11/04/2017
Workplace Psychopath
In every career you will find some top leaders in an Organization who are intelligent, charming, funny, hugely energetic and full of great ideas they may always be very happy to share, preferably over a bottle of two or wine!.
Infact they can be terribly impulsive, a master of manipulation, often humiliating those who ‘disappointed’ them and resorting to threats and bullying behaviour when things didn’t go their way.
It is good to realized early on that to staying one step ahead, recognizing what they are up to and keeping on their ‘good’ side will be critical to your career, all the time mopping up after them while others fell by the wayside, unable to find the resilience required to soldier on.
As your career progressed, You will find similar traits in some of the women you worked with, so the “all men are bastards” catch-cry had to be shelved.
It seems you are in the presence of corporate psychopaths, this is called “snakes in suits” by psychologists Robert Hare and Paul Babiak.
According to Hare, one in 100 members of the general population meet the criteria for psychopathy, we are generally led to believe is limited to serial killer types who cannot function in normal society.
The truth is, the signs and symptoms of psychopathy — ruthlessness, fearlessness, charm, persuasiveness, egocentricity, impulsivity, and the absence of conscience and empathy are personality traits like any other found in the Workplace. And like any personality traits, they will present differently in different people and not always to the same degree or in the same combination. To be continued………………………..
Wokplace psychologist
Niyi Balogun