And I recommend self-forgiveness and humility. I gave one of my former, extremely highly toxic bosses the DSM test for psychopathy and he scored like 26 or something. He was very open and upfront about it and how he saw the world. Frankly, the average person is not mentally capable of dealing with that level of ‘personality’ without some serious side study, knowledge, and support. He wasn’t that smart of a guy either. His neuro makeup just made him a natural at manipulating everyone.
But management doesn’t have to be a five star psychopath to be incapable of correction from below. This is one of those times where simply desiring to act in bad faith and the societal backing of management makes a direct report or worker unable to counter the bad faith actions in any meaningful way on average. I’ve done it, I know how to do it, and it takes an incredible amount of wisdom and luck to pull off.
But management doesn’t have to be a five star psychopath to be incapable of correction from below. This is one of those times where simply desiring to act in bad faith and the societal backing of management makes a direct report or worker unable to counter the bad faith actions in any meaningful way on average. I’ve done it, I know how to do it, and it takes an incredible amount of wisdom and luck to pull off.