How Dark Managers Can Exploit The Emotions Of Their Targets
Emotions, by their natures, are neutral signals indicating either positive or negative factors affecting us. For instance, anger might indicate that we feel offended by something we feel wrong; Fear might indicate that we’re facing some real or imaginary dangers; Guilt might indicate that we feel that we’ve done something wrong; Sadness might indicate that we’ve lost something we feel important. Therefore, an emotion that feels bad probably means we’re experiencing something we feel bad, instead of that emotion itself being bad.
Reasonable managers know these, so they’ll sometimes actively observe the emotions of their subordinates, colleagues and superiors, especially those emotions that seem to be off, as they might indicate some real problems that need to be addressed but are left unnoticed. For example, if they’ve enough time and noticed that a subordinate’s negatively affected by emotions that seem to be very inappropriate, the former will consider having a 1 to 1 talk to the latter, in the hope of finding issues that might have been pulling back him/her or even the others as well. In extreme cases, the former might even ask for help from therapists working in the same companies(assuming that such companies do have such resources) to assist both the subordinate and the reasonable managers to root out the potential sources of the issues.
In order for the reasonable managers to work sustainably well with both the job performance and emotional needs of themselves and the others, the reasonable managers are respectfully uncompromising(with reasons of course) on the job performance requirements towards themselves and the others while still being honest and open to the both of the emotional needs. Perhaps more importantly, the reasonable managers need the others to know that emotions, as long as they’re properly addressed, are actually welcome.
On the other hand, dark managers treat emotions of the others as opportunities to exploit them, since they know that emotions are so powerful yet misunderstood by the majority that most will be very vulnerable to well-executed emotional manipulations without even knowing what happened. The stupidest, typical and best dark managers view and use them very differently nonetheless, leading to very different exploitation and end results.
The Stupidest Dark Managers
The stupidest dark managers are blatantly reckless, unpredictable and unstable. They perceive emotions from the others indicating negative factors as threats, so the former will impulsively try to shut down these emotions. They might use extremely hurtful and unjust verbal attacks, obviously unfair office policies, making barely legal but totally immoral punishments via fully abusing their power, or occasionally even physical violence that are hard to prove. Regardless of what those stupidest dark managers are doing, the goal is to put the targets in constantly severe real dangers so the latter will be too scared to ask for help or show any emotion that might offend the former.
Of course, unless those stupidest dark managers are too powerful to be stopped, they won’t last for months or even weeks. But for those who do have such power, their targets will be afraid of facing such a malicious blacklist that can force them to change professions, or in really extreme cases, even end their whole career entirely, so those targets won’t have the courage to seek for help or resist on their own. Meanwhile they’ve to be extremely cautious not to do anything that the stupidest dark managers don’t like, who can change their preference drastically at anytime. While their targets will eventually fail to please them enough, the latter will always think that the former’s at fault.
Because those stupidest dark managers have no limits on anything, their targets will never be sustainable, meaning that the latter will eventually take revenge, perhaps suicidally, in the hopes of bringing the former with them. It’s because the former have effectively sealed all reasonable outlets of the anger the latter’s experiencing due to the sheer amount of unjust over a long time, causing the accumulated anger in the closed system to burst out all at once when the latter can no longer contain the anger. While the container of anger is usually the even greater and more powerful fear, if the targets of those stupidest dark managers have lost so much that they feel that they’ve nothing more to lose, the former will suddenly have nothing to fear anymore. Therefore the sudden anger outburst is like a highly pressurized and hot gas suddenly losing its container, which is of course disastrous to the extreme.
The endgame is either the stupidest dark managers sadistically obliterating all their targets, being the only ‘winner’ remaining who’ll likely be left alone for a very long time, their targets and the stupidest dark managers ending each other in extremely violent ways, or in rare cases, the stupidest dark managers being utterly devastated despite of its tremendous power, at the cost of heavily irreversible sacrifices and losses. In short, the endgame will always be ugly.
The Typical Dark Managers
The typical dark managers usually appear to be positive, reasonable and responsible, even though their real selves are usually far from what they seem to be. They perceive emotions from the others indicating negative factors as their weakness to be utilized, by making them feel that they’re accountable for those negative factors. Even though most of those factors are actually beyond their control, the former can still make the latter feel that someone has to be responsible for those factors, and the latter fail to find anyone else who could be responsible for them, effectively inducing the latter to take responsibilities that don’t belong to them in the first place. Continuing on this road, they’ll begin to negate the very importance of being assertive on their own rights.
Because those typical dark managers seem to be positive and responsible, their targets will likely feel that they’re negative and irresponsible in comparison, especially when they appear to avoid responsibilities that have to be taken by someone; Because those typical dark managers appear to be reasonable, their targets will likely feel that they’re unreasonable in comparison, especially when they seem to care too much about their own emotional suffering instead of the big picture nor the others’ difficulties.
Even when there are times where the latter’s indeed reasonable while the former doesn’t, the former’s still so good at sophistry that things will be perceived as the opposite. Or, those typical dark managers can admit that their targets are reasonable on their demands, but the situation’s so harsh and hard to correct that the former will fail to meet the demands of the latter, even when that’s completely not the case. After all, it’s unlikely that the latter will be able to verify this anyway, so they’ll have to sacrifice themselves for the job.
Over a long enough period, the targets of those typical dark managers will fear for being negative just by caring about their emotional suffering, feel obligated for being responsible for everything that throws to them, and feel guilty for being unreasonable for not sacrificing themselves for the big picture.
On one hand, the targets of those typical dark managers will likely face mental breakdowns after several years or at most decades, so they’ll unlikely be sustainable. It’s because everyone has their own limits on taking burdens that don’t belong to them, and those typical dark managers are maximizing their own gains by softly forcing their targets to overly exceed their limits.
On the other hand, those typical dark managers themselves can be sustainable for their complete career(even though that’s not always the case), as they can just find some unknowing newcomers to replace those used up targets, and the others will perceive those typical dark managers as having been trying their best to help their targets under such a bad circumstance, subtly meaning that the situation would be predicted as a lot much worse without those typical dark managers. If the others question why they can be sustainable in such a harsh environment while their targets can’t, those typical dark managers can simply make the answer appear to be that they’re exceptionally positive, reasonable and responsible, as it’s hard for the others to verify those.
To strengthen the positive images of those typical dark managers, they’ll usually appear to be caring of the emotions of their targets, and will even give small but seemingly valuable rewards like public praise, better job titles, more workplace facilities and items, and perhaps trivial extra benefits. All the while, their targets will continue to usually work too hard overtime but under paid, even though they’ll have warm but little compensations once a while. When asked to work less overtime and raise the salaries, the typical dark managers will always seem to have tried their best to accommodate but fail at the end.
These little tricks can work because most people act on their short-term emotions rather than long-term values most of the time, and sometimes even small compensations that feel warm can already fulfill their emotional needs, at least intermittently. So the targets of those typical dark managers will at most blame the external environment being so harsh while feeling that those typical dark managers are trying to help and be nice with them, even though those typical dark managers are the sources for the actually toxic workplace.
The Best Dark Managers
The best dark managers are the extremely rare managers that are highly gifted on dark management, which is combined with their thorough comprehension on the essence of emotions and their targets(they’re perhaps even better than some psychologists in this realm). They perceive emotions from the others indicating negative factors as their golden chance to align the values of the latter into that of the former, meaning that the latter will think that they can achieve their values by being willingly exploited by the former.
In general, the best dark managers will convince their targets into thinking that their values are manifested by their contributions towards the others via completing important tasks well, which can be somewhat under their control. It means that instead of their targets working for the best dark managers, the latter seem to be partners letting the former work for their long term values. For instance, in addition to most of what the typical dark managers do:
If the targets feel angry, instead of helping them to figure out the real problems(they don’t know the best dark managers are the causes), those best dark managers will teach and motivate their targets to convert their anger into positive energies pushing them towards achieving their values by working even harder for those best dark managers(so the targets will fight for the best dark managers instead of fighting back), all the while persuading them that using anger this way is a hallmark of mature, reliable and resilient people.
If the targets feel sad, instead of helping them to take back what they deserve(they don’t know the best dark managers are the thieves), those best dark managers will teach and motivate their targets to convert their sadness into positive experiences enabling them to be more compassionate towards the others facing similar hardships(so the others will unite to keep each other to be more sustainable rather than resisting those best dark managers), all the while persuading them that experiencing sadness is the prerequisites for having such invaluable compassion, which is an extremely admirable trait.
If the targets are afraid of the unreasonable tasks handed by those best dark managers(they don’t know those tasks can be reasonable), instead of helping them to make those tasks more reasonable, those best dark managers will teach and motivate their targets to convert their fear into valuable opportunities enabling them to extend their comfort zone and foster their growth by overcoming unprecedented challenges(so they’ll cognitively reframe those best dark managers as their life mentors), all the while persuading them that such a can-do attitude is the cornerstone of most successful people, which is extremely rare yet openly respected and praised.
Of course, all these examples need those best dark managers to be extremely charismatic, likeable and persuasive, because they not only need their targets to feel the positives of actually being exploited that way, but also that the former’s not trying to exploit the latter at all. Otherwise primitive nonsense like “It’s your honor to be my personal slave” would still work for most people. Therefore, one needs to have at least some well-developed born aptitudes and gifts to have a reasonable chance to be one of the best dark managers ever.
Nevertheless, those best dark managers pulling off the trick will cause their targets to be so energetic on working for the former that they’ll eventually be afraid of not being exploited by the former, all because the latter genuinely believe that they need the former to achieve their long-term values. If the others points out that the targets are just being exploited by those best dark managers and encourages the former to seek for help, the former will even actively resist both, sometimes to the point of legitimizing those exploits.
To strengthen the life mentor images of those best dark managers, they need to quickly nurture at least 1 targets that seem to be successful precisely by experiencing those exploitative behaviors. That target’s expected to only briefly thank those dark managers, as the key for that target’s to share how he/she’s become so ‘successful’ by overcoming all the ‘necessary’ challenges imposed by those exploitative behaviors. If the other targets feel so daunted that they want to quit, they’ll be encouraged not only by their ‘life mentor’, but also their ‘alumni’, so they’ll feel even more supported, hopeful and energetic.
It’s true that the targets are constantly working too hard overtime while being really underpaid, but in addition to the little tricks used by the typical dark managers, the best dark managers can also ‘enlighten’ their targets that such phenomenon means that they’re working for achieving their values rather than salaries, and their values are so important to them that they’re worth giving up work-life balance. After all, over rewarding for completing the task can sidetrack the motivation from achieving the values inherent in the task to those rewards themselves, which is actually less rewarding in the long term.
You may think that those best dark managers will be constantly vulnerable to headhunters, who can just offer a significantly better package to their targets, now that the latter have become rare but ideally sustainable workaholics, effectively stealing the fruits nurtured so hard by those best dark managers. But those best dark managers are so confident in their uniqueness to their targets that the latter would be already too emotionally dependent to the former to the point that the latter will likely refuse even the best package imaginable, for the fear of losing such a seemingly flawless ‘life mentor’. Without this ‘life mentor’, they’re afraid that they’ll suddenly malfunction.
While most of the best dark managers will likely be falsely perceived as heroes/heroines for centuries or even millennia, they’re still not eternally safe, as there could still be extremely rare accidents spoiling their plans. While they know the limits of their targets and won’t ever exhaust them, sometimes misfortunes just happen outside of the control of those best dark managers.
Say, if one of their targets suddenly have a serious traffic accident but managed to survive with consciousness, even the best dark managers will be afraid of having their true selves exposed. It’s because such accidents force the target to be independent of those best dark managers for a long time, giving the target and those close to them many chances to reflect on the dependence towards those best dark managers and their actually exploitative behaviors. Without the constant brainwashing from those best dark managers, it’s likely that the target will eventually be able to think clearly and realize the truth.
To prevent that from happening, those best dark managers need to invest a lot into the target, including some of the medical fees, constant caring and warm visits, and even treat some of the hospital days as paid leaves in some cases. While those best dark managers will never care one bit about the best interest of the target, they still need to appear to be so to minimize the chance of having their exploitative behaviors revealed. After all, the elimination of any potentially significant risk’s way more than worth even such hefty costs. If everything goes really well, those best dark managers can even brainwash those close to their targets, thus converting a serious risk into fruitful results.
In cases really unfortunate to those best dark managers where their true natures are exposed, they’ll have to prepare for defending their exploitative behaviors while being ready to launch the previously planned character assassination plans designated for the target on time. However, character assassination’s always such the last resort that no best dark managers will ever use it unless they really have absolutely no other possible choices. All these mean that no matter how well the best dark managers are executing dark managements, they still have to have tons of contingency plans to be always prepared for the very worst. After all, it’s better to be safe than sorry.