Narcissist at workplace

Answer 1

Depending on the workplace, some normal people may be encouraged to behave narcissistically. People who work in high pressure jobs often appear to be narcissistic because the position and activities require them to cut-off from their emotions and avoid truly personal interaction. Bosses are renown for displaying narcissistic tendenies. You will know the difference between someone who's just doing their job and someone who has a personality disorder when it comes time for them to deal with admitting they made a mistake about something.

Ordinary hardworking people will admit to their mistakes, perhaps not readily, but somewhere along the line, an apology will be forthcoming. Narcissists cannot admit to any wrong-doing at all - even when the facts show clearly that it was their mistake. Instead they will duck and dive and find reason blame someone else. If this isn't possible, they will bare a grudge against the person who showed them up and find a way to take out revenge against this person, no matter how slight or small the original mistake was. The narcissist will blow the perceived slight completely out of proportion and may even seek to destroy the reputation and career of the person who pointed out the mistake.

The reasons why narcissists behave this way can be found on other websites.

The way to handle productive (and they usually are very driven individuals) narcissists in the workplace is to place a shield person between the narcissist and his colleagues and employees. Narcissists are incapable of compassion, forgiveness and understanding, and this leads to extreme tension in the workplace. A shield person will perform the role of placating the narcissists ever-so-easily bruised ego by making him feel superior, while simultaneously "making the peace" with the genuinely injured colleagues.

This is a lot of work for any person to do on a regular basis, so ultimately, the organization will have to decide whether the productivity of the narcissist justifies this continuous maintenance of the atmosphere and well-being of it's other employees on a regular basis.