Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work (3 page)

Lynda, from accounting, sat in the corner of the room and sipped her beer. The raucous conversation of the colleagues who sat with her provided a soothing backdrop for Lynda’s private thoughts.

“You should be happy, Lynda,” said Julie, the senior member of the audit team. “You won, and the [expletive deleted] is gone.”

Lynda took a drink and smiled shyly. Just out of school, she never thought working for a big company would be like this. The last few months had been very rough on her. She could handle the work, of course, and brought some new computer assessment techniques to the department from her schooling, but the hurt she felt just would not go away.

“Listen, Lyn, the world is made up of all kinds of people, and you were unlucky to get a jerk on your first job. But most folks are nice and want to do a good job—you’re one of them, and you’re surrounded by friends—you did the right thing; you’re our hero.” A collective expression of sympathy rose from the table, and Julie put her arm around Lynda, who smiled.

Lynda had been the unlucky target of much of the abuse in the accounting department. Perhaps it was her naïveté, her youth, or her propensity to be honest, but even Julie could not completely shield her from the abuse. Julie had gone to bat for Lynda when her audit
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raised serious questions about what the Pit Bull was doing, but her own strength was no match for the Pit Bull.

Helen was disappointed in the offer. She expected that Gus would be let go or moved out and she would get the top job. Her division HR VP explained to her that the director job was a high-profile development position, the key position responsible for improving the day-to-day workings of the division; all would be watching to see if she could help Gus turn it around in short order. Stellar performance in her new role would go a long way to fast and significant promotions, she was told. In addition, Gus and Helen were seen as an excellent combination for the task, and while individually quite different in approach and style, they would make a very powerful team—she could learn from his experience as much as he could learn from her.

Helen said that she would consider taking the job on the condition that she receive all the support she needed to succeed, a reasonable request by all accounts. The corporation was prepared to take whatever steps were deemed necessary, and approve whatever authority was requested, in order to fix the problem and move away from this embarrassing episode in the corporation’s history. In sharp contrast to the financial controls elsewhere within the corporation, therefore, Gus and Helen could have pretty much whatever resources they requested. With these assurances, and effectively a blank check, Helen agreed to take the job.

In a little over six months, the problems that had plagued the unit seemed to disappear. The service level on the government contracts rose to 95 percent delivery performance, the errors (human, computer, and procedural) that had created the problems were found and quickly corrected, and the regulatory compliance question went away quietly. Helen was singled out for public praise for saving the division. Even Gus spoke favorably about her, especially her ethical conduct, diligence, and dedication to the job.

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Fred made the rounds of the small groups that formed around the room. New toasts were made as he moved in and out. Bits and pieces of heated conversation were audible through the overall din.

Rick, from the mailroom, confirmed that the state police had been at the back door to keep everyone inside: “And there were these two guys in black suits carrying out computers, files, and the contents of the shred bin,” he reported. Sheila, from security, confirmed that the call had come that morning, followed by the orders to put security staff by the front door. “Yes, handcuffs,” she responded to the questions from the marketing staff.

No one was surprised when Gus was moved out of his position—except, perhaps, Gus—after Helen made arguments to the executive committee members that implicated him in the original business letdown. She had clever ideas and tremendous energy, and persisted in pushing strongly for what she wanted; she constructed a plausible story line about Gus’s mismanagement that solidly reinforced her business case. Helen was profoundly competitive, dramatic in her engagement with others, and just loved to take center stage and the limelight. Turning the division around gave her the platform she needed for a great career at the company. Overall, she convinced them that she possessed all the leadership traits needed to run a major business.

Naturally, she was the choice to replace Gus, and was rewarded by a promotion to his position as COO.

The front door of O’Hare’s opened slowly. There stood a rather large man in a long, black coat. He glanced at his wristwatch and moved toward the bar. O’Hare was at the bar that evening, and greeted the well-dressed gentleman with a nod. Taking off his black gloves, the man ordered a ginger ale in a Scotch glass with a swizzle stick. O’Hare nodded and went to make the drink.

Not everyone liked Helen, of course, and some of her staff did not trust her. She treated the junior colleagues with disdain
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and a measure of contempt, often deriding their abilities and competence. To those she found useful to her career, however, she was gracious, engaging, and fun. She had a talent for presenting her good side to those she felt mattered, all the while denying, discounting, discarding, and displacing anyone who did not agree with her decisions.

Helen developed a reputation for telling the corporate staff what they wanted to hear, stage-managing meetings with the executive team as if they were Hollywood productions. She insisted that her direct reports follow the agreed-upon scripts, deferring any unexpected or difficult questions to her. According to her peers, Helen was a master at impression management, and she successfully manipulated her boss, intimidated direct reports, and played up to key personalities important to her.

Picking up his drink, the man looked around the tavern. The place was quiet except for the noise from the back room. The visitor asked for another drink, putting his credit card on the bar. O’Hare poured the drink and placed it on the bar, taking the credit card to run a tab.

With the government fiasco behind her and Gus out of the way, Helen let loose some of her domineering management style.

Histrionics were common during staff meetings, and participants often felt bruised, battered, and humiliated at the end of their meetings with her. She would stomp around the new office complex—which she had leased because she wanted a bigger office—without acknowledging others, barking out orders and generally intimidating, frightening, and pushing people around.

This was a total departure from the values embodied in Bailey, a man whose door was always open, and who routinely made the rounds of the staff, soliciting new ideas to improve the business. Bailey valued his people and amazed new staff with his ability to remember their spouses’ names and children’s sports accomplishments. Bailey was a people person who was not only
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extremely bright, but also knew how to make money, and he made a lot. He knew that his success—the success of the business—rested with the quality of his staff, and he shared the glory as well as the rewards with those around him.

Over the next few months, Helen hired her own group of people to replace many of her more vocal opponents on her senior staff. Relying on her own gut-feel approach to hiring talent, she would offer large sign-on bonuses to entice young, bright executives to leave their current jobs, and if she then decided—within days or weeks—that they just weren’t good enough and couldn’t hack it, they had to go. She fired most of the quick appointments to her management team in rapid succession as she decided they were inadequate, incompetent, or no longer needed. There was no concern about the damage she did to the careers and family lives of these people, or the legal problems she could potentially cause for the corporation.

Helen seemed able to get away with whatever she wanted, including the purchase of the latest extravagance, whether this be a computer, a new car, corporate apartment, or any other acces-sory that signaled the trappings of power. Helen initiated a series of expensive management conferences, held in tropical locations, with prominent keynote speakers, in which she trumpeted the division’s accomplishments with her fully taking the spotlight. Her presentation of success was at odds with a continuing lack of cohesion within the division—but somehow those outside did not notice this discrepancy.

She was unwilling and perhaps unable to acknowledge that any of her decisions could have any negative consequences for the business. Questioning her behavior provoked intense reactions, as, for example, when she fired the executive coach hired by the corporation to help her smooth over her rough edges. She was never wrong but always right, being interested only in positive news. People resented the way in which she paraded about like a queen bee. She enjoyed displaying her status, power, and the ex-Nice Suit. Would a Snake Wear Such a Nice Suit?

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ecutive privileges she enjoyed within the corporation, including the lease of a corporate jet for her travels. She had made many enemies, but many on the staff were afraid of her.

The man at the bar glanced at his wristwatch once again and looked around the room as if searching for someone. “They’re in there,” said O’Hare, nodding to the door to the back room. “I don’t think they are expecting you, but you can go right in.”

What really irked the staff was Helen’s increasing absence from the office, while she had virtually lived in her office while Gus was in charge. Her second in command, Ned—a close, personal friend appointed by her to a new business development post—was often absent at the same time, provoking unkind rumors. Other, more critical rumors had him running another business on the side, in spite of the prohibitions of company policy. Ned’s presence was resented, but Helen protected him and no one dared contradict or question them.

With glass in hand, the man pushed open the door to the back room slowly. No one really noticed the visitor enter, except Fred.

“Ned was found in the cafeteria getting coffee,” reported Sheila.

“When they put the cuffs on him, he protested, making a big scene and demanding to call his lawyer!”

“What about the Pit Bull trying to escape on the jet?” questioned Sam, who was always the last to hear the latest gossip.

Seeing who had entered the room, Fred coughed loudly in an attempt to warn the group, but few heard him. Loudly tapping his glass with his ring, he began to get the group’s attention. Loud noise turned to whispers, and whispers to complete silence as more and more people took notice of the gentleman’s arrival.

The fraud that had been uncovered was as clever as it was brazen. No one suspected that some of the key accounts responsible
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for the turnaround and growth were fictitious, and Ned and the Pit Bull were a team of fraudsters. Little did those in the office realize that some of the bigger accounts were completely phony, created by Ned to inflate the business results. No one could imagine that they had been working right next to a couple of crooks.

The gentleman searched the faces in the room and smiled at those he still recognized. Seeing Shirley at the back table, he moved toward that group. Most of the folks had already risen, but Lynda, whose back was to the door, was still deep in her thoughts. As he moved forward, the crowd parted. Standing to her side, he asked,

“Are you Lynda?” Surprised out of her reverie, she turned and saw who was standing next to her.

Few companies experience the high drama that unfolded that day. Eventually, the authorities learned that Helen, using the computer access codes she had gotten from the IT server, was able to make ever so small changes to several customer accounts, gradually siphoning off assets to her offshore account. Ned, who by chance was in the office that day, had seen the state police pulling up and had had enough time to call Helen before he bolted out of his office toward the cafeteria exit and into the hands of the police. Helen was luckier. As the unmarked cars were coming down her street, she escaped out the back door of her palatial house and stole across the yard to the next street, where she always kept her second car parked and ready for just such an emergency. While the corporate jet was being watched, few imagined that she also leased a private plane at a local airstrip on the other side of town.

“Yes, sir,” Lynda said, timidly.

“I wanted to thank you personally for all your help. I really do appreciate your courage and honesty.”

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“Mr. Bailey,” said Fred, coming up behind him, “it’s great to see you. Welcome to our little get-together.”

“It’s good to see you, too, Fred. Looks like we’ve run out of beer,” he hinted as he took a seat next to Lynda. “The party’s on me, folks,” said Old Man Bailey. “Fred, could you get me another drink?

O’Hare knows what I take.”

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Who
Are
These People?

Novels and movies portray psychopaths in extreme, stereotypical ways. They appear as cold-blooded serial killers, stalkers, sex offenders, con men and women, or the prototypical evil, manipulating vil-lain, such as Dr. No or Hannibal Lecter. Reality, unfortunately, provides some support for this view, but the picture is somewhat more complex than this.

Years of research on prison populations bear out the criminality and violence implied by the term psychopath. We now know that both male and female psychopaths commit a greater number and variety of crimes than do other criminals. Their crimes tend to be more violent than those of other criminals, and their general behavior more controlling, aggressive, threatening, and abusive. Further, their aggression and violence tend to be predatory in nature—cold-blooded and devoid of the intense emotional upheaval that typically accompanies the violent
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