Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Psychopathic bosses on the loose

by Personnel Today 20 Jan 2004
by Personnel Today 20 Jan 2004


Have you ever worried you are being worked to death? Well be afraid; be very afraid, because you might just be right.

A leading authority on psychopaths has published a guide to identify ‘corporate psychos’ to help companies root out managers who are likely to turn violent or defraud the company.

Professor Robert Hare, of the University of British Columbia, has put together a 107-point questionnaire called the ‘B-Scan’, because he thinks a psychopath’s personality fits ideally in theÉ errÉ cut-throat world of business.

A top-quality psycho will be able to manipulate others without remorse and will have a polished veneer of charm, which will get them on the management fast-track.

Your skipper could be a bona fide ripper if they have an inflated and grandiose self-image, ambitious and unrealistic career goals and if they take credit for the work of others. ‘Using a lot of management jargon to impress people’ is a key indicator.

Other tell-tale signs – such as thrill-seeking bosses, who tend to get very angry, then calm down and act as if nothing has happened – could mean that a ‘killer day in the office’ is a little closer than you thought.

‘Techie nerds’ eye your every step

n If you thought you were safe from prying eyes by using Instant Messenger to send your subversive thoughts to your friends, then you’d be wrong. Furthermore, if you thought using obscure variants of words to avoid the censors would help, then Guru is sorry to tell you that’s a load of bawls.

In yet another Personnel Today exclusive, Guru can reveal that companies are employing ‘techie nerds’ to install software onto your system that will monitor your Instant Messenger and pick out errant subject matter, no matter how it is spelled, usingÉ wait for itÉ Viz magazine’s Roger Mellie’s Profanisaurus.

For the uninitiated, the Profanisaurus is designed ‘to keep you bang up-to-date with the very latest in deeply unwholesome language’, and includes obscure phrases such as ‘donkey punch’ and ‘let Percy in the playpen’. Guru likes his job and will therefore not deign to translate.

“Bizarre wording is being used to get round monitoring systems,” said an IT source. “But using Mellie’s rather more colourful language means more people will get caught out.”

And if you thought that you worked in a staid industry, such as banking or insurance, that wouldn’t dream of using the Tourettes-ridden comic character’s guidelines, you might want to think again.

No fairy tale end for bottomless bunch

n A group of down-and-outs have started to gather in Westminster to fight for the rights of the forgotten unemployed. They are the Association of Former MPs (AssofF MPs), a union to show solidarity for ex-politicos who, like Little Miss Muffet, have been forced to relinquish their constituency tuffets in favour of bigger, hairier creatures, prepared to spin new webs of deceit.

The group of sad MPs who have lost their seats (and don’t know where to find them) already boasts 180 members and they are campaigning to give ex-MPs better access to a hardship fund into which MPs have paid £2 a week since 1938.

Due to a certain stinginess when it comes to payouts, the fund stands at a hefty £4m.

Apparently no-one wants to employ a washed-up MP and they can’t go on the dole for fear of the media finding out.

Over-bifurcation splits opinion

n A common rule in journalism is that you should write in English plain enough for a12-year-old to understand.

The example below was one of the best we’ve seen, and was returned to a friendly lawyer to sort out:

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

“A contributor to this [TUPE regulations] has been the European Court of Justice, whose recent case law has given rise to a new theoretical bifurcation in the analysis of the application of the Acquired Rights Directive (in Britain, TUPE) to contracting for services.”

You have been warned.

Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

previous post
Disability forum launches online briefings for employers
next post
Flexibility will manage opt-out

You may also like

Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders receive 400% pay rise

4 Jul 2025

FCA to extend misconduct rules beyond banks

2 Jul 2025

‘Decisive action’ needed to boost workers’ pensions

2 Jul 2025

Business leaders’ drop in confidence impacts headcount

2 Jul 2025

Why we need to rethink soft skills in...

1 Jul 2025

Five misconceptions about hiring refugees

20 Jun 2025

Forward features list 2025 – submitting content to...

23 Nov 2024

Features list 2021 – submitting content to Personnel...

1 Sep 2020

Large firms have no plans to bring all...

26 Aug 2020

A typical work-from-home lunch: crisps

24 Aug 2020

  • Empower and engage for the future: A revolution in talent development (webinar) WEBINAR | As organisations strive...Read more
  • Empowering working parents and productivity during the summer holidays SPONSORED | Businesses play a...Read more
  • AI is here. Your workforce should be ready. SPONSORED | From content creation...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+