- A narcissist at work may make your day-to-day difficult.
- It's not much better if that narcissist is your boss.
- There are many narcissists in power because of traits they're able to leverage, such as risk-taking and being charming.
Research suggests that you're more likely to find a narcissist in the corner office than just about anywhere else.
As psychoanalyst leadership expert Michael Maccoby has argued, that's because narcissists often thrive in leadership roles, since so-called "productive narcissists" are super comfortable with risk and charming enough to get people's backing for their ideas.
"Narcissists have always emerged to inspire people and to shape the future," Maccoby wrote for Harvard Business Review. "Consider how an executive at Oracle describes his narcissistic CEO Larry Ellison: 'The difference between God and Larry is that God does not believe he is Larry.'"
But the problem, of course, is that narcissists are typically looking out for themselves, ready to cut down anybody who challenges them, and like to take credit for other people's work.
Here are eleven signs you may be working for a narcissist.
Drake Baer and Vivian Giang contributed to an earlier version of this article.
DON'T MISS: 7 signs you may be dealing with a narcissistic coworker or boss — and how to deal with them
They like to put people down
Narcissistic people intentionally put down others in order to maintain a high positive image of themselves.
"Seeking admiration is like a drug for narcissists," Mitja D. Back, a psychologist at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, told Psychology Today. "In the long run it becomes difficult because others won't applaud them, so they always have to search for new acquaintances from whom they get the next fix."
Needless to say, serious control issues and the need to build themselves up at the expense of others may not make for the ideal manager.
Even though they're often negative about everyone around them, they reject critiques of themselves
A narcissist won't accept even the smallest piece of criticism, Dr. Karlyn Borysenko, Principal at Zen Workplace, previously told Business Insider.
Any inkling that they're less than perfect will drive them over the edge.
They really, really love being in control
Narcissists typically enjoy leadership positions since they are able to dominate others and fulfill their need for constant positive reinforcement.
They thrive in "leadership situations where they can dazzle and dominate others without having to cooperate or suffer the consequences of a bad reputation,"psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman wrote on Psychology Today.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider