Bosses Who Insist Everyone Works in the Office…are Narcissists

Time for a short post today. A very interesting, but sadly not surprising study by researchers discovered that the reason bosses want you in the office is because they are narcissists. This New York Times article (non-paywalled) by the researchers is full of links backing this up.

Basically, lots of CEOs claim they want workers in the office for reasons of productivity or collaboration.

They are lying. (All narcissists are pathological liars.) From the article:

ordering people back to the office full time is a power and status move. It’s a signature strategy of leaders who exhibit narcissistic qualities. They see any kind of remote work as a threat to their authority and admiration. They want to be worshiped at the office altar.

In my book I noted that Boards of Directors often deliberately look for narcissists to lead the company. Why? Because narcissists are supremely confident and drive toward their vision. This is despite the fact that

narcissistic CEOs exhibit more extreme performance outcomes, make more aggressive strategy bets, make worse acquisitions, have lower quality earnings, and receive excessive pay. Based in part on research studies such as these, one literature review concludes, “There are few positive outcomes of leader narcissism.”

Back to the giant egos of executives and RTO:

The higher the opinions of themselves leaders expressed, the more they coveted power and status — and the more they favored return-to-office mandates.

These men (it’s mostly men) get paid Very Large Salaries to do worse than non-narcissistic CEOs. They put their insatiable egos before company performance and people’s wellbeing.

But hey, they sure sound confident.

My book You’re Not Crazy, the World Is: How Narcissistic Leaders Have Corrupted Morals and Countries is widely available:

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