Co-workers who quietly cause problems so they can later take credit for fixing them

'Munchausen at Work'

Employees Advance
By Fixing Problems
They Had Created

By PHRED DVORAK

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, Mr. Clockdale recalls being told.

INVENTING TROUBLE

 

Experts say a good work environment can dissuade employees from creating "problems" that need to be solved. A few tips:

• Stress teamwork over individual problem-solving

• Be wary of creating office "heroes"

• Watch out for information hoarding

• Ensure bosses are attentive to employees' needs

Source: WSJ Research

The problem: the tale was untrue -- as Mr. 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.

Mr. 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.

Mr. Bennett says most experienced managers he has interviewed have encountered Munchausen at work and consider it disruptive. Such actions can be hard to detect and eradicate; perpetrators may gain promotions or recognition, encouraging additional attempts. "You get the kind of behavior you reward," Mr. Bennett says.

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.

He often sees this type of behavior among business executives who have named successors but don't like to cede control. He says such executives may undermine their protégés, then swoop in to "repair" the resulting problems -- thus showing how indispensable they are.

Sometimes, the behavior is unconscious, says Manfred Kets de Vries, a psychoanalyst and director of the global leadership center for Insead, a French business school. Mr. Kets de Vries, who has coached chief executives for 18 years, hears corporate turnaround specialists confess boredom when things turn quiet; he has seen them create trouble. "If there's no mess, those people can be very dangerous," he observes.

Mr. Bennett says that he first heard U.S. managers complain about Munchausen-like behavior when he studied team dynamics several years ago. Employees at a Louisiana-based chemical company described a plant manager who concocted layoff rumors, then told his workers a few weeks later that he had saved their jobs.

In another case, a consultant told Mr. Bennett about a co-worker who had "fixed" strained relations between her and other team members. The consultant later found out the co-worker had helped cause the strains -- by telling her teammates that she shouldn't be trusted.

Maria Copeland, an information-technology manager at media company Cox Enterprises Inc., tells a similar tale. She says a male colleague tried to turn her against a female co-worker a few years ago. The man told each woman that the other was working to undermine her, then called a meeting with their boss to improve their collaboration, according to Ms. Copeland. The women realized what was going on when they compared notes before that meeting. The collaboration problems disappeared after the man left the group, she says.

Spotting the deception is the first step toward stopping it. Health-care administrator Gary Barnes suspected an office manager was causing the problems she took credit for solving at a Pittsburgh clinic where he worked during the 1990s. The manager blamed computer glitches for a delay in depositing insurance checks, then claimed to have fixed the problem. Mr. Barnes searched the manager's desk and found she had kept the checks in her drawer; he fired her.

Mr. Clockdale, the restaurant owner, dealt less harshly with his night manager. He talked to her, and learned she wanted a raise, but didn't feel comfortable asking for one. Mr. Clockdale says he felt partly to blame.

"Not every environment makes an employee feel empowered to ask for things, like raises," he explains. Mr. Clockdale gave the manager more weekend shifts, boosting her paycheck. He later sold the restaurant.

The current economic slowdown may curb the prevalence of Munchausen at work, however. There are enough fires "that people don't have to set their own fires," Mr. Dattner says.

Write to Phred Dvorak at phred.dvorak@wsj.com