Snakes in Suits Quotes

“The most debilitating characteristic of even the most well-behaved psychopath is the inability to form a workable team.”
― Robert D. Hare, Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work

“Psychopathic workers very often were identified as the source of departmental conflicts, in many cases, purposely setting people up in conflict with each other. “She tells some people one story, and then a totally different story to others.”
― Paul Babiak, Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work

“Even in the face of contrary evidence, the psychopath can lie so well that listeners doubt themselves first, rather than question the psychopath.”
― Paul Babiak, Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work

“Because they see most people as weak, inferior, and easy to deceive, psychopathic con artists will often tell you that their victims deserved what they got.”
― Paul Babiak, Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work

“In psychopaths’ mental world people do not exist except as objects, targets, and obstacles.”
― Paul Babiak, Snakes in Suits, Revised Edition: Understanding and Surviving the Psychopaths in Your Office

“Another characteristic of psychopaths is an ability to avoid taking responsibility for things that go wrong; instead, they blame others, circumstances, fate, and so forth.”
― Paul Babiak, Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work

“On the surface however people with psychopathic personalities can and do easily come across as friendly and agreeable - they get along with other "kids" at work or play. It is only beneath the surface, well hidden from view, that darker tendencies lie.”
― Robert Hare, Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work

“When dramatic organizational change is added to the normal levels of job insecurity, personality clashes, and political battling, the resulting chaotic milieu provides both the necessary stimulation and sufficient “cover” for psychopathic behavior.”
― Paul Babiak, Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work

“Rapid business growth, increased downsizing, frequent reorganizations, mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures have inadvertently increased the number of attractive employment opportunities for individuals with psychopathic personalities”
― Paul Babiak, Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work

“The increase in cautious inaction among coworkers is another subtle but powerful effect that psychopathic behavior has on the organization.”
― Paul Babiak, Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work

“Honesty and integrity are a “given” in most organizations, rarely tested on any but the most superficial levels.”
― Paul Babiak, Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work

“psychopaths will lie even to people who already know the truth about what they are saying. Amazingly, more often than not, victims will eventually come to doubt their own knowledge of the truth and change their own views to believe what the psychopath tells them rather than what they know to be true.”
― Paul Babiak, Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work

“The real problem for others is when narcissistic features, especially a sense of entitlement and a lack of empathy, shade into antisocial and destructive behaviors. When this happens, the pattern might be described as aggressive or malignant narcissism, which is difficult to distinguish from psychopathy.”
― Paul Babiak, Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work

“Most people are honest, loyal, law-abiding citizens who focus their energy on making a living, raising a family, and contributing to society. Others are more selfish, concerned only about themselves, and appear to lack a moral compass. These individuals display little regard for others, allowing their need for power and prestige to override their sense of fairness and equity.1 Unfortunately, some individuals in the business world allow the responsibilities of leadership and the perquisites of power to override their moral sense.”
― Paul Babiak, Snakes in Suits, Revised Edition: Understanding and Surviving the Psychopaths in Your Office

“the detractors despised these individuals, and the supporters almost worshipped them. It was as if employees were describing two entirely different people.”
― Paul Babiak, Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work

“most interesting challenges to the psychopath, no doubt, are individuals with strong personality traits such as narcissism, assertiveness, and dominance. These individuals are particularly important to psychopaths because they also tend to be in the higher levels of power in organizations.”
― Paul Babiak, Snakes in Suits, Revised Edition: Understanding and Surviving the Psychopaths in Your Office

“At a basic level, a person with a personality disorder has a limited range of stereotyped “solutions” that he or she applies to most of the problems encountered in life.”
― Paul Babiak, Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work

“Not all psychopaths are in prison. Some are in the boardroom.”
― Robert D. Hare, Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work

“Companies are very pragmatic and respond to information about behaviors relevant to the work at hand rather than subjective feelings about another person.”
― Paul Babiak, Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work

“Cons, Bullies, and the Puppetmaster”
― Paul Babiak, Snakes in Suits, Revised Edition: Understanding and Surviving the Psychopaths in Your Office