There’s always some deeply emotionally insecure white guy. He’s always a greedy, manipulative tyrant, even if he covers it with a veneer of kindness or generosity most of the time He’s usually NOT the brightest bulb in the room, but he’s usually the most cunning, which is not the same thing. He often doesn’t understand the more complex aspects of the organization very well, if at all. He’s usually his own worst enemy in terms of leadership, increasing productivity and maintaining team moral, something he seems completely oblivious to. He tends to take all the wrong lessons from various small crises, such as senior employees leaving or customers cancelling contracts. Everyone around him knows they’re the wrong lessons, everyone except him.

The worst part about him, is everyone coddles him, humors him, and lets him believe his own bullshit all the time without calling him on it. This calcifies the worst aspects of his toxic behavior and hardens them to stone. He usually mistakes criticism or “insubordination” as jealousy of his success, and responds to it by being smug and patronizing.

At the end of the day, the workplace social contract is actually just as bad for that guy as it is for everyone else, at least in terms of his mental health and stability. It enables him to live in a bubble where his opinions are facts and his words are given more respect than they deserve. He also thinks the people around him like him and admire him a lot more than they do. And when it comes out that they don’t, his feelings are hurt far beyond what’s called for.

I’m sure he’s not always white, that’s just my experience. And I’m sure he’s not always he, that’s just also my experience. But it sure as hell IS my experience.