Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work

A great book useful for managers, students, or anyone in the workplace struggling to place subtle psychopathic behavior in context and adapt accordingly. Especially useful is the research in involving psychopaths who play the victim to forward their agenda. A great read not wrapped in intense psychological jargon or testing,

A revelation has been made about a type of character in our midst. All of us at some stage in our lives portray a characteristic common with a psychopath but I guess the difference is that we realize the evil and hence try and purge it from within us. The psychopath does not!

In the modern workplace driven by economic rationalism and new managerialism snakes in suits thrive. Reading this book helps to be aware so that a person can protect themselves from the predators in the world of work.

This book is just bad. After warning about the true danger of psychopath, the book gives us techniques that clearly don't work with them. Its like "Wow, you have a life threatening diseases and you need to be really concerned. Here's some tylenol! Remember to eat healthy, sleep 8 hours and exercise! Bye now!" Its really truly really that bad...and I am not exaggerating.

On the plus side, there were inklings of good info, like all books. But the overall product is stupid. I had higher expectations.

Babiak and Hare do a thorough job of describing 'snakes in suits'. As a psychologist formerly working with criminals I found it to be fascinating. However by far the more dangerous 'snakes' I have encountered are not behind bars but behind prestigious office desks protected by management, as described in the book. I personify the concept in my own book, The Con.

In Corporate America or industry, or any trade really! This book has helped me to see the real underpinnings of 'office politics'. And speaking of politics, it applies there too. Anywhere there is a hierarchal pyramid, and psychological manipulation tends to become the status quo.

It is a jungle out there, and this is a great travel guide.

This is a great book for any work environment but especially large organizations where getting ahead is strongly reinforced. I have noticed everyone mentioning the value of this book for HR in their reviews. Within the organization I worked the HR Director was (still is) the psychopath! She has gotten rid of everyone who posed a threat to her through lies and manipulation and she sucks up to executive management who continue to promote her and give her raises. Just don't know if we should automatically exclude the HR department in the potential for psychopathic chaos.

Had hoped for something a little more definitive, but found this to be a bit repetitive , and the general structure of the book hopping backwards and forwards tended to annoy me. Not Hervey Cleckley!!

Robert Hare developed the defining test used in the penal industry. The test measures for psychopathic traits of lack of empathy, lack of remorse, lack of guilt, impulsiveness, callousness and superficial charm. Unfortunately personal qualities which can speed climbing the promotion ladder. The authors recommend an approach to recognizing and dealing with psychopaths in corporate America - where psychopaths may be 10% of top management.

Dr. Hare is probably the foremost authority on the reptilian-like cold-blooded bastards among us. Psychopaths occupy the highest offices in government and business, and this book helps to explain why things are so topsy-turvy in our economy and government. Overlay the checklist of what constitutes psychopathic behavior on our current leaders, and understanding will follow.

Did not really talk much about sociopaths in the corporate setting and how corporations may prefer to employ them as the title seems to imply; rather it talks about hiring practices and the processes that may be employed to detect and remove them.

This book should be required reading for everyone in management and strongly suggested for anyone who works for a living. Reading it actually made me say "If I only knew then what I know now." about a recent workplace incident.

This is a very informative book. It makes recognizing this type of person quite easy. Unfortunately it doesn't include many solutions for counteracting their effect on others or stopping them from causing problems.

Not what I expected at all.......after the first 2 chapters it simply gives you the same information over & over. Plus the premise of psychopaths in a corporation lacks depth as most would be dicovered & weeded out quickly by a good HR Department.......I'd wait until you see one at a yard sale....

a bit repetitive, written as a ~business~ book, but the world expert on this topic was involved and it is full of good information on these dangerous individuals so powerful in business, politics, and crimme.

I have read many psychology books and although I appreciate how the authors tried to make this concept available to all, it made enjoyment difficult.

There is a lot of great research on this topic and it would have been interesting to have more of that instead of all of the anecdotes and stories the authors included. I just kept waiting for the good parts, which were few and far between.