MENUMENU
  • FREE RESOURCES
        • Accounts Payable
          Finally! The trick to securing greater T&E compliance
          Benefits
          Rooting out folks who don’t belong on your health plan: A 6-point dependent audit checklist
          IT
          3 costly misconceptions about biz email compromise
          Credit and Collections
          Collecting via email: 4 must-make moves in your subject line
          Accounts Payable
          5 Tough-to-spot signs that an invoice is fake
  • PREMIUM CONTENT
        • Staff management
          120 Proven Communications Tips for Today’s CFO
        • Payroll
          Handling Nonexempt Employee Pay: Stay Compliant and Avoid DOL Audits
          Accounts Payable
          T&E Best Practices: Complete Guide to Ensure Compliance
          Payroll
          Payroll Best Practices: 4 Ways to Save Time and Money
        • Staff management
          Email Best Practices: A 6-Question Quiz
          Staff management
          Innovative Communications Strategies: An Email Case Study
          Staff management
          A 5-part Framework for Successful Workplace Communications
        • SEE MORE
          PREMIUM RESOURCES
  • CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES
  • LOGIN
  • SIGN UP FREE

CFO Daily News

MENUMENU
  • FREE RESOURCES
        • Accounts Payable
          Finally! The trick to securing greater T&E compliance
          Benefits
          Rooting out folks who don’t belong on your health plan: A 6-point dependent audit checklist
          IT
          3 costly misconceptions about biz email compromise
          Credit and Collections
          Collecting via email: 4 must-make moves in your subject line
          Accounts Payable
          5 Tough-to-spot signs that an invoice is fake
  • PREMIUM CONTENT
        • Staff management
          120 Proven Communications Tips for Today’s CFO
        • Payroll
          Handling Nonexempt Employee Pay: Stay Compliant and Avoid DOL Audits
          Accounts Payable
          T&E Best Practices: Complete Guide to Ensure Compliance
          Payroll
          Payroll Best Practices: 4 Ways to Save Time and Money
        • Staff management
          Email Best Practices: A 6-Question Quiz
          Staff management
          Innovative Communications Strategies: An Email Case Study
          Staff management
          A 5-part Framework for Successful Workplace Communications
        • SEE MORE
          PREMIUM RESOURCES
  • CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES
  • Accounts Payable
  • Credit and Collections
  • Payroll
  • Accounting
  • Benefits
  • Finance Technology
  • More
    • Employment Law
    • Strategy
    • Policy and Culture
    • Fraud
    • Payments and Transactions
    • Budgeting and Forecasting
    • Banking
    • Staff Management
    • Cost Control
    • Supply Chain
    • IT

Proof: 1 in 25 bosses really is a psychopath

Jennifer Azara
by Jennifer Azara
October 7, 2011
  • Policy and culture
2 minute read
  • SHARE ON

He or she may not be wielding a chainsaw or lurking around a campground, but that doesn’t mean your boss isn’t a psychopath.

In fact, even if your boss isn’t, chances you know one who is.

It’s not an exaggeration – a recent British survey reveals that many workers have this clinical mental disorder. Especially bosses.  The shocking assertion: Business leaders are four times more likely to be psychopaths than ordinary people.

Not only that, but the only thing that’s keeping many of them from crossing the line into more disturbing territory a la serial killers is that they experienced a happy childhood!

That’s a little close for comfort.

The trouble is those disorders are actually well disguised in many “managerial” characteristics, such as charm, high status in the organization and manipulation of people and situations. But according to researchers, you have cause for concern: These folks show no remorse and don’t possess a conscience.

Even trickier: The higher the level of psychopathy, the more charismatic this person will appear!

Surviving any type of challenging boss

Hopefully you have one of the 24 out of 25 bosses who aren’t clinical psychopaths. But you still might find your supervisor challenging at times. There are some strategies that can help you keep your sanity and your career on track:

  1. Have a mentor. You might not feel comfortable going to your boss for career advice or even as a sounding board. But you want to seek out someone else in your company who can be. It’s important it’s someone who works for the same organization – that person has a good idea of your corporate culture. Finding a mentor, even in an unofficial capacity, can give you a go-to person for opinions and advice to keep you on track.
  2. Keep your opinions to yourself. Ideally any mentor you’d tap would be trustworthy. But even if everybody dislikes your boss, resist the urge to share your opinions with co-workers.  After all, even if people voice their opinions, they may later share any negative comments you’ve made in an attempt to make themselves look better.
  3. Detach and depersonalize. Most likely it’s him or her, not you, that’s the problem. While it can be tough not to take it personally, reminding yourself of that can keep the situation from taking an emotional (and even possibly physical) toll.
Jennifer Azara
Jennifer Azara
Jennifer, a member of the CFO Daily News staff, has covered business and finance for more than 22 years. She has written for CFOs, credit and collections professionals and accounts payable practitioners and has spoken at industry conferences on sales and use tax compliance.

Keep Up To Date with the Latest Finance News

With CFO Daily News arriving in your inbox, you will never miss critical stories on accounting, benefits, payroll & employment law strategies.

Sign up for a free CFO Daily News membership and get our newsletter!
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
CFO Daily News Logo
  • ABOUT CFO DAILY NEWS
  • ADVERTISE WITH US
  • WRITE FOR US
  • CONTACT
  • Accounting
  • Benefits
  • Payroll
  • Policy and Culture
  • Employment Law
  • Fraud
  • Finance Technology
  • Accounts Payable
  • Credit and Collections
  • Strategy
  • Payments and Transactions
  • Budgeting and Forecasting
  • Banking
  • Staff Management
  • Cost Control
  • Supply Chain
  • IT

CFO Daily News, part of the SuccessFuel Network, provides the latest Finance and employment law news for Finance professionals in the trenches of small-to-medium-sized businesses. Rather than simply regurgitating the day’s headlines, CFO Daily News delivers actionable insights, helping Finance execs understand what Finance trends mean to their business.

Privacy Policy Terms of Service
Copyright © 2021 SuccessFuel

WELCOME BACK!

Enter your username and password below to log in

Forget Your Username or Password?

Reset Password

Lost your password? Please enter your username or email address. You will receive a link to create a new password via email.

Log In

preloader