From Difficult to Disturbed: Understanding and Managing Dysfunctional Employees

Chapter 5. Detailers and Vigilantes: Obsessive-Compulsive and Paranoid Employees

Focus is a good thing, right? Especially in the business world, the ability to concentrate on a project, stay on task, and screen out distractions is prized as a productivity-enhancing cognitive skill. But, as Aristotle said, a virtue is situated between two vices. Too little focus, and our efforts become aimless and scattered; too much, and we start grinding our mental gears, gumming up the engine of creativity with dollops of trivia. Or we squint so hard that we start to see shapes and patterns that aren’t really there, make connections in our heads that aren’t connected in real life. The personality patterns in this chapter can be said to involve too much of a ...