Do you suspect that someone you work with is a psychopath? Do they act superficially charming, lack remorse, lie to you, cheat, or attempt to manipulate you? Read more to find out about our study.
Dear Members of the Lovefraud Blog,
My name is Janelle and I am a Master’s student at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. I’m currently working on my Master’s thesis in Forensic Psychology under the supervision of Dr. Adelle Forth. The topic of my research is psychopathy in the workplace and the effects this has on victims.
Psychopathy in the workplace is a relatively new area of study in psychology. Most of the research to date focuses on the psychopathic individuals while neglecting to take into account the voices of survivors. I want to investigate how psychopaths establish relationships in the work environment and the behaviours they exhibit that lead you to believe they are psychopathic or that have victimized you. I also want to know what effects and impacts the relationship has had on your job and your life outside of work.
If you believe that someone you work with possesses psychopathic traits and you would like to share your experience by participating in the study, please click here. This link also contains more information on the study. Please note you must be 18 years of age or older to participate and the study is only available in English. Any questions, comments, or feedback about this research project or its content, are welcome at working.with.psychopath@gmail.com
Sincerely,
Janelle
UPDATE
The survey is now closed. Thank you to everyone who participated.
If you feel like you’re working with or for a psychopath, I encourage you to participate in the survey.
We currently have a situation at work that I suspect is caused by a spath, still being in the analyzing phase (myself), questioning if the person that I think committed the crime (it never occurred to me that she could be a spath, until now) is an actual spath (or just a drug user). These people are everywhere, no kidding, creating mini-dramas. In the past, I’ve worked with them, one in particular would lie about herself (making up stories about her health), was sexually promiscuous (while married), and was suspected of stealing in the workplace (we’re certain about this). She was eventually fired due to her family drama overriding into the workplace.
I had a client whose contact person I felt was very dishonest.
I had strong suspicions that this guy was making a lot of money on the side at the expense of the company and getting kickbacks from somewhere.
He didn’t want me poking around examining things.
He made things very difficult for me. Never answered inquiries. Set me up. Lied to me and about me.
He had the top guy totally snowed.
I brought the matter up as nicely as I could to top management, couching it in “he’s young, maybe didn’t learn the latest and greatest way,” but got an answer back that they had total faith in him.
The top manager was an extremely nice, trusting person. I still have the letter that I sent to him about this guy.
There was nothing that I could do about it. The young guy was the coldest, most calculating person I’ve ever met in a work environment. I didn’t trust him as far as I could throw him with one hand tied behind my back.
This happened about 8 years ago.
Would you be interested in something like that?
I will. I was ruined by a sociopath in 2003 and since then my work life has been a disaster. It hit me right out of the blue and the damage was done.
@G1S – yes, this type of experience is what we are hoping people will share with us by participating in the study.
We want to know how working with a person with psychopathic traits affected your job satisfaction, how you were able to cope with the situation, if you received support from others, and what behaviours the psychopath exhibited that made you realize something was unusual about them (warning signs or red flags). If you click on the study link an informed consent form explains in more detail the nature of the study and the tasks to be completed by participants (answering close- and open-ended questions, filling out questionnaires, etc). You can also reach me at working.with.psychopath@gmail.com if you have any questions or comments.
Thank you for your interest and feel free to pass the study link to others that you may know who had similar experiences. The more voices we get, the better. The study results can help inform HR decision-making during the hiring process and will contribute to the growing field of corporate psychopathy research. Not to mention you could help others protect themselves by sharing what behaviours you spotted as red flags.
Janelle
OK, Janelle,
I will be in touch.
And as a plus for you, this company was located in St. Catherine’s.
He (the young guy) showed me the house where that married couple raped, tortured, and murdered the girls. I forget their names, but she conned her way out of a heavy prison sentence claiming to be victim. Her sister was one of the ones they murdered.
I gave her one about a nursing supervisor who ended up causing the entire nursing staff except one to leave, and the hospital administrator got fired, the director of nurses got fired, the psychopath got fired, and the hospital ended up closed and sold. How is that for destroying a company? The senior nursing staff all knew she was a satanic spawn (we didn’t know about psychopaths in those days) but we couldn’t get the DON or adm to see it until it was too late….but shiat happens. I’ve seen CLONES of this woman in several places I have worked since then. Seen the havoc they wreck and the pain and misery they cause. Just like psychopaths anywhere. You do your job, just want to be left alone to do your job, but noooooo we have to have this drama rama! PUKE!
I will participate – this is great that there is interest in our voices !
For LF folks I will share that in 2002, my work department merged with another work department and we inherited a lady who in hindsight was a sociopath. She was glib and anxious to please and matched everyone’s interests. She worked with me until I noticed that she was turning in reports without any attached required data charts. I asked about it and she “just forgot” and sent them right over. A few months later, we had our usual yearly audit and the data charts did not match up. She was asked to provide the protocols and that’s when the lying and drama started. She claimed that other people had worked on these charts. When those people were asked, they “never heard of it.” The she “fell apart” and claimed that I just wanted to prevent her from being promoted. She faked all the data – the reports had to be rewritten and she was assigned to someone else who “would be a better mentor to her.” At no time was she disciplined.
The 2nd “mentor” quickly tossed her out and as he was older and higher up in the work department, he was not criticized. The 3rd “mentor” had the same experience I did with the same drama and accusations of our trying to prevent her promotion. Faking data again. Then she was reassigned as an admin person, but her salary remained at the higher level and she is currently having problems in that position.
My red flags about her: 1) during the drama with me, I took leave to attend my mother’s funeral with the spath making a complaint that I “refused to attend work group meetings,” 2) even now on occasion she will send people to my office looking for her (yep that’s weird), 3) during a process to upgrade some equipment, she was asked to send the packet forward and took everone’s name off the packet except hers (making it look like she was in charge), 4) she sent out several letters with only her name on it, 5) we have overheard her in meetings with out of town personel claim to be a “senior level” executive.
How does she continue to work there ?? Parties – she is always giving parties and a lot of people “like” her and attend. She is always socializing and knows exactly what people will resonate to. She compartmentalizes those who have “wronged” her and ostracizes us while charming all others. The way we survivors handle it is to see that those she schmoozes are either higher up (to manipulate a promotion or being restored to her former position) or people who don’t have anything that she wants right now (and all these casual friendships make her look good).
I’m so grateful for LF – knowledge is power and allows me to stay strong and cope really, really well these days.
OpalRose,
That was very interesting. Thanks for sharing.
Does it have to be a boss or co-worker that you are currently working with in order to be able to participate? Or, can you participate if you’ve worked with or under a sociopath at any time during your career? I’m no longer working at all but have most definitely worked in situation where my boss was undoubtedly a sociopath. Perhaps even more than once – for most of my 25+ year career I worked as an executive assistant to company owners, Presidents, CEO’s and Directors of companies – most of whom have regularly demonstrated at least some (most a great deal) of sociopathic traits. I’ve got plenty to contribute!!