WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., Sept. 30 (UPI) -- One in 25 bosses may be a psychopath, and a U.S. researcher suggests if an employee suspects his or her boss fits the description, it's best to find a new boss.
Jamie Dickey Ungerleider of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C., said 4 percent of business leaders are psychopaths -- characterized by being amoral and concerned only with their own power and selfish pleasures.
Evelyn Williams of Wake Forest University Schools of Business said knowing any boss' work style could be the key to succeeding, but a longer term solution if one lands a psychopathic boss -- leave.
"Leaders who are psychopaths are extremely charming, highly manipulative, see other people as objects and don't feel guilty about using people to reach their own ends," Ungerleider said in a statement. "Sometimes people put a boss in that category because they're being treated badly, but those are bad actions or bad decisions, not a personality disorder."
Ungerleider said working very hard to impress a psychopathic boss might backfire.
"These people use the skills and talents of people under them to shine for their own managers," Ungerleider said. "If you shine a little too brightly while you're helping them stand out, that becomes a threat. Most of them won't hesitate to throw you under the bus."
