Here is how it feels to work in a healthy workplace:
❂ You wake up every morning with joy at the idea of going to work and seeing your colleagues. After all, you share the same dreams and passions. You like these people, and they like you.
❂ Your workplace is creative, and effective. Everyone brings problems and ideas to the table, and solves them without delay or fuss. There is a lot of chatter, and few meetings.
❂ You find yourself teaching others, and often the work is playful. Your bosses tell you if there are major problems to focus on. They provide coffee, and Internet. They don’t tell you how to do your work, nor when.
❂ You set your own priorities, because you know what the customers want and need. And the customers seem happy, except when there’s a serious problem. Even then, they know you’re doing your best.
❂ The bosses treat you like equals, and share in the work. They know what they’re doing, and they trust their staff. After all, they hired you one by one.
❂ The team grows little by little. New hires usually start as interns or apprentices. If an intern doesn’t fit the culture, they don’t stay for long.
❂ The pay and benefits are OK, yet that’s not the reason you work there. You work there because it makes you happy. You work there because you can’t imagine any reason to leave.
❂ When you think of who your friends are, your workmates are high on the list. You enjoy their company and you often hang out together, after work.
❂ You and your colleagues often stay late. Not because someone is watching, just because you love what you’re doing. The work makes you feel satisfied, and fulfilled.
❂ When you go home and spend time with your family, you never feel stressed about work. Your evenings and weekends are yours. Of course if there’s a problem, work can call. They almost never do.
Here is how it feels to work on the dark side of the Moon:
❂ Your alarm clock forces you out of bed, and you hate it. Mondays are worst because it’s another five whole days until you can drink yourself sane.
❂ The commute is like riding the slow bus to Hell. A dark pit of despair fills you as you get to your stop. It’s raining. You left your umbrella on the bus. Of course.
❂ The notion of seeing your colleagues fills you with dread. You hope they don’t notice how hungover you are. You hope you don’t meet the boss on the way to your desk.
❂ The office is sterile, and impersonal. You can’t think. You’d take a music player and headset, except that’s forbidden. In the toilet, a new note from HR. It says, "Collarless t-shirts forbidden except on last Friday of each month. Enjoy mandatory casual Friday!"
❂ The coffee wakes you, and you find the energy to start on the report. Except, it’s meeting time. Everyone crowds into the meeting room. Planning time. Always the same. Your mind goes back to sleep.
❂ You start on that report, then you get a bunch of emails from the boss. She wants to know your planning for the next week. What was the meeting for then? She sends you PDFs with a presentation she wants to tidy up. It is large. And it is all wrong. You will need to redo everything. There goes your day. You feel sorry for yourself and angry with your boss.
❂ You don’t talk much to your colleagues. Above all not to ask for help. Everyone knows annual sales have been terrible. There will be layoffs. Your wife is sick again. You need the benefits. The thought makes you so anxious that you have to take a pill.
❂ You see a report from customer service. Satisfaction is down 5%, retention is still good. Someone in legal has been adding clauses that make it harder for customers to switch. Whatever. You don’t feel anything. The pill is working well.
❂ The boss is meeting with unknown people. Well dressed. Not from the company. Consultants? What’s going on? Afterwards, lots of handshakes and the suits leave, all smiles. The whole office is alert now.
❂ A few days later, there are new faces. "We’re bringing in help," the boss says at the morning meeting. The new faces all have expensive laptops. They take over the meeting room. Their new office. You wonder about tomorrow’s meeting.
❂ HR sends round a reminder for the Saturday company picnic. "Attendance is optional," as usual. Your daughter is doing her ballet school show on Saturday. You wonder what you can buy her to make up for it this time.
❂ You notice Larry isn’t there. Is he sick? You ask Nancy, over coffee. Fired, she tells you, with a strange smile. He didn’t pass review. That’s it. Didn’t pass review. No more detail. Larry was one of the few people you liked talking to. You start to feel the stress build up in the pit of your stomach. Must cut back on the coffee.
❂ You work late, as usual. Maybe you can finish that report. First, the presentation for the boss. You hope she doesn’t trash it like last time. Quiet despair fills your mind. You wonder what slide transition to use. Too many options.
❂ When you get home, it’s late and the kids are already asleep. Your wife is silent in the living room. You sit on the other couch, and open your laptop. One more day and it’s Friday.
You can estimate how many psychopaths (M) are active in any given organization. Start with an estimate of 4% of total workforce (W). Multiply by three for finance-related businesses (F = 1 or 3). Now imagine you are a client, and give the organization a "ripoff factor" of one to five (R = 1 to 5). One is your local baker. Five is Comcast. Multiply your estimate by the ripoff factor. Round down to the nearest whole number. You now have your estimate.
The Ages of Mallory
Given the model of psychopath as profession, at what ages does psychopathy start and stop? Can we see the traits of psychopathy in juveniles and senior citizens?
These questions are valid because the traits run in families. To know someone, look at the family members of all ages. If you are in a relationship with someone, you are in one with his parents, siblings, and cousins.
They are also important because Mallory often has children. If psychopaths make up 4% of the population, then 8% of families have a psychopathic parent. Half of Mallory’s children become like him, on average. I’ve explained my hypothesis that adult psychopathy needs an incubating environment to differentiate.
This means that if we can recognize the traits in the parent, and in the children, we can intervene. I’ll explore the ifs and hows of this in more detail in Escape from Jonestown. Let’s say you are in a position to do something. Your main question is, "is this child growing up to be Mallory?"
The traits of psychopathy in children are well studied. Yet the focus is on aggression. For instance, Dr. David Rettew in his talk "Sociopathic Behavior in Children"[77], refers to "aggression" 36 times. In effect he equates aggression with psychopathy. For sure, some psychopaths are aggressive and violent. Yet it is not a defining trait.
The bulk of successful psychopaths are rarely violent. Their aggression lives under the surface. They rarely punch or kick. They smile, and they whisper. Only when they feel violence is more effective, when they have no other options, will they use it. And even then, they will use verbal and emotional violence first. Above all, a psychopath’s violence is pragmatic and targeted.
I’d expect young Mallory to show a sharp learning curve in hiding his predatory nature. I’d expect to see him learn to make others admire him. I’d expect him to practice on smaller, weaker children, when no adult was watching. I’d expect his teachers to adore him and praise him.