Annual leave. A day of rest. Yeah right.
Sacrifice half of that for a meeting: planned at short notice and due to involve me, a middle person and someone else who I shall call Maggie (not a real name, you understand… but bears an attitudinal semblance to a famous person in politics).
I arrive for the meeting to discover that Maggie can’t cope with a meeting on her own. Instead she’s brought an uninvited henchman. At almost no notice.
Never mind, carry on. Rise above it. [I've risen above it so far that I'm sharing space with meteorological balloons]
End result: I have been comprehensively bullied but at least I’ve made a diagnosis.
Maggie satisfies the diagnostic criteria for narcissistic personality disorder.
“A pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and a lack of empathy”… absolutely.
“… excessively preoccupied with issues of personal adequacy, power, and prestige”… oh yeah!!
See http://www.halcyon.com/jmashmun/npd/dsm-iv.html
Do I feel better having made the diagnosis? Sadly not. I just wish I didn’t have to deal with Maggie!