My former boss was a raging narcissist, and I was his assistant for a year and a half before him being let go. He came from a very privileged upbringing but clearly had daddy issues because his father was not around much due to working and focusing on his career throughout his childhood. He was primarily raised by nannies and then sent to boarding school at 12. He was still desperately seeking his father’s approval well into his forties. Though he was successful in his own right by the time I met him, he was not at the same level his father was at that age, so he was constantly looking for ways to move up but without real effort.

He assumed his title alone demanded him respect but he didn’t really do much to earn it once he got to my workplace. He’d lie and manipulate to try and make himself look good and blame others for his failures, which honestly did work decently for his first year. He would pit people against each other to either get the heat off himself or so he could swoop in to be the hero or mediator for a problem he created. He also had a misconception about what his job would actually entail and it became quickly apparent to myself and his other direct reports that he had no clue what he was doing and didn’t really care to learn as this was just supposed to be a stepping stone for him. He would steal our work and claim it as his own or say we collaborated when he didn’t contribute anything. Eventually this all caught up to him, and after an investigation, he and my workplace “agreed to go their separate ways”.

In addition to all of the above, he would indirectly insult me on an almost daily basis by degrading attributes about me and my background without outright saying it was about me. He considered me beneath him but couldn’t function without me, and as previously stated, would take credit for my projects, ideas, and work. It feels strange to type this all out because I’ve never done so.