Two books that are terrific overviews of Personality Disorders that also contain additional information on the personality traits and behaviors in each personality category are:

Millon, Theodore, Grossman, Seth, Millon, Carrie, Meagher, Sarah, and Ramnath, Rowena, Personality Disorders in Modern Life, 2nd Ed., (2000) John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, N.J. 

Sperry, Len, Handbook of Diagnosis and Treatment of DSM-IV-TR Personality Disorders, 2nd Ed., (2003), Brunner-Routledge, New York, New York. 

 You’ll notice from my previous posts that I am describing the 10 major personality types with some discussion on how the various personality structures influence the type of behavior in the workplace. When I’m done, I’ll summarize them and make a few important points that I believe are critical to understanding and developing an authentic workplace.

First, personality types are only one paradigm in looking at how beliefs and behaviors are motivated. There are also other influences such as defenses, alcohol and drugs, mental illness, relationship issues such as divorce, grieving, and tons of other underlying issues that synergize in the workplace. Second, as a result, it is impossible to strictly regulate behavior in the workplace without creating a sick and unhealthy organization.

The solution is to migrate the focus of workplace compliance from behavior to values and outcomes. But, that is only half of the solution. You must encourage and support behavior that is authentic. That means valuing everyone’s quirks, personality issues, and other behavior not only as a given (yes, the whole person comes to work everyday), but also personality issues as potential strengths in the organization. If you don’t do that, you are really regulating behavior by discouraging certain behaviors (based ironically on your own quirks and personality traits).

There is also a clear difference between quirks and personality traits and behavior that is damaging to outcomes, productivity, employee relations, safety, and an authentic work context.  These serious threshold behaviors that should result in termination are not included in these discussions. 

The Borderline Personality Disorder

As with all personality types, a person with a Borderline Personality Disorder (as opposed to a personality trait) is not real difficult to identify. For example, a major presenting criteria is the pattern of unstable relationships where one minute a person is an admired best friend, the next the Borderline person angrily rejects them. This rapid alternating from idealization and devaluation is a hallmark of this disorder. Another major presenting criteria is impulsivity in two or more areas: spending, substance abuse, sex, driving, eating, gambling, etc.  So if you have a staff person who is dramatic and fluctuates emotionally with anger and is clearly sensation seeking, you would probably on the right path to look at the further criteria of a Borderline Personality.

Other characteristics of this personality disorder are frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment, recurrent suicidal behavior or gestures, moods rapidly moving from depression (dysphoria) and back to anxiety in a few hours (each rarely lasting more than a few days), inappropriate anger, stress-related paranoid ideation or dissociation.

Many times, a staff person with Borderline Personality Disorder will be a good worker when they are not ‘in one of their moods’. Because of this, employers tend to overlook the periodic episodes that usually rock the workplace. In the workplace, anger is ever-present lingering just below the surface. Generally, this is provoked by someone who makes the mistake to interpret the person’s motive, feelings, or intent. Threatening abandonment (termination, team isolation, etc.) will also bring anger to the surface rapidly. Staff know not to provoke such a person. The boss is typically hated one week and respected the next. Typically, impulsive sex and excessive alcohol is a key ingredient in interpersonal relationships, sometimes with fellow workers. Mood peaks are also associated with sick days off from work.

When one looks below the numerous presenting behaviors, a person with a Borderline Personality Disorder shows a complete or diffusion of identity. Their identity is more defined by the events around them (much of which is projected and self-fulfilling) than a person being affected by their events. In fact, a person with such a disorder typically modulate their moods by manipulating their environment (other staff) to provoke the emergence of the appropriate identity to shift them out of an escalating mood sequence. Interestingly, this shift in identity states is established early in childhood.

While the development model of a Borderline Personality Disorders person is complex, it can be characterized by a family context (all caregivers) of abuse that is invalidating. This causes the future Borderline to never to be able to self-manage emotions, specifically what is causing their emotions. There is no adequate mirroring or validating. In addition, the child is considered “bad” and the caregivers project their own dysfunctional affects and cognitions on the child. As a result, the future Borderline cannot label their private emotions and cannot judge normal interactions. They are raised with no secure base, which explains their constant seeking attachment and fearing abandonment.

A staff person with Borderline traits, as opposed to disordered, exhibits intense relationships and nothing is taken lightly. They are emotional and reactive, tend to be intensely fun-loving risk takers, are creative and arouse others to activity, and tend to be deeply involved in only one person. A person with a Borderline trait might have difficulty managing frustration, have some difficulty processing and conceptualizing information, and a little uncertain about ‘who they are’, and have difficulty with life goals.

With regard to the best way to handle a person with Borderline Personality Disorder in the workplace, if you truly have a disordered employee and their behavior has been accepted as a tradeoff for above average work, I would question whether the context of the workplace was not, in fact, creating health hazards for all employees, including the disordered employee. In other words, if you are tolerating Borderline behavior in employees, your workplace is probably quite stressful and unhealthy.

I’ll explain this in more detail in another blog, but all workplace environments should recognize and accommodate the whole person with all their weaknesses and issues. This can be regulated and enforced with good Respect-in-the-Workplace policies that provide a mechanism that allows employees to be authentic and, at the same time, respectful in their interpersonal relationships. Unfortunately, a staff person with Borderline Personality Disorder cannot understand or comply with these interpersonal requirements.

A staff person with Borderline Personality traits should work in a context with consistent expectations. In addition, the supervisor should focus on behavior (coaching, not regulating) when discussing goal achievement and not make the mistake of focusing on the staff person’s identity (“You may not be a good fit for the Marketing section”). Regulating behavior and implying identity issues will only increase the staff person’s anger and insecurity. If this happens and the person is liked within the workplace, they will find security at the peer level by projecting their own insecurity onto the supervisor and ‘bad mouthing’ supervision.

 

The Schizotypal Personality

This type of personality structure is somewhat rare in the typical workplace. The reason is behavior that is disordered or close to disorder is what might loosely be called weird. You might, nonetheless, find this type of personality structure in more entry level positions like mail room worker, janitor, and other similar entry and temporary positions.

Some of the behaviors by the Virginia Tech mass murder demonstrate some of the initial presenting behavior of a Schizotypal personality. Excessive social anxiety and isolation that does not diminish with familiarity is a major indicator (never related to his roommates). In the workplace, a loaner or withdrawn type of person who remains isolated and anxious even after knowing their co-workers for a long time is a tipoff to this type of personality structure. Odd beliefs and magical thinking, suspiciousness or paranoid idealation, and constricted or inappropriate affect are the next level of presenting behavioral traits of a schizotypal personality. Thus, like the Virginia Tech murderer, if they have imaginary girlfriends, think people are talking about them (an example), and show inappropriate affect (say something sad, but show another emotion, or none), you are now probably dealing with a potential schizotypal personality. Another indicator is odd thinking and speech characterized by what looks like wandering, free association, vague, over-elaborate speech in response to an inquiry. If you pay enough attention to the answer to a question from a schizotypal personality type, you may forget what question you asked.

The Schizotypal personality lies beneath the Schizoid and Avoidant personality types. Thus, the Schizotypal personality can be more Schizoid-like, passively detached from others, or Avoidant-like, more actively detached from others.

A person with Schizotypal personality traits rather than being disordered is harder to distinguish from some other personality traits like Schizoid, Avoidant, or simply someone who is introverted. Nonetheless, some key indicators are a strong interest in the occult, the extrasensory, and supernatural combined with indifference to social convention, leading unusual lifestyles, few close relationships, use abstract and speculative thinking, sensitive to how others think about them, and tend to rely solely on their own feelings and beliefs.

There certainly is a genetic influence on this type of personality structure. A child who is more passive, disengaged, is nervous, and reacts negatively to criticism shows pre-Schizoid behaviors. Pre-schizophrenic behavior is more disruptive and excitable.

Family/environmental patterns include an atmosphere of excessive indifference, impassivity, or formality, parental belittlement and humiliation resulting in distrust of others, contradictory and illogical messages by punishing for being autonomous, bizarre control tactics (if you don’t get good grades, you grandmother will die), confusing parental messages that contribute to cognitive distortion. The family interpersonal context creates confusion both cognitively and emotionally so that the child imputes wrong motives and feelings thereby being required to develop their own interpersonal reactions to these misunderstanding. Thus, their self-talk becomes just as confusing as their interpersonal communications. Parents who use “Santa Claus behavior” (When I am at work, I can see if you are being a good boy/girl) contributes to the development of Schizotypal personality. Also, detached parental observations on behavior that are substituted for genuine caring is sometimes present. Statements to a small child like “Someday, you’ll be an important person”, as a reaction to the child drawing a cute picture and running up to show mommy, falls in this area.

In the workplace, is it important to remember that the worker with a Schizotypal trait is inherently paranoid (to certain degrees). Add to this a tendency for magical thinking and ideas of reference (“I knew they were setting me up”) and you have a real problem when you confront such a person for some behavioral deviation from the company norm. If your corporate culture is in any way characterized by collective conspiracy rumors, this type of staff person will keep the fires lit. A core approach to positively dealing with staff with Schizotypal traits is to concentrate on self-worth. A supervisor should work with the employee to directly link concrete behavior with positive outcomes and help the employee gain a perspective on which behaviors work best. The supervisor can also positively correct distorted thinking and reasoning in real time and most especially, constantly demand compliance with respect-in-the-workplace guidelines.

If you are, in fact, dealing with a person with Schizotypal personality disorder, I would confront the problem quickly and directly by getting help in addressing the situation. Certainly, requiring a mental health assessment should be considered. Be careful, however, in simply firing the person for “being wacko”, because this is a perfect setup for the person “going postal” and creating a serious security problem for your company. Each case is different and I would quickly get help in dealing with the specific problem employee. Supervisors who are indoctrinated with and rely strongly on corporate regulations and “my way or the highway” type of supervision are particularly vulnerable to acting too quickly and inappropriately to this type of employee.

 

People with Avoidant personalities withdraw from the world of interpersonal relationships. You have seen that schizoids do also. The difference is schizoids withdraw with indifference and avoidant personality types withdraw with anxiety. Avoidants need closeness and affection; schizoid personality types don’t (interpersonally, that is. It is much more complicated). Avoidant personality types fear criticism and rejection; schizoids don’t.

Fear of evaluation marks the avoidant personality. Restriction of occupational activity is their defense. The avoidant demonstrates a pervasive pattern of social inhibition and feelings of inadequacy. In interpersonal relationships they show restraint because of the fear of being shamed or ridiculed. They view themselves as socially inept, personally unappealing, or inferior to others. They are also reluctant to take personal risks or new activities because they might be embarrassed. In the normal range, a person with an avoidant personality structure will be a very private person. They don’t share their thoughts and activities readily. They prefer to work alone, or in small trusting groups. Once they feel interpersonally safe in a group they will open up, become friendly, and cooperate with the team. You can already see that the avoidant personality does not fit well with modern flexible teams where groups of staff come together for specific projects and then move on to another when the work is done.

Another hallmark of the avoidant personality is the reliance on fantasy and imagination as a means to replace anxiety-arousing thoughts of inferiority.

The avoidant personality fits well in small cliques that use gossip to fortify interpersonal cohesiveness. They tend to idealize their friends in the group, however, when they are threatened with rejection or criticism, they turn around and undermine their own group to reestablish distance and reduce anxiety.

Like everyone, they suffer from self-fulfillment of their own avoided issues. As a result, they often report feelings of shame, humiliation, and not being understood. Generally, their own anxiety about being accepted and close is pre-consciously noticed through transference by others who counter-transfer a rejection of the anxiety causing the avoidant to feel rejected. The harder they try to be close, the more they are rejected. Of course, they don’t know it is the anxiety that is being rejected, not them.

The prevalent experience avoidant personality structured individual experience as children is intense or frequent parental rejection typically associated with the failure to support a family social image. The parents may have high social standards and belittle the child for the smallest mistakes. They are socialized to perform adequately without causing embarrassment or humiliation. As a result, they anticipate rejection and socially isolate themselves for protection. Sometimes, atypical development will prompt disappointment from the parents. These perceived parental attitudes are internalized as injunctions and cognitively stand guard over the normal desires for intimacy in interpersonal relations convincing the avoidant--after pausing briefly from constant belittling of small mistakes--that intimacy ends with pain and disappointment.

Any type of employment that provides small group interaction fits well with the avoidant personality type of employee. Their propensity for fantasy and imagination works well with tasks like advertising, and writing. They are definitely behind the scenes type of people. They are not supervisors and the social demands, like public speaking, prohibit avoidant type of personalities from being executives. They are ideally suited for home-based businesses that rely on internet marketing and little or no interpersonal contact.

As you can see, attempting to evaluate the behavior of an avoidant personality structured employee is impossible without causing shame and belittlement. If they are part of a clique the employee’s reaction will be magnified, distorted, and spread over the entire organization. As a supervisor of an avoidant personality, you would want to emphasis and reinforce achievement in interpersonal relationships (“I noticed how you kept John informed of those changing data, thanks.”) and desensitize the employee to criticism. Respect-in-the-workplace policies and procedures provide an opportunity for the avoidant person or their peers to address and reframe ‘criticism’ over time. This allows the avoidant employee to actually own the issues associated with their personality traits, receive authentic feedback, and reduce anxiety.

The Antisocial disordered individual is somewhat easy to recognize. They are the persons who do not conform to social norms typically resulting in crimes, they are aggressive and violent, they are impulsive, have no regard for the truth, are reckless, and they lack remorse and empathy. Embedded in this disorder is the “psychopath” and “sociopath” and all the interest in examining the most disordered people who make the news and become the models for some of the scariest movies.

Because my focus is on what I might call the 'normal' workplace, with the Antisocial personality I will limit the discussion to how the Antisocial “trait”, the normal worker with the psychological characteristics or structure of Antisocial personality, behaves in the workplace. Remember also, that personality structure is just one way to look at behavior. Everyone also has defenses and lots of other what we call “Axis I” (depression, anxiety, drugs, etc.) conditions well as other relational issues such as marital problems that affect behavior in the workplace.  As a result, it is not easy to isolate antisocial traits.

One of the first indicators of a person with an antisocial trait is you can feel them before you even know anything about them. Imagine Jack Nicholson as Col. Jessup in “A Few Good Men” walking into your office. They have an assertive quality that creates a felt physical presence. This is the softer precursor of the disordered criteria of aggressiveness in criteria 4, DSM-IV (http://www.dsmivtr.org/). I’ll get to comparisons in a later post; however, a Compulsive personality type employee can have a similar physical presence. The difference is the Compulsive person’s presence is associated with the inherent urgency of his/her work (that deer in the headlights look) and the Antisocial person’s presence is associated with their persona (you’re the deer).

Another indicator of an employee or supervisor with an antisocial trait is behavior that shows non-conformity with social norms. Whereas the disordered Antisocial person will constantly violate social norms and violate the law (criminal activity), those with this trait will consistently explain violations of norms with their own value statements, e.g. “only the strong survive”, especially following or associated with some form of psychological abuse to another employee.

A classic example of an Antisocial supervisor might be one that give two employees the same assignment without telling them the game and seeing who finishes the task first. The employee who looses, of course, will be shamed as a result of loosing the game. The Antisocial supervisor does not feel the same shock the rest of the employees feel witnessing this game, in fact, he/she view the game as some form of enlightened motivational exercise.

Other characteristics include being slippery with the truth (“silver-tongued”), are impulsive, engage in risky behavior, irritable/angry, highly competitive and distrustful of others, poor losers, develop superficial relationships and are callous toward the suffering of others, argumentative, problems planning and sticking with plans, tend to be sensation-seekers, and look out for themselves and use others to meet their needs while being dismissive of them.

Persons with an Antisocial Disorder show evidence of Conduct Disorder before the age of 15. Those with the Antisocial trait show problems in school, bullying, and other more normative juvenile delinquency issues. There is also a strong correlation between Antisocial Disorder and substance abuse.

As with all disorders, the future Antisocial individual suffered from poor parenting. The future Antisocial individual typically experiences very harsh, neglectful parenting and physical abuse with little or no emotional bonding. This harsh environment restricts the development of the super-ego, that moral conscience developed through parental guidance (injunctions), and the Antisocial individual is left being dominated by the immediate needs of the Id (e.g. sex and aggression) while being morally bankrupt. This type of parenting not only provides a model for behavior, but also the lack of parental control does not allow the child to learn to control aggression. This also leads to a resentment of control. The parent that is neglectful and then overcompensates by being a superauthoritarian using blame gives the child a deep resentment for any type of control (L. S. Benjamin in “Interpersonal Diagnosis and Treatment of Personality Disorders”, 1996, is a good source for understanding parenting contexts and upbringing dynamics for the various disorders. Her SASB software assessment model is terrific, however, the one I used was a difficult DOS-like version).

People with Antisocial traits are attracted to such occupations as politicians, lawyers, entrepreneurs, corporate executives, sales persons, and other similar professions. As a result, they tend to be in charge rather than being submerged in the workplace. Like the Narcissist boss, the workplace is a sick and unhealthy as a result of their character structure and manner of dealing with employees. With both the Antisocial and Narcissistic boss, it is impossible to consult with them to create change in the workplace. The Antisocial boss, as opposed to the Narcissistic one, will have a great deal of fun manipulating a naïve consultant trying to help an organization create an authentic, healthy workplace. The consultant will be angrily confronted with the chaos they are causing in the workplace.

In the workplace, an employee with Antisocial traits may display dramatic expressions of regret and dismay when confronted with infractions of the rules. Antisocials have been rejected all their lives, being rejected by the boss is nothing new and they know how to play the game. The Compulsive boss with his/her attachment to autocratic rules is particularly vulnerable to a run in with an employee with Antisocial traits.

A more non-defensive and relaxed interpersonal style works best with employees with Antisocial traits. Nonetheless, the supervisor should maintain a consistent, benevolent workplace context and make sure the employee knows in advance the consequences of negative behavior (called good parenting). Also, coaching the employee by moving them from a rigid perspective of self-interest to one that includes the recognition of the affects of their behavior on others. Helping the worker with Antisocial traits gain the insight that their more prosocial actions with others has a reciprocal positive result for them helps a great deal.

This approach is the opposite of trying to control behavior in the workplace. The supervisor, rather than trying to stop behavior motivated by character weaknesses, accepts the reality that all employees have a rich variety of weaknesses and accepting them coaches and encourages the employee to self-manage them. In a workplace striving to build an authentic work environment, an employee with an Antisocial trait might typically engage their coworkers with: “Do you really see me as into my own self-interest and manipulative?” A coworker in an authentic context would react respectfully in the affirmative and may agree to point out such behavior in the future. A respectful, authentic workplace will then become an opportunity for growth rather than abuse.

Of course, an authentic workplace does engage in employee terminations. More on that later, however, the authentic workplace focuses more on violations of common and consistently applied company values than on isolated individual behavior.

Welcome to the most deadly personality in the workplace: the Narcissistic Personality. A supervisor or boss with a Narcissistic personality trait can cause real mental and physical sickness in those that work for them. Unfortunately, to the outsider, it is difficult to see and almost impossible to confront. This is because the Narcissistic person is a superior person, a mastermind, a rainmaker, and can produce in any environment. People who work for supervisors who are Narcissistic produce superior outcomes, or else.

The Narcissistic employee can be equally deadly. Any supervisor who has had to confront an employee with a narcissistic personality disorder (as opposed to trait) will immediately feel as though they are in the middle of a mythical battle with the gods. The primary feeling is the unbelievable experience that not only is the supervisor’s authority totally ignored, but also the supervisor is so wrong and off-base that the issue does not deserve discussion. A supervisor who reacts with irritation or anger will only confirm his/her incompetence to the Narcissistic employee. The employee’s resulting patronizing smile will only make the supervisor angrier providing important confirming information when the Narcissistic employee reports the incompetent supervisor up the chain of command.

The Narcissist understands themselves as superior, far more intelligent that the masses, they have a grandiose sense of self-importance, believe they are special and can only be understood by other special, unique people. They deserve and require admiration and exploit relationships to achieve their own ends. They lack empathy to the point that they do not identify with the needs of others. They exhibit arrogant and haughty behavior. In the workplace, they exhibit superior talent, a grandiose sense of self-regard and intelligence even in with poor performance.

The early childhood of the future Narcissist centers around unconscious defensive strategies to protect against strong feelings of envy, deprivation, fear, and rage in response to caregiver’s interpersonal behavior. The caregiver typically pampers, overvalues, and indulges the child with special treatment to the point that the child must respond narcissistically from that grandiose egotistical position to gain love and appreciation. In other words, they must self-fulfill the caregiver’s belief of the child’s specialness. (Jacques Lacan calls this the symbolic identification with the ideal; the child becomes what the parent prophesied). Narcissistic beliefs of being special can also be developed in an environment of rejection and exclusion (becoming the opposite of what the parent prophesied). The future Narcissist cannot be authentic without loosing adoration and nurturance from the caregiver. Therefore, being ignored or criticized is the greatest fear and threat to the Narcissist.

In the workplace, the Narcissist employee typically acts on the belief that his/her ideas are so much better and obvious to everyone that they tend to act unilaterally to implement them without any input from others. Co-workers are viewed as a problem because they are stuck in their old ways and cannot see the obvious workability of the Narcissist’s ideas. Being successful is the Narcissist’s destiny and anything that gets in the way is a barrier placed in their way by incompetents. The Narcissist’s conflicts with co-workers are rationalized as jealousy by others and other staff wanting to get him/her fired because the Narcissist is making the other staff look bad. The Narcissist feels they are being deliberately sabotaged.

The Narcissist has difficulty working in a highly regulated work environment, except at the very top. Their interpersonal difficulties eventually cause them to leave. Those with more flexible, less disordered Narcissistic traits, however, can adapt, however they still exhibit such a defended ego at the expense of others that even superficial respect in the workplace behaviors are ignored. They love pointing out other employee’s weaknesses, personal problems, sloppy dress, and any other personal or business issues.

If an organization uses self and peer reviews in the workplace, the Narcissistic employee will rate themselves superior on all scales and will become obsessed with who in the workplace was ignorant enough to rate them any lower even to the point of making assumptions of who it might be and aggressively attacking them through the ‘rumor mill’.

Any attempts by the agency to regulate behavior through new rules, procedures, training, or any other method is just more exciting opportunities for the Narcissistic employee to point out how stupid the rules are and how ignorant everyone is.

Narcissists tend to gravitate toward professions in law, medicine, entertainment, business owners, and other employment that allows more independence outside the interpersonal confines of the typical workplace.

With the less disordered Narcissistic employee, disclosing shortcomings and weaknesses in not productive. A better approach would be to work with the employee’s interpersonal dynamics and center on the three schemas of grandiosity, hypersensitivity, and empathy. For example, Stephen R. Covey’s Habit 1, Be Proactive and avoiding reactivity (countering hypersensitivity), Habit 4, Think Win-Win (countering grandiosity), and Habit 5 Seek First to Understand (countering the lack of empathy) are excellent ways to help the Narcissistic employee learn to find satisfaction in interpersonal relationships. This is of course the main premise of authenticity in the workplace: work toward creating authenticity and respect rather than trying to regulate behavior.

In many ways, the schizoid personality in the workplace is one with the least maintenance. You can abuse them and they keep on working. This is the person that stays at their desk and does not mix well with the other staff. They avoid the holiday parties and rarely socialize with anyone. No one knows much about their personal history, whether they like “Grey’s Anatomy”, watch sports, read, or any other part of their personal life. They do their work without emotion, creativity, and they do it fairly well and on time.

The schizoid personality type is introverted (as opposed to a person with an introverted style who can express emotion). They avoid interpersonal relationships. As a result, they are immune from all the gossip and other negative interpersonal drama in the workplace. Interestingly, they do not enjoy and do not desire close relationships. Other staff sometimes think they are morose because they don’t have friends, quite the contrary, they like it that way. They are indifferent to both the praise and criticism of others. They show an unwavering absence of feeling. They don’t avoid people because that implies the negative side of attachment; they simply don’t care one way or another about attachment.

Future schizoid personality types as children are generally exposed to emotional deprivation and a lack of exposure to warmth and caring emotions. Together with a general family context of indirectness in thought and behavior, the schizoid child focuses on and is more sensitive to the more tangential aspects of interpersonal dynamics. In the workplace, they might notice the relationship between who re-fills the bottled water and those unhappy about a new policy on attendance. The schizoid’s family is interpersonally reserved, superficial, formal, and interrelate in a remote, disaffiliated way. The schizoid child’s withdrawal may have resulted from a lack of adequate nurturance (no nurturance then; no nurturance now). It may also be a result of avoiding expressing need that as a child caused conflict. Also, schizoid behavior is a way of avoiding anxiety caused by the vulnerability of interpersonal relationships.

One interesting example of a context ripe for schizoid development is a poor immigrant mother traumatized by the transition that projects her dependence and sets up a context with the child where her role is to make him/her to grow up and be a big boy or girl as fast as they can. This maternal connection with the child’s phantom grown up persona leaves the child in the present tense unattended to emotionally. An irritated “what do you want now?” from the mother is a typical response to the child’s needs. The schizoid adult learns that if something is going to get done, they have to do it themselves.

In the workplace, the schizoid is intelligent, gets things done, and they are unaffected by emotional events in the workplace; nothing bothers them much. As supervisors, they have the ability to handle all kinds of interpersonal workplace problems without being personally affected and can instill a sense of calm and security in the workplace. Ironically, they, to some extent, enjoy conflict because they are totally acclimated to it and it presents a recapitulated opportunity to attempt to resolve their original family issue. This, of course, is impossible. Evaluations or criticisms do not bother them at all. They enjoy their after-the-fact intellectual debriefing and rationalizing of any feedback. They do not take this personally. This is one reason that therapist with a schizoid personality trait enjoys working with clients with severe problems. While they can unconsciously avoid emotionality, they are very good at providing a secure base for clients with issues like trauma, attachment disorders, borderline personalities, etc.

One core issue for a schizoid personality type is affirmation. They never got it growing up and when they don’t get it in the workplace, they withdraw. Complicating things for them is the fact that they tend to be intellectual, conceptual, tangential, and indirect in their interpersonal communications so that lack of affirmation is somewhat self-fulfilling. In a planning meeting, they desperately try to explain some important nuisance no one else can see, only to be tuned out.

Their core strength to any organization is their ability to see and understand nuances. They are the “Jack Bower” (“24” on Fox) of an organization. Coupled with their comfort in very chaotic environments they thrive on being trusted (affirmation) with various change management challenges. Depending on the other psychological variables in individuals, there best fit can range from the lone accounts payable clerk to a merger specialist.

 

The histrionic personality type employee is one who constantly commands attention. More likely a female employee (male histrionics are more invisible), her physical appearance and behavior is intended to call attention to herself. They must be the center of attention at all times. They are attractive and seductive. They show self-dramatization, theatricality, and exaggerated expression of emotion. They are charming, bubbly, energetic, and impulsive. They tend to be the party animal of the organization.

This type of employee is perfectly suited to plan the company’s Christmas party or work in a variety of areas involved in lobbying, marketing, and customer service. At the same time, they are hypersensitive to criticism, intolerant of frustration, and socially immature. They are also recognized by patterns of changing emotions quickly, being excited one moment and disappointed the next.

Whereas compulsive type employees struggle over details and have difficulties making decisions, histrionic personality type employees avoid detail and focus mainly on emotional tone and repress most of what is factual and detailed.

One theory on the early development of the histrionic personality type is mothering by an inadequate, cold, and insensitive mother. This motivates the isolated and unappreciated child to turn to the father for attention. The female, her mother, is seen as weak; the male as strong and exciting. Her attention-getting behavior conforms with social stereotypes and she uses nuances of seduction to attract the male, her father. She is “daddy’s little girl.” This type of behavior is somewhat threatening to the father-daughter relationship and, as a result, sexual desire is repressed resulting in the contradiction of seductive behavior embedded with a fear of sexual activity. Other early development factors are exposure to intense, short-lived, irregular stimulus gratifications that might be caused by multiple caretakers and parents who give few punishments and irregular rewards that motivate the child to actively please others as a way to elicit these rewards.

Like the dependent personality type, the histrionic is other-oriented. The difference is the dependent is passively dependent and submissive and the histrionic actively manipulates attention from others.

In the workplace, the histrionic personality type is reactive rather than proactive. With the lack of insight and the use of projection, the histrionic personality type has difficulty even comprehending respect in the workplace. They are also not into details, over-generalize, and the need to solve problems is seen as unnecessary. Because their personal survival depends on acceptance by others, criticism is not accepted well. In the workplace, they lack fidelity and loyalty.

The histrionic personality type is ideally suited for public relations type of work that is constantly changing, has fleeting interpersonal relationship requirements, and requires a more intuitive rather than concrete or detailed world view.

The best workplace for an employee with a histrionic personality type is one that recognizes this person’s strengths and weaknesses and provides a context for their natural tendency for friendliness and sociability, albeit superficial, and at the same time provides a consistent, balanced, and respectful demand for proactive behavior within the workplace. Mixed with consistent and predictable rewards, the workplace itself can provide a secure base the employee could not experience as a child.

A workplace that ignores the natural weaknesses and issues of employees will not be inclined to value authentic employees and concentrate only on behavioral compliance by employees. Forcing a histrionic personality type employee to behave in accordance with group norms in a job they are not suited for will create a sexual harassment suit followed by disaster and a large labor lawyer bill.

The employee with a dependent personality structure, like the compulsive employee, has difficulty making decisions.  The difference, however, is the dependent personality employee cannot make a decision without an excessive amount of advice from others.  The dependent employee is very caring and live their lives through and for others.  If those around them are happy, then they are happy.  They make personal sacrifices for those around them and put control of their lives in the hands of those close to them. 

The dependent personality employee can look differently depending on other psychological factors.  The dependent employee can express their fear of separation through anger at those who don't appreciate their dedication to the relationship.  This typically shows up as a self-fulfilling pattern where neither the dependent employee or the other person in the relationship know what is really happening in the relationship.  The dependent employee, for example, will give off signals of withdrawal and then display anger when approached in reaction to the withdrawal.  Other dependent employees become totally fused with others becoming completely dedicated to service. 

The dependent personality employee grew up with parental overprotection, overconcern, overnurturance, and active discouragement of autonomy and, as a result, never fully develop total independence.  Some parents believe their child is always in danger, even when they are sleeping.  Future dependents internalize this parental fear.  They do not look deeply into themselves and tend to catastrophize about relationships. 

Dependent personality employees are vulnerable to anxiety, depression, phobias, and eating-related issues. 

In the workplace, the dependent personality employee loves rules as long as they provide a means to maintain relationships with the boss and other employees.  When this is the case, they will do anything for practically anybody.  They are capable of true empathy.  They tend to idealize the boss and are totally dedicated to him/her.    They make excellent support staff, especially in the healthcare industry. 

The core problem with the dependent personality employee in the workplace lies with his/her emphasis on relationships first, outcomes last.  They don't really understand outcomes.  The need to have relationships work well takes precedence over work processes, resources, and healthy boundaries.  Where it is important to be proactive and work together with a common goal in mind, the dependent personality employee seems to get in the way.  They are always worrying about relationships and interpreting interpersonal behaviors.  When it is time for everyone to rise above their own issues and work together maturely and respectfully, the dependent personality employee becomes very anxious or depressed.  They will call in sick when it is time for more independent action because they are terrified of making decisions and acting autonomously. 

In a stable, highly regulated industry with the right job that does not require independent judgement, the dependent personality employee is great.  In an evaluation, they typically get "outstanding", however, the comments are littered with comments about not taking enough initiative.  Supervisors like to discuss ways they can take initiative and it scares the heck out of these employees.  A good evaluation will cause very bad feelings because they are interpreted as threatening to their security. 

In organizations that feel they must regulate behavior, the dependent personality employee has no trouble with all the various rules and mandates.  They do, however, have difficulty with changing culture in the workplace.  When a context or culture is changing, so are interpersonal dynamics.  This threatens this employee a great deal and supervision will find themselves coaching and mediating a number of personality issues associated with this employee as well as resulting health issues centered around anxiety and depression. 

When the organization focuses more on the individual than the rules, they begin to see what type of job makes the dependent personality employee happy and productive.  Specific attention to make sure this individual performs work that is supportive without the need to develop additional competencies.  When care is taken to find and structure work to the point that the dependent personality employee "...is excited about coming to work", they can be super productive employees and valuable assets. 

 In my November 11, 2006 post entitled "A Different Way of Looking at Workplace Goals", I suggested that "employees have an infinite set of personal psychological variables" and that this reality made it not only impossible to regulate behavior in the workplace, but also any attempts to regulate behavior without accommodating this reality diminish mental health rather than improve it. Let's take a closer look at this point.

There are ten personality types used in mental health. These are ten types of patterns of belief, behavior, and relationship patterns that can be assessed and observed ( I won't debate their usefulness in therapy). One type of personality prevalent in the workplace is the "Obsessive-Compulsive" personality. Let's take a closer look and then see how controlling behavior is used by and affects this type of person.

The childhood of a future compulsive personality type is generally characterized by parental overcontrol. The parents act with stern, cold formality and demand that the child perform tasks that are developmentally premature.  They demand total compliance and perfection.  Real achievements are taken for granted and there is little or no acknowledgement for legitimate achievement. The conflict is between the parent's need to control the child's behavior and the child's own need for autonomy.  Autonomy looses the battle. These children focus primarily on avoiding mistakes that previously angered their parents and trying hard to be good and right. This narrow span of demanded behavior is where parental approval lies. Any other behavior, especially spontaneous behavior and requests to fulfill needs, is avoided to prevent punishment, shame, and ridicule. The child internalizes this harsh parental pattern and finds security in flawlessness as a means of maintaining an existential sense of security--parental approval.   Because of the need to be right, they have a very difficult time making decisions and very often procrastinate for long periods of time ruminating the pros and cons of any decision. 

In the workplace, they are the "control freaks." They strive to complete tasks without flaws or errors. They have to be right. They have trouble delegating because no one else can do the task the right way. They are dedicated to work. They struggle with decisions and have a difficult time considering alternatives because of the need to make the right decisions. They are preoccupied with details, rules, lists, order, organization, and schedules. They are "my way or the highway" type of people. Their identity is embedded in their work; their work is a reflection of who they are. They insist that people do things the way they do. They are "black and whiters", you are either with them or against them. You are either on their list of acceptable people or off of it.

The compulsive personality type has a tough time getting their needs met. Their need for control in relationships cause others to defer to them and their rules, opinions, and judgments.  As a result, others avoid gestures toward them because they fear the choice will not be seen as the right thing to do. The compulsive personalty type tries to give and rarely gets anything back.

In the workplace regulated by behavioral rules, the compulsive personality type not only thrives, but also is the star of the organization. They find security in compliance. They work hard and dedicate themselves totally to the organization. As a result, they are promoted quickly. They know how to get the job done. They are totally dedicated to work. Unfortunately, they are excessively autocratic to those below them. It is "my way or the highway". Subordinates know not to cross them or display behavior that is not approved. They also know not to offer feedback that is not approved or contradicts their opinion or beliefs. As a result, everyone below the compulsive personality type supervisor becomes paralyzed. Subordinates learn only to do what they are told.

Compulsive personality types do not like feedback from below or above in the organization.  The primary reason is their identity is embedded in their work.  Any hint something might be off track or wrong means they are wrong, deficient.  They never do anything unless it is right anyway, so there must be something wrong with the messenger.  As one can guess, compulsive personality types work very well in autocratic organizations like the military, police, and organizations that require absolute compliance to rules like hospitals (more on how to make these strict organizations healthy in a later post).  They do not work well in organizations that require good teamwork, customer service, and flexible and adaptable processes. 

When trying to regulate behavior, the company runs into a number of problems with the compulsive personality type of employee or supervisor.  First, without knowing, they are recapitulating the employee/supervisor's parents demands.  A simple rule such as "there will be no personal use of the copiers" (more on how that announces mistrust in a later post) poses an existential restriction on their autonomy.  When they were a child, they couldn't go outside and play with the neighborhood kids because they had to take care of their younger brother and clean their room.  Now, these old feelings of frustration touch them again.  Unfortunately, the feeling is linked to the copier and the company, not their parents and they add this personal reaction to the long list of emotional workplace resentments and that resentment is spread to everyone on their "list."  If they are supervisors, they treat their subordinates just like they would their brother after being told they couldn't go out and play with their friends.  Second, each directive takes on a biblical role.  It is not just a rule to help organize behavior, it is gospel according to mom and dad.  Even thinking about breaking the rule causes anxiety with the compulsive personality type.  They don't want to be wrong or blamed by breaking it.  Third, they live by their own opinion of everything.  What they believe is the right way to do things.  When someone tries to regulate their behavior, they generally disagree with it.  This disagreement is also shared with those on their "list." 

This is just one of many personality types in the workplace.  You can see managing a top-down autocratic company with compulsive personality type employees causes increased mental health issues and stress.  Because of their personality structure they also restrict feedback, are intolerant of mistakes, cannot tolerate change, and spread resentment.  When you evaluate a compulsive personality employee, you had better give them an "outstanding" or else you will be subject to a long series of documented appeals until you see how "right" they are.  They do not view evaluations as differences in perspective, opportunities to grow, or an opportunity to fine-tune communication.  They didn't grow up that way. 

What is a better workplace culture for this type of employee?  A context that values respect-in-the-workplace more than rules.  Gradually, the compulsive personality type employee is respectfully confronted with the affects of their interpersonal patterns and receive the kind of acceptance they never had.  As they begin to get their needs met, they begin to see their issues more objectively and grow in a more interdependent context.  The compulsive personality type becomes one of the company's strongest assets.  They can sure get the job done when it is needed.  This strength never goes away and it is admired by other workers who rely on it in a team work culture.  Finally, the compulsive personality type employee gets what they have never had: they get to "play" with their friends in a context that values this commitment to cooperation more than the rules they really resent so much.