Perhaps there is no organisation or a group or set of people where the saint(s) and devil(s) do not reside as both, close and distant neighbours. Both know the art of coexistence. These elements are and remain in a state of confrontative competition in all entities. Each seeks in different ways to have pre-dominance on the environment and culture of the institution, or to state it more appropriately, this is true on a larger scale too, covering all facets of the society.
Perhaps there is no organisation or a group or set of people where the saint(s) and devil(s) do not reside as both, close and distant neighbours. Both know the art of coexistence. These elements are and remain in a state of confrontative competition in all entities. Each seeks in different ways to have pre-dominance on the environment and culture of the institution, or to state it more appropriately, this is true on a larger scale too, covering all facets of the society.
Since the ice melts from the top, as a corollary therefore, it is the personality of the CEO foremost, followed by the mental makeup of the senior management that goes to shape, determine and drive whether the organisation’s culture will be ‘saintly’ or ‘devilish’.
It is also a natural fact that each constituent of the human species has certain in-built and inherent characteristics that helps in segregating and classifying them between the two extreme poles of thought and behaviour. Since devilish and saintly traits remain in close proximity, almost side by side, it is not uncommon to find the otherwise saintly behaving in a devilish manner and the devilish operating saintly, within the course of a day’s work.
The mephistophelean managers and supervisors who have in them the “mean” streak as the dominant trait in their personalities, remain wicked, all the time. They spare no moment or occasion to bring to the surface the meanness of their attitude. These types of managers pride and relish their vile and uncouth behaviour.
The many ways that a supervisor appears devilish are clear and apparent. The satanic tendency of arrogance, shown, whilst they are managing is at full display; they are normally narcissistic and have scant respect for human emotions.
Those managers who are divinely blessed with saintly traits show and express concern for their teammates. They do not injure the base sentiments or rejoice in seeing others do so. They do not become accomplices to insult and injure of colleagues by way of criminal silence. They have the spine to stand and speak up. They confront and take on devilish bullies in the organisation. In my view the worst behaviour is to acquiesce to the errant manager, who is satanic by nature and devilish by action. They must be dealt with.
The demonic managers are possessed of sadistic tendencies that give them unlimited happiness. If they learn, for example, that a member of the team is intending to leave office early, they call such an individual at the last moment, usually at 4.50 p.m. and ask for something or the other to be done, immediately, although it may be most unimportant. They simply love holding back people in the office. These types of supervisors promote the culture of late sitting. Such idiotic approach to management leads to frustration and lesser productivity. Even those who work efficiently during the day are compelled by the environmental demands to stay up late at the office.
Readers can liberally imagine what great aches and pains such managerial stuff must have gone and is still going through, when as a result of the need arising out of the pandemic, had to concede to the concept of work from home or now popularly abbreviated as “WFH”.
During, WFH, all organisations have reported globally that they witnessed not only higher productivity but also saw major improvements in the quality of output delivered. But because it pains unceasingly to the deviant mind of many managers to see teammates ‘emotionally relaxed’, these have now ganged up globally to reinstate the need to be physically present in the workplace. The motive to do so is not anchored in the goodness of finding camaraderie, but is driven by a sense of meanness. Some organisations , that are super intelligent, have recognised the WFH concept is a good one to pursue --- it cuts through the bae of organisational expenses, from the rentals of the size of space occupied to the lowly figures of cost of utilities. These are good overtures of the management, who desire higher productivity, without having to deploy and use any coercive tools. This type of managers give time and space for rendering excellent performance.
The ungodly manager’s approach in attending to problems and issues is warehoused in ill-intentionality. A few of such, you would notice on an everyday basis, have an appearance of being angry … with their own selves or their environment --- they refuse to smile or be gentle or caring. Their skin is reptilian, no emotions penetrate into their bloodstream or thoughts.
Demons live on banyan trees . The old proverb is that nothing grows under the banyan tree. Similarly, a manager possessed of this trait finds it impossible to accept that any colleague would dare to grow, beyond the confines of his/her over encompassing shade of devilish influence. They are averse to the growth of others. Self centeredness dominates their actions. This ilk would set unreasonable targets. The general attributes attending to these manager’s personality include haughtiness, jealousy, envy, pettiness, matched suitably by the use of unbecoming vocabulary, during conversations.
The diabolically evil supervisors would weave a coarse web around the subordinates and yet would appear subtle. Rarely does the devil speak the truth , and if done so accidentally, it is only partial truth. Working alongside such individuals is a very difficult task. As William Shakespeare wrote in the “Merchant of Venice’’, “The Devil ( manager) can cite Scripture ( unintended goodness) for his purpose” (the bracketed words are mine!).
The iniquitous manager has no boundaries to his/her ill intent. This array of managers are like the busy bishop in his own diocese. There are managers who have in them a fiendish streak of vindictiveness. They are unforgiving. They nefariously pursue their targets; they do not relent until they are satisfied that damage has been fatally inflicted. The reprisals are usually in the form of transferring to the Andaman Islands of the organisation … the most innocuous and unimportant division to freezing increments and withdrawal of bonuses. When rogues go in procession, the Cross is held by the devil is a famous biblical saying; where he cannot do harm himself/herself, he/she will find someone to do their bidding. An evil CEO will use the head of HR to do his dirty job; like process re-engineering, which in layman terms is laying off.
Virtues adorn the saintly. These managers are serene and placid. They normally do not have within them any smouldering volcano or an occasionally erupting one, that conveys distrust, dishonesty and ill intent. Saintly managers are as rare as the ‘Kohinoor’. They have been in short supply since the industrial revolution. A Chinese proverb reads: “There are two good men; one dead, the other unborn”.
The world today is divided (it actually has been since times immemorial) between virtue and vice, where the latter has greater share.
A devilish manager’s manifesto would invariably be in the form and format of being callous, suspicious, malicious, manipulative, aggressiveness, grandiosity and dominance. These traits are part of a research by Joshua Miller, a personality researcher and professor of psychology at the Franklin college of arts and sciences. He summed up these traits as, “we call it disagreeableness … it is a spectrum that spans antagonism to agreeableness”.
Several books and articles, including research papers have been written on how to deal with a deviant personality and devilish manager. They all recommend invariably not to respond, to remain calm and in control of emotions; not sound apologetic or defensive; essentially to remain cold and frigid against all provocations.
In family owned and operated businesses, the owner/manager, operates with manipulation, they rely heavily on the premise of expedient duplicity … one moment saintly; the other moment, a ferocious blood sucking devil, always in hunt to devour upon a colleague, who is seen to be a dissenter or who publicly takes them on … In our local corporate culture, all management largely operate under the dictum of being the owners “chosen ones”. Most are serpentine, unhallowed too.
For humour more than for substance, I end the piece with a quote attributed to, Mark Twain “A person (satan/devil) who has all time maintained the imposing position of spiritual head of four-fifths of the human race, and political head of the whole of it , must be granted the possession of executive abilities of the loftiest order”.
The writer is a senior banker and freelance columnist
