This came up on TV tonight, I thought it was pretty interesting
& wanna share this with you guys!
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Spotting a
workplace psychopath
A researcher who used to study criminal psychopaths has turned his
attention to the workplace. For some, his theories explain the
behaviour of colleagues and even the boss.
Office politics are usually restricted to disputes over coffee cups
and staff who keep leaving early.
But for those who work with undiagnosed psychopaths, work can be a
living hell.
Author of the book Working with Monsters, Dr John Clarke, said it
was estimated 2-4 per cent of men and 0.5 per cent of women were
psychopaths.
"So in a city the size of Sydney, for instance, there would be
70,000 psychopaths in the workplace," Dr Clarke said.
After helping police study criminal psychopaths, Dr Clarke has
turned his attention to identifying them in the workplace.
"The psychopath really has a lack of remorse, lack of guilt," Dr
Clarke said.
The psychological make-up of a psychopath, due in part to genetic
problems in the brain, meant psychopaths could not empathise with
co-workers. Dr Clarke said that meant some psychopaths were
unfortunately promoted to positions of power because they appeared
to get results.
Dr Clarke said there were a number of traits to look for in
identifying a workplace psychopath, whether it be a co-worker or
your boss.
"The behaviours you need to look for is an absolute lack of
remorse, lack of guilt for their behaviour," he said. "It's almost
as though they enjoy the suffering of other individuals."
Dr Clarke said psychopaths were also impulsive, prone to boredom,
glib and superficial. They could be full of conviction - even when
they were wrong - grandiose and egotistical.
Just to keep co-workers off balance, psychopaths displayed the full
range of emotions, Dr Clarke said.
"They'll be happy, they'll be sad, they'll be angry, whatever
emotion it takes to make a problem disappear," he said.
Psychopaths also tended to steal credit for other people's
work.
Ian Spruce said bullying, backstabbing and credit-stealing from a
co-worker nearly destroyed his life. Ian was suffering from anxiety
and depression, after months of torment on the job.
"When you've been attacked by these people as often as I have, you
instinctively start to think that you must be in some way
responsible for it," Ian said.
Sensitive workers were more likely to fall prey to the office
psychopath, Dr Clarke said.
"A couple of the issues that they really focus on are body image,
people with low self-esteem, as well as people with relationship
problems," Dr Clarke said.
Sadly, once a worker recognised a psychopath was abusing them, the
usual response was to leave, Dr Clarke said.
However, while employing a psychopath could bring short-term
benefits to a company, they were bad for the bottom line in the
long term. Dr Clarke said psychopaths caused a high turnover of
staff and could not be treated.
"The research internationally shows that the rehabilitation
actually makes it worse, because they use verbal and social skills
to better manipulate their victims in the future," Dr Clarke
said.
The worst thing anyone could do was expect a psychopathic co-worker
to change, Dr Clarke said. Psychopaths were so deluded, they
believed the rest of us had problems instead of themselves.
While Ian said he did not want to leave his job, he was glad he
did. Knowing he was not the one with the problem meant he could
watch out for himself.
Dr John Clarke's book Working
with Monsters (RRP $22.95, ISBN 1740511549) is published by Random
House and available at bookstores.
Interesting! Do you know any psychopaths in your workplace?
