Managing Up

20The Truly Terrible – Psycho Crazy Bully Tyrannical Screaming Egomaniacs

“He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot, will be victorious.”

—Sun Tzu, The Art of War

 

Real‐Life Story

Several years ago, I was at the dentist for my semi‐annual cleaning and checkup. I'd only had this dentist for a about a year or so, as Dr. X had bought the practice from my former dentist. Dr. X was okay. He was a bit of an “overseller” but hey, I only had to see him twice a year. I did, however, adore my hygienist, Ella. She was from Serbia and was a tough cookie. She was funny and honest. When Dr. X would try to upsell me on things I didn't need, Ella would shoot me a quick wink, which meant “Ignore him.” So, on this day, Ella had finished my cleaning and we were chit‐chatting while I waited for Dr. X to come in and do the dental exam. After five minutes or so, I asked if he was coming in soon (Ella knows that I am always in a hurry). “Oh, he should be in any minute,” Ella assured me. Just then, I started hearing a heated conversation in the room next door. Voices got louder, and one voice got extremely loud.

Naturally, at first, I was fascinated – I love to eavesdrop on a good argument – then the loud voices turned to screaming, and then the screaming got really bad; it started sounding abusive. Someone was berating somebody else very badly. It went from interesting to horrifying really fast. Ella got very quiet. Then suddenly it struck me – the screaming bully was my dentist! ...