Your boss may be a psychopath. Not in that “you know what that jerk did today” kind of way, but in the clinical, DSM-IV meaning.
Turns out that your boss is four times more likely to be a certifiable psychopath than you, meaning she or he is charming, but manipulative (check); lacking in empathy and remorse (check); and, really good at masking her or his true self (double check, especially when the boss is talking to the higher ups). Thirty percent of your co-workers think the boss needs a shrink.
Reporting to one of these psychopaths can cause your hair to fall out and add 10 pounds to your weight. They’re as bad for your heart as cigarettes.
How do I know this? Other than from personal experience? A PR firm says so. Lawrence Ragan Communications, which publishes newsletters and provides services for corporations, managers, executives, and HR people, put together a bunch of data points about nutcase bosses, presumably to get a little PR for itself. As you can see, it worked.
Another Sign: Not on Facebook
You saw the other day that Facebook says it now has 1 billion active users? That’s a seventh of the world’s population, give or take. I’ve got a few acquaintances who aren’t on it, which I’ve considered just an eccentricity. But now I see they might be psychopaths, potential mass murderers, or, at the least, out of luck finding a job.
The German magazine Der Taggspiegel noted that “absolute abstinence (from Facebook) does seem suspicious.” (Translation by Google.) A Slashdot poster interpreting the essence of the article, wrote: “Not having a Facebook account could be the first sign that you are a mass murderer.”
At Forbes, writer Kashmir Hill says she’s heard “job seekers and employers wonder aloud about what it means if a job candidate doesn’t have a Facebook account.”
When I was a kid my mom used to say things like, “If all the other kids jumped off the Empire State Building (I grew up in New York), would you?” Apparently, the mentally healthy answer is, “Yes.”
Hello Kitty Enhances Job Performance
Now step into the really deep end of the crazy pool with me as we discuss the power of Kawaii, which is not a misspelling.
Three researchers at Hiroshima University did a series of experiments that if they’d been done here in the U.S. with grant money would be fodder for the next presidential debate. They showed pictures of cute kitties and puppies (look here if you think that’s a redundancy) and compared how well they did on tests to when they were shown other kinds of pictures.
The result of all this is summed up by the title of their article: “The Power of Kawaii: Viewing Cute Images Promotes a Careful Behavior and Narrows Attentional Focus.”
In other words, the students did better — 44 percent better in one experiment — after seeing the cute puppies and kitties than they did when looking at adult animal pictures or enticing pictures of tasty food.
You know that gal who has pictures of her cats all over her cubicle? She might be on to something. Or, she could end up as Eleanor did.