According to researchers from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, white-collar psychopaths are the biggest villains in the average worker’s work and home life

We’re delighted to welcome a new author to Slow Leadership. Katherine Lockett is an Australian writer who lives in the suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia. Her book, ‘Work/Life Balance for Dummies’ was published in Australia in 2008 and will be available in the United Kingdom in 2009.

They might not be axe-wielding murderous maniacs, but they can backstab, steal credit for your work, send late night emails long after work has ended or ignore you — all by misusing what used to be the office helpers: e-mail, the internet and text messages.

We already know that psychopaths have been intensely studied by psychiatrists, criminologists and behavioural analysts. They appear impressive to be communicators and networkers, yet also master manipulators.

Unfortunately, they rarely feel empathy or have the ability to maintain genuine and long-lasting relationships with either their co-workers or spouses.

I wonder how many of you are reading this and nodding your head in recognition at a current or former boss you’ve endured?

Why do psychopathic types get hired, then kept in position?

John Lenarcic, a business technology academic from RMIT considers that psychopathic bosses are flourishing in today’s working world. He told The Age newspaper:

“The corporate psychopath exerts a veneer of charm but inwardly has no feelings. By e-mail, instant messaging and mobile phone they can distance themselves from staff while exerting control and avoiding face-to-face contact.”

He also believes that standard office technology helps these white-collar psychopaths take credit for others’ good work, unfairly apportion blame and play games with employees loyalties, all from the safety of a computer keyboard.

The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper has also discussed this issue with Dr John Clarke, author of ‘Working with Monsters’. Dr Clarke has found, in his work in profiling criminal psychopaths, that many workplace bosses possess the same qualities. Clarke says when a job advertisement asks for “an ability to do whatever it takes to meet a deadline”, the psychopath’s interest is aroused because they are prepared to do whatever it takes, whatever the cost. This leads to the psychopath’s boss believing that the psychopath is a hard-working and motivated employee and thus any difficult behaviour towards their underlings can sometimes be ignored or tolerated since they appear to be getting results.

Ways of surviving the psychopath

The old adage of group solidarity is particularly valid. For example, Pam found out that after she talked about her situation with her trusted colleagues (surreptitiously of course), her psychopathic boss has left her alone. “I’m no longer isolated or reduced to thinking it’s all my fault,” she said.

Greg had a much more drastic reaction:

“I’d worked so hard to get what I thought was my dream job at a huge international company in Sydney. But after a few months of being ‘reminded’ by my manager of how lucky I was, and how it was ‘expected’ that I work until 7pm each night and at least one day on the weekend, only to find that she’d taken my work to the CEO as her own, I just packed up my things and left without saying a word to anyone — never to return. I had no job to go to, but there are loads of jobs out there where my skills were better used and appreciated. It was the best thing for me.”

Don’t underestimate the power of Karma or gossip in a small world. As Tony tells me:

“I spent a year being bullied on a daily basis by my director in the training department of a large government agency. She destroyed my confidence and promoted her favourites. When I finally found a better job in another department I vowed to make a point to never forget her. I make a point of telling everyone I can about her toxic ways. It’s amazing what a small world this city is. It’s hard to be brave enough to walk out of a bad situation when your livelihood depends on it and your self-confidence has been driven into the ground — you don’t believe you’re worth employing. There are great jobs out there, in places who respect and value you. I’m in one and you can get there too.”

Anne used the power of paperwork:

“I diarised all the incidents — dates, times, incident specifics, and how it made me feel. In my annual performance management interview, my boss tried to tell me the ‘facts’ about where I’d failed him and the unit, but I could easily refute these lies with the records I’d kept. He looked pretty stupid, especially when it was escalated to the union and HR department. He was sacked a month after I resigned.”

These may or may not work for you — and I’m always on the lookout for feedback on effective ideas that the average person (i.e. not Superman, or Big Mouth or a WWF winner) can carry out whilst remaining sane and with a decent resume still intact.

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