| by Dr. Ruwantissa Abeyratne
( April 27, 2013, Montreal, Sri Lanka Guardian) Psychopaths in today’s offices (corporate and governmental) are a common sight. Not even inter-governmental organizations, which offer a reasonable degree of job security are spared. These snakes in suits inveigle their way into a job by disingenuously presenting themselves as hard working corporate saviors and later abuse their colleagues trust, carry tales to the management and manipulate supervisors.
A psychopath is a dysfunctional person who suffers from moral depravity which deprives them of a sense of ethics and instils in them a disregard of the rights of other people. A psychopath is usually self-serving, superficial, grandiose and deceitful while lacking remorse, empathy and responsibility. Worse, a psychopath at his lowest level in an office environment disregards rules, cheats others of their legitimate entitlements, often with a display of poor behavioural controls and anti-social behaviour. Paradoxically, they exude glibness and superficial charm and a certain grandiose sense of self-worth. They are prone to boredom and lie pathologically; they are cunning and shallow; often show promiscuous sexual behavior; act impulsively; and do not accept responsibility for their actions.
In an earlier article in this journal I stated: “The answer towards eliminating this perfidious specimen from the workplace lies with the bosses. Any institution which has a code of ethics should have, as the opposite of whistle blowing (which is usually encouraged) the offence of tale-carrying. Another unethical behaviour should be lack of transparency in making appointments and there should be insistence that appointments are made on the basis of superior performance and qualifications. The unjust enrichment of one at the expense of another, which devastates the career path of the latter, should be a grave offence calling for restitution and punishment of both the person who is responsible for the appointment and the invidious appointee who influences such appointment. Any form of political influence or pressure should be condemned and action taken accordingly against the perpetrators”.
The typical snake in a suit is a person who knows he cannot advance in his career through performance and merit. He makes dishonesty and deceit his trademarks which are coated with a generous helping of egregious tales to the boss. He makes a sport of intimidating colleagues. He may have stolen another ‘s work, spread rumours about him or pointed the finger at him when something the psychopath did went awry. Dr. John Clark, a specialist on the subject says: “They feel that they're the most important person, they're the best at whatever the task is that they're doing and you see in some job ads, you know, you're the best in your field, you're able to influence people... "you deserve higher rewards" - the psychopath believes that ... and then the psychopath gets in there. They're often very charming, very glib, very superficial, very good talkers and so they get the job and then once they're in there it's very difficult to identify them... and it's also difficult for lots of people who recruited them to admit "gee, we made a mistake and we've actually employed this person so they go on believing that they're this fantastic person they thought they were", simply because they don't want to admit that they were wrong."
Oliver James, another expert says in his new book, “Office Politics”: “we need to be better at spotting dangerous types (dangerous to our careers), and understand that such people are likely to lie and say nasty things behind our back. Whether you work in the corporate sector, a small business or a public sector job, the system you are in is liable to reward ruthless, selfish manipulation. The likelihood of your daily working life being sacrificed by a person who is some mixture of psychopathic, Machiavellian, and narcissistic is high. If you do not develop the skills to deal with them, they will eat you for breakfast”.
Paul Babiack and Robert D. Hare, in their book “Snakes in Suits“ offer some advice on how to survive psychopaths in office. Their first recommendation is to build and maintain a reputation as a good performer. The intimidated staff should always perform to the best of his capabilities and cheerfully perform whatever tasks that are assigned, except those that are illegal, immoral or unethical. Another recommendation is to put everything in writing. Psychopaths shy away from written records that show them up. Complain against abusive behavior. Have a good performance appraisal consistently. A very important counter measure is to avoid confrontations at any cost. Psychopaths are known to berate their subordinates in public. However, discerning bosses are onto this trick. The intimidated staff must defend her theories, decisions and judgments and prove results leading from her arguments. Make formal complaints if necessary. Psychopaths depend on a smooth ride and such roadblocks take them off guard. It is best to get on with one’s life and not take the psychopath home. A psychopath, imported from the office destroys domestic harmony, adversely affects health and the quality of one’s life. Whatever happens, one must diligently and consciously avoid calling a psychopath a psychopath.
Arguably, one of the most important counter measures is to improve one’s leadership skills. Psychopaths cannot compete with genuine leaders. Sun Tzu says in his Art of War:
“ The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy’s not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him; not on the chance of his not attacking but on the fact that we have made our positions unassailable…if you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles… Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby, you can be the director of your opponent’s fate.”
One caveat, though…as Socrates said; know your limitations. As Sun Tzu concludes:” He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot, will be victorious”.
 Psychopaths in today’s offices (corporate and gover...){kind=link}