# My Boss Is a Psycohpath **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 14, 2012, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-boss-is-a-psycohpath/615709 "2012-03-14T01:05:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BluePitbull](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9bcb4/32.png) [@BluePitbull](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BluePitbull)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-boss-is-a-psycohpath/615709/1 "2012-03-14T01:05:52Z")
That is all ---
**Author:** ![Sal\_Ammoniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-boss-is-a-psycohpath/615709/2 "2012-03-14T01:22:42Z")
What, does he devour coworkers like hotdogs, or something? ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-boss-is-a-psycohpath/615709/3 "2012-03-14T01:27:20Z")
> [@BluePitbull](#): > > That is all No, it most certainly is not! We need the whole story, dude! ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-boss-is-a-psycohpath/615709/4 "2012-03-14T02:02:35Z")
My boss is a physicopath. He cannot fathom the incorporeal world. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-boss-is-a-psycohpath/615709/5 "2012-03-14T07:41:11Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > No, it most certainly is not! We need the whole story, dude! “It started when he made me come in and work weekends with no overtime. Then he began asking me to help him bury some dead prostitutes. I told him I had been hired for data processing and this was out of title work but he threatened to murder my parents and cut back on my lunch break so I felt I had no choice.” ---
**Author:** ![Ibanez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a4c791/32.png) [@Ibanez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibanez)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-boss-is-a-psycohpath/615709/6 "2012-03-14T09:24:48Z")
Mine is an idiot. He has a lot of faults, but the one that disturbs me the most is the lying. Even when I call him on it; it doesn’t seem to register. It would appear that someone had a meeting oneday and asked. " ok, I need someone who isn’t smarter than a bag of hammers" And he stepped forward. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-boss-is-a-psycohpath/615709/7 "2012-03-14T09:33:59Z")
> [@BluePitbull](#): > > That is all [Quite possibly](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/brian-basham-beware-corporate-psychopaths--they-are-still-occupying-positions-of-power-6282502.html). > [@Sal\_Ammoniac](#): > > What, does he devour coworkers like hotdogs, or something? > [@](#): > > I’ve never met Dick Fuld, the former CEO of Lehman Brothers and the architect of its downfall, but I’ve seen him on video and it’s terrifying. He snarled to Lehman staff that he wanted to “rip out their [his competitors] hearts and eat them before they died”. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-boss-is-a-psycohpath/615709/8 "2012-03-14T10:30:59Z")
Psychopaths are not necessarily violent killers. They walk among us as amoral beings and they wreak havoc upon every life they touch. [Snakes in Suits](http://www.amazon.com/Snakes-Suits-When-Psychopaths-Work/dp/0061147893/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331720814&sr=8-1). > [@](#): > > Researchers Paul Babiak and Robert Hare have long studied psychopaths. Hare, the author of Without Conscience, is a world-renowned expert on psychopathy, and Babiak is an industrial-organizational psychologist. Recently the two came together to study how psychopaths operate in corporations, and the results were surprising. They found that it’s exactly the modern, open, more flexible corporate world, in which high risks can equal high profits, that attracts psychopaths. They may enter as rising stars and corporate saviors, but all too soon they’re abusing the trust of colleagues, manipulating supervisors, and leaving the workplace in shambles. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-boss-is-a-psycohpath/615709/9 "2012-03-14T10:34:34Z")
> [@Ibanez](#): > > Mine is an idiot. He has a lot of faults, but the one that disturbs me the most is the lying. Even when I call him on it; it doesn’t seem to register. It would appear that someone had a meeting oneday and asked. " ok, I need someone who isn’t smarter than a bag of hammers" > > And he stepped forward. One of the things of my old job was taking pictures of various incidents for documentation. My boss announced we were spending a lot on film and he wanted us to take less pictures. I knew better then to let him get away with some vague pronouncement (because this would eventually be followed by a future “that’s not what I told you to do”) so I asked him for more specific directions on when he did and did not want us to take pictures. He hemmed and hawed and tried to avoid making a decision but he finally came up with a policy he liked: he told me to take pictures only in cases where there was going to be a future lawsuit. I tried to explain to him how time only worked in one direction but I could see he just wasn’t grasping the concept. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-boss-is-a-psycohpath/615709/10 "2012-03-14T10:48:42Z")
I had a boss who was a psychpomp once. He made us all really uncomfortable.