Why do perfectly normal and pleasant people turn into arseholes when they get promoted?

[FarrahHair]

I’ve worked with a woman for 5 years, always got on well with each other and thought she was a decent human being.

She’s had a small promotion and has turned into an utter horror!

Is it being a bad judge of character or power going to your head real?

Power going to your head. I know several people who were lovely prior to promotion but now they are horrors. All sorts of back-stabbing and one-up-manship to have ‘evidence’ for promotion. One man I used to enjoy working with was lovely but now would sell his own child if got him a promotion. Very sad.

I think it's also anxiety as the extra responsibility weighs on their shoulders.

I had almost hoped it was stress but feel it’s rather more self serving 😦

I expect you may be wrong. In my experience of employing lots of people who get promoted over each other from time to time, a lot of it comes down to "acting how I think senior people are meant to act" - that's why we put a lot of effort into training programs etc for newly promoted people. The real telling sign is how they act outside of work - are they back to normal or are they still up themselves?

I really don’t know how she is outside of work. I’m not keen on finding out given her treatment of the juniors!