Episode 3 of The Floorplan is here and it’s a hot topic….
Work is meant to be fun, right?
But often it's not.
Matt and I look into the uglier side of organizational behavior in this week's episode when we delve into narcissistic, Machiavellian, and sociopathic management - the so-called 'dark triad'. Research estimates that 3-5% of the management population is in the dark triad - that is narcissistic, sociopathic, or machiavellian. Horrifying to think about.
We look into the research on how organizations can avoid hiring or promoting destructive leaders, how to spot if your boss is one of these, and what you should do about it.
Joining us is organizational psychologist, Dr Vicki Webster who shares insights from her extensive 20-year career.
I’d love to hear your experiences with destructive leadership and bad bosses in the comments.
Matt shares his awful boss story below.
“My days in the legal industry in particular were full of this kind of thing.
For example, in the early 2000's I had a senior partner throw a Nokia phone in my general direction with such force that it lodged in the plaster wall of his office. My 'crime' was being too wordy in a draft of a simple Letter of Demand. SERIOUSLY. His co-partners did nothing about it because his apologies were profuse. I received the offer of a long weekend if I recall correctly.
A week later he slammed a door so hard that a glass panel that formed part of the internal wall of his office fell out. He was upset because his secretary called in sick. The glass shattered, shards spraying across the desk of a young paralegal who sat in a cubicle nearby. His co-partners did nothing about it because his apologies were profuse. There was an offer of extra annual leave and a Myers gift voucher.
Until a week later when... You get the picture...
The guy was an ogre. But he held sway with a significant banking client, and at the time any brief period of employment at a law firm was perceived as a black mark on a young lawyer's CV. To leave would set a first-year solicitor back a fair bit. That was the perception anyway. I thought I had to see out at least a year. It'd be character-building. Although I - like the other young litigators in our team - felt trapped, if we could just eke out twelve months we figured we'd earn some kind of figurative resilience badge.
In hindsight, this bloke knew that.
In fact, he preyed upon it. It amplified his power. He relished being the 'hardarse with exacting standards'. Basically the JK Simmons character in the film 'Whiplash'.
Of course, if it happened today we'd all storm out and probably sue. But things seemed different then.
(Fascinatingly, the guy is still there. Same role, same firm. I just looked him up. GOBSMACKED.)”
Share this post