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Toxic bosses are bad for your health and reputation

People who work for bosses who have psychopathic and narcissistic traits not only feel more depressed as a result of their boss's bullying behavior, but they are also more likely to engage in unwanted behavior at work. These are the key findings of a research team from the University of Manchester's Business School.

A total of 1200 participants took part in three studies that required them to complete questionnaires related to their own psychological well-being, prevalence of workplace bullying in their organization and the personality of their manager. The samples consisted of employees from different sectors in a number of different countries.

Analysis of the data showed that those who work for leaders who have these characteristics had lower job satisfaction and scored higher on a clinical degree of depression. Also, not only the well-being of the employees led below, but incidents of counterproductive work behavior and bullying at work were higher.