‘Munchausen At Work’
In late 2005, the night manager of a suburban Atlanta restaurant called owner J.D. Clockdale to boast about how well she had handled an irate female customer. The customer “ranted and raved” about a botched order, but calmed down after the manager gave her a free meal, Clockdale recalls being told.
The problem: the tale was untrue — as Clockdale discovered by reviewing surveillance footage and phoning the customer, who was an acquaintance. He concluded the order mistake was minor and remedied without histrionics.
Clockdale confronted the night manager, who confessed that she invented the altercation to look good. “She wanted more responsibility,” he says.
The story illustrates a troublesome workplace phenomenon that’s now attracting attention: employees who quietly cause problems so they can later take credit for fixing them. Georgia Institute of Technology business professor Nathan Bennett dubs the behavior “Munchausen at work,” because it resembles a rare psychological disorder in which sufferers seek attention by making up an illness or inducing sickness in others.
Workplace psychologists say they see a range of similar behaviors. Some staffers withhold help or key information, then step in to save the day, says Ben Dattner, an organizational psychologist in New York.
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Photo by The Wall Street Journal.
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