a number of years ago, I called a friend with much more experience in the business about someone who was about to be my boss.

One of the first things he warned me about was "he will pit the staff against each other."

I couldn't understand why someone would do that.

people don't work better when you're playing them against each other, so what's the wisdom there?

The "wisdom" is that if you have everyone worried that every other face around the table is their enemy, those people aren't able to unite against the TRUE enemy

and if you're watching, you can see how they do it. With precision, they target the most insecure and the most vulnerable. they establish their power.

And if it drives people to quit, even better because then you bring in someone new who no one already has a bond with

there are many, many signs of a bad boss. and I've truly only had one awful boss on this level. Every other one I've had in TV is basically the polar opposite.

That guy's never gonna work again, but his pathology is consistent among these kinds of abusive bosses.