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Chief executive John Lazar and his senior colleagues dedicate up to 20% of their time to recruiting the right people, to try to avoid introducing bad apples into the workforce.

“We place an enormous emphasis on rigorous recruitment,” he says. "We’re not just looking at someone’s experience and technical skills, we spend a lot of time looking at team skills. ”

This commitment to ensuring a cohesive workforce is not always evident, possibly because bosses generally are considerably less troubled by disruptive individuals than other staff. About a third of people earning between £15,000 and £35,000 — a salary bracket likely to include some managers — report a disruptive employee, compared to one in five of those earning more than £100,000.

While this suggests there are fewer bad apples in leadership positions than elsewhere, it could indicate something more worrying — bosses who simply aren’t aware of disruptive staff .

“It creates a big problem if the leader — who can do something about the disruption — is unaware of the issue,” says Bradon.

While a management full of “yes” men and women is not desirable, where there is a troublemaker present just 67.3% of senior managers report disagreement in the top team to be open and constructive. This increases to 84.8% where there is no disruptive element.

“Self-assured high performers can dominate group discussions and make it less consultative,” says Willmott. “People who are less self-assured might feel intimidated. They won’t put forward their ideas, even though they are equally valid.”

A disruptive manager could stifle feedback and people will think their manager doesn’t respect their ideas.

An average factor decrease of 12%, from 66.5% to 54.4%, shows that disruptive behaviour also takes its toll on staff’s wellbeing. Stress increases, people feel under more pressure and there is a notable effect on overtime.

“I suspect disruptive individuals are making everyone else do more work,” says Bradon. “If you’ve got someone who doesn’t get a job done, someone else has to do it. It causes enormous resentment among engaged employees who will go the extra mile and get the work done.”

Employees of all levels are picking up the slack of disruptive colleagues. Senior managers are working an average of one hour and 18 minutes longer every week where there is a disruptive individual. This reduces to 25 minutes a week for managers and 22 minutes for team members.

“Conflict at work is a major cost to businesses in terms of management time and, where things escalate, employment tribunals,” says Willmott.

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