The Greg House School of Management
Students, Hijacking 101 requires the following textbooks:
1) Snakes in Suits by Dr. Robert Hare and Dr. Paul Babiak;
2) Moral Mazes by Robert Jackall;
3) The Management Trap by Dr. Chris Argyris;
4) Assertive Incompetence by Douglas Becker.
Extra credit for those who read "The Seven Habits of Highly Successful..." whatevers and writes a paper on how hypocritical it is [for pointers, read "The Management Trap"].
Everybody is lying. The most pathetic liar is the Tech who believes he / she has done a good thing by improving a product that makes it better for a customer. It wasn't worth the time and effort: In the end, it will go back to being the way it was, and the poor schmuck who improved it will be worse off politically speaking -- he / she should have just left it alone instead of meddling with a perfectly mediocre product.
It should be pointed out that although the manager is [if we can believe the Tech's presentation] a psychopath and is working [ala "Snakes in Suits"] to destroy the credibility of the Tech for his / her own gain, it is the company which selected this sociopath in the first place. Trust the company. They know what kind of managers are best to keep themselves in business [for no other reason than for self-existence].
The best thing for the Tech to do is shut up, stop being helpful, share nothing and maximize and leverage their position while objectifying their manager as their manager has objectified them. The best thing to do for interpersonal relationships with this manager is to discretely and secretly undermine his / her credibility at every turn to those that matter without being caught. Machiavelli may be helpful, but the original list above is better because it is more up to date.
Everyone lies.
To succeed, get good at it.
And stop worrying about anyone else, because, in the end, they don't matter, only you do.
Stop whining.
Someone may hear you.
That would be bad for your career.
