Working Life: Don't Mess with...

Chris Evans, television and radio presenter: Has given his staff dressingdowns on air. His former personal assistant said, "People are treated appallingly at Ginger [his company] and the climate of fear comes from the top. Everyone is so scared of Chris they call him God behind his back."

Sir John Birt, Director-General of the BBC: Michael Grade said Birt made the BBC "an airtight fortress from which no stray opinion is permitted to escape". Mark Tully, BBC India correspondent, accused him of creating a "climate of fear". The late Dennis Potter said that "fear and loathing was swirling jugular high" under his ruling.

Robert Maxwell, the late head of the Mirror newspaper group: Not-so- benign dictator. A browbeater extraordinaire, of family as well as employees. Routinely publicly humiliated employees, including his sons. "A man of immense ego... he had a complete disregard for the sensibilities of others," wrote journalist Roy Greenslade. A Department of Trade and Industry report deemed him unfit to run a public company.

Bill Clinton, US President: Leading exponent of "Do as I say, not as I do". Pays lip-service to family values and prayer but has been exposed as a liar and an adulterer.

Gus, head of the fictitious newsroom in the Channel 4 satire, 'Drop the Dead Donkey': A hopeless toady to those above him and patroniser of those below, with a penchant for management jargon. Described as "slimy, grasping, untrustworthy".