. This is not a self-help book. Don’t wander into the fiction section expecting professional advice. The Code Duello is real. The company practices are real. The workplace battles are fiction. What you take away is entirely up to you. Learn the rules. Understand the game. And take back something you may not have felt at work in a long time. Control.