Sybil

I'm beginning to wonder if the CEO isn't mentally ill. He seems to think that the only way he can get things done is if he has an adversarial relationship with his management team. To his defense, the management team has been less than helpful, and at times less than enthusiastic. There has even been one or two instances of outright rebellion. Not from me, of course. I have been the biggest and loudest company cheerleader imaginable. I have absolutely no reason not to.

Yet, the CEO's personality has done an almost one hundred and eighty degree turnaround. For the past two weeks, each one of my days has started with a meeting that lasts anywhere for half an hour to three hours, basically with the CEO ranting -- only to me, mind you -- about how everyone else in the company is out to sabotage him. He says some of the most viscious things about people in the office, and then has the nerve to turn around and complain about the negative attitude.

Last week I finally had to ask him if he saw anything of value in the people he was working with. He then did another one-eighty and talked about the proficiency and good nature of most of the people who work with us. They're nice and friendly, but complete idiots with vendettas against him. I guess.

For months I've been meeting with people, telling them that the CEO has a master plan and to stick with him. But it's hard to defend a master plan that includes a million dollars in bonus money to managers who've lost three million dollars this year. The best I can come up with is to say that it's a reward for not losing six million. And then I came up with the concept of mental illness. At the end of one of our meetings, after he spent an hour having a meltdown, I began to watch him closely. It was almost like he was struggling, trying to control a compulsion. And then after his outburst, he apologized. But that's when he also changed. I'm thinking the early stages of Alzheimers.

Or maybe I'm tired and cranky, and tomorrow I'll feel better. I'm leaving work early and then I have a midterm tomorrow night. Pass or fail, I'll feel better once I'm past the midterm.