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Is Your Boss a Psychopath?
Dogers writes "Robert Hare, creator of the Psychopathy Checklist, has recently been applying his test 'Is your boss a psychopath' to businessmen and has found some disturbing results. From the article: 'Why wouldn't we want to screen them? We screen police officers, teachers. Why not people who are going to handle billions of dollars?'. Citing Enron and Worldcom management as an example, it seems a reasonable argument. The same source also has a quiz (magazine produced it seems) which allows you to test your own boss, too!"
I think that this could be the very first Slashdot thread composed entirely of AC posts.
Minus this one of course.
to basically earn your way through life by exploiting and berating underlings, some of which are inevitably of equal or even superior skill and/or intellect to you.
I never spellcheck and I freely admit it. Save your karma for more worthwhile "lol erorrs" replies
So apparently I'm in the Be Very Afraid range. Remind me to never go into business for myself or I'll eventually kill the bastard.
Do not taunt Happy-Fun Ball
Why do so many bosses suck?
Because those who desire the power should be the least likely to have it. I've had some good bosses, and 90% of the time they didn't really want the job, they just kind of grew into it over time.
Other times - whew. There was the one boss who, coming in the first day, told everybody that he wasn't there to be a friend, and he could fire the whole department at a moment's notice if he wanted.
5 minutes later I was dusting off my resume. When he found me dressing nice (so I could go on lunch breaks, which were really interviews), he told me he'd fired me if he caught me interviewing somewhere else. And he'd know, because he had "contacts" all over town who would tell him. "Contacts" who would call him and ask if I was applying somewhere. Private eyes - were watching me - they'd see my every move.
Oddly enough, I guess his contacts forgot to call him three days later when I quit and went to my new, higher paying, better hours job.
So if nothing else, I'm thankful for bad bosses, since they seem to be the greatest force in people finding new and better jobs. (Even though they suck.)
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
> Surely in ancient times psycopathy would not
> have got you far. You'd likely be expelled
> from a society or likely killed.
I'd think the psychopaths would probably be the ones doing the killing.
Microsoft cheerleader, blue flag waving, you got a problem with that?
If Psycopathy has a genetic component, then has it survived natural selection.
Putting aside the arguments over "natural selection", it remains in the gene pool because it works. There are often situations that require someone to push through the bullcrap and make something happen. These sociopaths are far more suited to this task because they care nothing for the consequences, or who's opinion they ignore, or who's feelings they hurt. They may not even care about who lives or dies. (Which in some situations, someone will die no matter what course is taken.) The problem has always been that they are a tough fit for any society they create. As the article says, they want the next thrill immediately. Yet emergency situations requiring their brashness tend to be very rare.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
The reason is quite simple.
Much of our history has been dominated by violence, and our ancestors are those who survived violent episodes. Either by being very smart, very cute, or very evil.
Psychopaths are overwhelmingly male and psychopathic behaviour is generally evidenced by the ability to hurt and harm others without the usual remorse and empathic pain that most people feel.
The reason why only a small fraction of people show this behaviour is because (a) it's quite counterproductive in stable societies, so quickly gets pushed into marginal genepools (the bad boys of any village), and (b) it has a large component of environmental triggering, meaning that many people (mainly men, again) can exhibit psychopathic behavour given the right circumstances.
Why are psychopaths so charming? Partly because it works well in conflict situations. Partly because it acts to deflect attention. Selection works at the gene level, and the charming psychopathic genes have survived civilisation much better than the pure violence ones.
My blog
Capitalism and psychopathy go hand in hand. That's why it has survived today.
Definitely. No other ideology in history has produced so many psychopaths.
All movements for social change begin as missions, evolve into businesses, and end up as rackets.
Who cares if your boss is a psycho, when we work out why people who do all the work (manual labour etc.) get 10 times less money then the people who point and go "Get it done by next week" (managers). I think we'll be about ready to ask pointless questions like these..
I like muppets.
You're fired for making a grammatical error that a 2nd grader would make.
-PMP-
"Is your employee a whining crybaby?"
For each question, score two points for "yes," one point for "somewhat" or "maybe," and zero points for "no."
1) Does he/she frequently post on geek websites, complaining about you being a psychopath?
2) Does your employee hate Microsoft, IBM, the Patent Office, and/or does he feel that somehow his future is threatened by them?
3) Does your employee believe SCO may have a case?
4) Is your employee constantly whining about management decisions like purchasing a Microsoft Exchange server or cisco routers?
5) Did your employee get overly agitated when you decided to pay SCO for their Linux Licenses?
6) Does he/she often speak in a language uncomprehensible to human beings? using words such as "packet" "protocol" or "xfree"
7) Does he/she look frustrated when you make bold management decisions, such as assigning half the company to a research project about sending electricity over fax machines?
8) Is your employee constantly whining about not having enough time or resources in order to achieve his goals?
1-4 | Our condolences. Your employee may be dead.
5-7 | Be cautious about not approaching him.
8-12 | Be afraid of approaching him.
13-16 | Be very afraid of approaching him.
Is he glib and superficially charming? - Is he a people-person?
Does he have a grandiose sense of self-worth? - Does he add value to the company?
Is he a pathological liar? - Does he keep the investors informed
Is he a con artist or master manipulator? - Does he attract new business?
When he harms other people, does he feel a lack of remorse or guilt? - Does he have what it takes to thrive in a competitive enviroment?
Does he have a shallow affect? - Does he let his emotions control his business decisions?
Is he callous and lacking in empathy? - Is he able to place the interests of the company first?
Does he fail to accept responsibility for his own actions? - My personal favorite - Is he able to look at the 'Big Picture'
Yes, tis true. We are the future!
That just gave me an idea for a business, "Psychopaths On Call." We can have them stay at home with a pager, and companies can hire them by the hour for those tough, decisions of questionable ethics...
I think I'll call my attorney about the legalities of this one.
oh wait...
"Teleporting Rodents with D-Cell Battery Displacement" theory -- IgnoramusMaximus (692000)
Are you kidding? For those kinds of jobs, being a psychopath is practically a prerequisite.
Technoli
I know, it's tough to come to terms that Hot Topic lead you astray. Guevara ran Cuba's gulags -- the real kind, not the three meals a day Git'mo kind that Amnesty International calls gulags. He also oversaw the temporary forced work camps. This is where the regular citizens were sent to broaden their horizons through sugar cane farming. Then there are the people that were murdered while he tried to sow insurrection in South America.
Sure, compared to Castro who eventually left Guevara to die, he's a pussy cat. Then there's a certain level of romanticizing from The Motorcycle Diaries. However, I wouldn't cut Hitler any slack because he killed many millions less than Stalin. Although I'm sure there's a romantic story lying somewhere in Hitler In Vienna.
If you disagree then it must be overrated, redundant or trolling.
I was always under the naive impression that anyone in office was a sociopath who cared about power or money or whatever, and had therefore concocted a detailed plot to use the government and people for their own benefit.
Then I actually job shadowed a state senator for a day, sat in on a couple meetings and the general assembly... and I realize that they aren't (for the most part) psychopathic or plotting...
They're just... average.
And then I realized that the horrible state of legislation was not the result of malice, but of the pure incompetent that infects the entire society. These were the C students in high school who had the right connections, or just the right interests. They were the masses that I have spent my entire life trying not to disdain because they do not comprehend most complex issues as quickly as my "gifted" friends.
Heinlein once said (paraphrased) than an elected official, ideally, represents a slightly above average member of his electorate. I realized that day that when I consider my opinion of most people I meet, I am not surprised at all at what comes out of the capital. It is no hand-picked best of the best representatives, nor a oligarchy of vile schemers, but simply a vaguely representative group of the more affluent members of our society.
Unfortunately, I think that this realization made me expect even less out of government. An intelligent psychopath at least acts intelligently in his own interest, as opposed to blindly herding in whatever direction is popular today.
Because people are not machines and if you fail to understand how people really work, you will invariably be a bad manager. You really think that the guys at Enron did a good job? Billions of dollars were stolen from investors.
I've known a few of these people. I knew one manager who emotionally tortured a twenty-year old woman he was attracted to, as part of his plan to seduce her. This is the kind of guy you want to hand billions of dollars to?
Handling billions of dollars requires someone who has higher principles, not no principles. Enron is a perfect example. If you never feel remorse, why not steal? If you have no compassion for those you will hurt, there is no reason why you shouldn't operate in a purely selfish manner.
Corporate officers have to act on behalf of other people, the stock holders. They also have a responsibility to the people who work for the company, because, contrary to what seems to be taught at most business schools, in todays economy, the talent and dedication of your employees is worth as much or more as the capital you have to work with. If you hire people who are incapable of relating to other human beings and who are completely self-involved, they will invariably destroy the company.
It isn't being soft or wishy-washy to want sane and rational people working in top management, it's just good sense.
-All that is gold does not glitter - Tolkien
www.ra
Googles founders are not narcisists or psychopaths and they are doing just fine in competition with Microsoft.
A psychopath definately should not be boss, not because they run the company bad fiscally, but because they run the country into the ground to make the company successful. Having a narcisist is not much better if you want a clean environment and good health.
Do you think food companies give a damn about our health? They want us to have cancer and heart disease because its profitable. Do you think the government cares about our health? They want healthcare prices to rise above our limits and they dont want you getting drugs from Canada. DO you think doctors care about our health? They want to just sell the drugs the drug companies bribe them to sell.
Psychopaths are EVERYWHERE and unless we create some ethical standards for certain positions or even for getting certain degrees in college its not going to stop. If everyone who wants a masters degree or who wants to be a boss has to pass a psychological screening in the same way we have to pass a drug test I don't think there would be a problem. If we don't do this, then expect our bosses to destroy the world for profit because psychopaths do not care about the world, you do.
I'm an ENTx on the Meyer's brigs personality survey. They puts me dead smack in between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. I find that I almost never regret an action I took, even if things went badly. There are times though when my motives weren't all that pure, and those are the types of things that nag my conciounce. And I feel bad about the actions even if things went right in the end.
Folks like the person in your example lack a moral compass. They live only for themselves, and you are right, they are absolutely destructive in a position of authority. However, it you aren't careful about the adjectives you use to describe them your filter will net self-motivated individuals who ARE constructive in authority.
I have no idea how to measure one's moral compass. I take it for granted that I have one. Some of the things that are good and evil don't make sense logically. That's probably why I'm more comfortable saying I'm a Taoist than a Christian. Christ himself was probabably a Taoist, but nobody studies what he actually said. Most sermons I've heard focus on the writing of Paul (a moralist) and/or the old Testiment where God literally spelled out what was good and bad for you.
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming