Workplace bullies and psychos…
I have not had a bad boss in almost a year, but the several times in my high-tech career that I *did*, I would read about techniques to deal with them. Two of the articles dealt with workplace bullies and psychos, respectively. At various times in my career, I have worked directly for two outstanding bullies, and two likely psychos (one in graduate school, one in high tech). More importantly, I have had the pleasure of working for several outstanding managers.
First, I have read that the way to distinguish a bully from a psycho is that a bully requires an audience, a psycho does not. (Seems obvious…)
According to the Bankrate.com article on workplace bullies, bullies may take different forms, but share a common goal: to advance in the company at the expense of a coworker, often called the “target.” The article states that the most destructive thing about workplace bullies is that they target coworkers who are the best and the brightest. If the bully is a manager, the targets often leave the company, since that is the tried and true method for dealing with a bad manager.
The Bankrate.com article on workplace psychos is particularly interesting. The article estimates the number of psycopathic personalities in the workplace at about 1%, the same as in the general population. The percentage in a prison population can range to 25%. The Bankrate.com article says that the psycho in your organization could be your boss, his/her boss, or the CEO as easily as (or perhaps more easily than) someone at a lower echelon. In fact, if you buy the premise of the award-winning documentary film, The Corporation, that corporations embrace the value systems of psychopaths, then psychos at higher levels is just an example of Natural Selection. 
According to Robert D. Hare, coauthor of “Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work,” some common characteristics of psycopaths are:
- lack of remorse or empathy
- shallow emotions
- manipulativeness
- lying
- egocentricity
- glibness
- low frustration tolerance
- episodic relationships
- parasitic lifestyle
- persistent violation of social norms
So bullies can destroy corporations slowly by driving the best people out, while a psycho at the helm could conceivably destroy a corporation much more quickly. That fact alone *should* prompt corporations to limit the upward mobility of such folks. The fact that such folks can thrive in corporations should be a wake-up call for business in general.
-Bill at Cheshire Cat Photo
