Grace believes she found herself working for one such individual. “She liked to have power over people,” she says of her old boss. “She was very nice to people in person, but then very cruel and judgmental behind their backs… She was emotionless.”

In the 1970s, criminal psychologist Robert D. Hare developed the Hare Psychopathy Checklist to assess cases of psychopathy. He later estimated that around one percent of the adult population are psychopaths. But, he also claimed the prevalence of psychopaths is higher in the world of business than in the general population – around 3 to 4 percent. This might still sound rare, but research suggests psychopaths are usually more present in senior leadership roles, meaning their actions can cause ripple effects, setting the tone throughout an entire workplace.

In fact, Hare coined the term “snakes in suits” for what are more commonly known as “corporate psychopaths,” in an attempt to capture just how damaging their impact can be in the corporate world – and indeed many other industries where lacking a conscience, guilt, shame or empathy may advance your career.

“Psychopaths seek power, control and prestige and gravitate towards sectors that can provide those, including any highly paid occupation,” says Dr Clive Boddy, of Anglia Ruskin University. Many consider Boddy a pioneer in the field of corporate psychopathy, and he has recently released a report detailing how to potentially spot the signs your boss is a “snake in a suit”, to use Hare’s term.

What should you look out for?

“Some key warning signs for people who may suspect their boss is a psychopath are a cowed and subservient workforce, untruthfulness, grandiose self-regard, lack of regret for how badly they treat people, and open abusiveness,” Boddy suggests. And it doesn’t stop there. Boddy says corporate psychopaths are also known for sexual harassment, manipulation, spreading lies about employees, and claiming other’s work as their own. All of this adds up to a truly toxic workplace environment.

Indeed, Boddy says the two most common signs of psychopathy in a workplace are “a climate of fear… accompanied by staff withdrawal behaviour to avoid the psychopath.” Basically, employees will often quit as soon as they are able to, so staff turnover is a crucial clue. “People can’t get out of there fast enough,” Boddy says.

“My toxic boss was a ‘corporate psychopath’ – this is how to spot the warning signs”