With a bit of fantasy, one could infer narcissism or cocaine abuse from some parts of the story: the childish ever-moving meeting with subsequent blaming of the victim, all the while ignoring that there were other managers (i.e. non-victims) being annoyed by the same ever-moving meeting.
I read this article in the same way. Some kind of narcissistic personality that doesn't want to account for they are simply an arsehole and needs excuses. Sound like when they were CEO of ~100 employees they could get away with people accepting this behavior and feel accepted but now they lost 'im in control of your career' the reality check is here and they are looking for excuses.
Had a friend working in first level support. He told me stories once in a while. And it sounds pretty close...
From our point of view it sounds idiotic. Even sometimes narcissistic. But in there world it makes sense, because they have no idea how those two actions connect.
Both this article and your comment sum-up what I have really been struggling with lately at work. I’ve never experienced such a narcissistic person and have had a hard time not only dealing with their behaviour, but identifying it for what it is in the first place.
Perhaps why this was posted, snippet from the article:
> In the workplace, narcissistic collapse can also resemble a tantrum. A boss with NPD, for instance, may impulsively fire people, bully others, or make nasty threats about how they intend to give people consequences.
The described behaviors could be narcissism but are likely innocent ADHD. I have noticed that unmedicated highly ADHD persons will inject themselves into conversations they were never party to of close physical proximity and then redirect the conversation to their personal experiences.
To the uninformed these behaviors look like narcissistic personality disorders, but they are not. They are instead multiple hyper-stimulus seeking behaviors devoid of context and patience. Also bear in mind many people are ADHD absent of a diagnosis or diagnosed well into adulthood.
This paints a picture of someone with a history of causing conflict. It points to negative personality traits (narcissism), and these people can be expected to wreck organisations.
I can believe that - there is always the risk of what amounts to (hopefully mild) narcissism ( and the inevitable insecurity that narcissism spawns ).
There's always a missing subtext to something like this - this really does have a "John Henry and the steam drill" feel to it. "Chaos Monkey is now the story. You are not of the body. GTFO." Bummer, man :)
I love your last paragraph. The Thing is the only one what knows when it will come to be. Over-grinding is a definite anti-pattern.
There is probably not a general theory of this - it's just going to be wrong a lot.
It's... scary sometimes, reading comments like these.
On one hand, I identify with what you've written here. I too had issues (still have) with working on a team.
On the other hand, I find myself identifying with someone with clear narcissistic tendencies, or at the very least is supremely unaware of themselves.
Why write this little confessional here, a place that's clearly not about you or your specific issue? Why couch it with tons of "but I didn't actually do anything wrong" notes? Why write it in such a rambling, stream-of-consciousness style? Why put these weirdly specific anecdotes, and why would the reader (who is the reader, by the way) even believe you?
I see these comments, and I get scared, because I recognize that this is how some people view me, and that's... not good.
The level of narcissism here is astounding. The notion you can step in on day one to a complex organization and immediately have all the answers is psychotic.
You could separate out the behaviors that aren't bad from those that are, and document the bad ones, then bring that to a manager and ask for some help.
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