VLAD THE IMPALER

Vlad the Impaler was a Romanian Prince in the 1400s. He is best known for the exceedingly cruel punishments he imposed during his reign . His favourite method of torture was a horse attached to each of the victim’s legs as a sharpened stake was gradually forced into the body. The list of other tortures he employed is extensive: nails in heads, cutting off of limbs, blinding, strangulation, burning, cutting off noses and ears, scalping, skinning, exposure to the elements or to animals, and boiling alive... Nice chap. I am sure there is a whole episode of Law and Order:SVU dedicated to one of his fans.


The modern age Vlad the Impaler who will appear from time to time in this blog, is a managing partner of professional services firms or other senior partner in a management position, psychopath and narcissist, and he (usually a he, but occasionally a she) employs the following tortures – reducing equity shares, exclusion from meetings, open hostility, undermining to direct reports, changing the rules without telling you, marginalising, dismissing, making sure everything happens to enhance his view of himself and others’ view of him, taking credit for the work of others, blaming others for his mistakes, misinformation, or keeping important information to himself, character assassination about which you can do nothing because you are blissfully unaware it is happening until it is too late – generally making one’s life so miserable one wants to run screaming from the building. They completely lack empathy and in some cases border on being sociopaths. Again, SVU comes to mind. I imagine them as children sticking pins in butterflies while alive or torturing kittens while mummy imagines they are studying hard to be prime minister one day. Mummy could be the problem now that I think of it. Too much adoration and not enough thrashings with a leather belt.

There are many Vlads out there ruling firms with tyranny – evil geniuses who I imagine lie awake at night thinking of new ways to torment the poor bastards who report to them. The scary thing is that they seem to enjoy the carnage they create – and while their victims are shattered and relive each horrible torment over and over again, Vlad moves on very quickly, free of remorse, and in fact convinced his actions are for the victims’ and the firms’ own good. He acts in a very logical, deliberate way and because he lacks any empathy can and does move on very quickly.

I look forward to sharing Vlad stories from time to time because he is the person at whom I most want to shout:

AMFYOYO