When the Person You Report into is Mean and Manipulative

What happens when the person that you are forced to report into (let us say P) is totally incompetent, unprofessional, unethical and a spineless creature?

Such a person will hold on to his position and comfortably remain in the good books of the top man by being a blind loyalist to the top man.

How do Ps in the corporate world survive?

First and foremost, they are blind loyalists of the top man, never take a stand and always stay in line without thinking of ethics and propriety, those can very well go to hell.

For them the top man is like god. And like a dog follows his master, whatever the top dog says, they will obey like an obedient puppy.

So, really speaking, they are are like corporate puppies wagging their tail behind the top dog.

In addition to the above, here are other ways they "somehow" manage.

• They are mean and manipulative
• They do not share relevant information with you
• Even if they share the information it is never on time
• They play dirty tricks behind your back
• They are totally unprofessional
• They are unethical

The Ps use the above techniques and manage to survive but only in certain types of organizations.

So what kind of organizations breed Ps like a swamp breeds mosquitoes?

Here are some characteristics of such organizations.

• In such companies merit has no place, only loyalty to the top man matters
• Such companies are managed by a coterie consisting of the top man and his stooges
• Such companies have unprofessional reporting structure
• Such companies have highly manipulative HR, where the HR head is a part of the dirty coterie, is extremely manipulative and carries a condescending air when dealing with employees
• Such companies have certain people who are beyond the policies and procedures
• Such companies are manged by the coterie of founding members who are unethical and unprofessional
• In such companies when someone resigns, the coterie plays tricks behind the back of the actual head of the department to show as if they are the most caring lot
• In such companies the hiring and HR folks are masters of double-game. They tell different stories to different people and keep the non-coterie stakeholders in the dark

It is easy to now imagine what would happen when you are forced to report into a P in such an organization?

Anything is possible other that what is fair, professional and good.

The P is well-entrenched in the system and is cool about that in a very cunning way along with the others in the coterie.

So what are the typical attributes of a P?

• He is mean and manipulative
• He is a slave of the top man
• He is a good pal of the others in the dirty coterie
• He comes to office when he wants to
• He shares information when he feels like
• He knows very well that he will never get fired (after all he is not in the company he is the company along with the coterie).
• He is a master manipulator
• He is incompetent but knows how to manage without doing anything
• He comes to office essentially to pass time and does so very cunningly by involving himself in corporate social activities, sports clubs, exercises classes, gymnasium, etc.
• He is asked to look after areas where he knows nothing due to this loyalty
• He gets promoted due to loyalty and not merit, which he doesn't have even an iota of

Handling a P who is mean and manipulative is very hard. He will do all the wrong things but can make it appear as if the other person did those wrong things.

He is more cunning than a fox and more poisonous than a snake.

The smart thing is to stay alert and stay away as getting involved in a fight could have disastrous consequences for you.

The reason for the above is that P is a blind loyalist of the top man. So if you talk to the top man, you know what will happen - nothing.

Also, P is a good friend of those in the coterie including the head of HR. So if you think talking to HR will help, you could not be more wrong.

Best strategy is to stay away from Ps to the the extent you can.

However, stay put till you get an option to move on to.

Do that fast. Handling Ps is tough. And the Ps are not going away any time soon!