"Petty Tyrant" on thisamericanlife.org

[Skyfarmr]

Listened to this in the car on way home yesterday, only caught the last half of show, but they were obviously telling a story about a psychopath. Here's the page you can find a podcast to this radio show: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/


A description of the story found on this week's homepage:

In Schenectady, NY, a school maintenance man named Steve Raucci works his way up the ranks for 30 years, until finally he's in charge of the maintenance department. That's when he starts messing with his employees. Teasing them at meetings. Punishing them with crummy work assignments. Or worse things, like secretly slashing their tires in the middle of the night.

The testimonies of those who were victims of this person's psychopathic actions were remarkably familiar.

podcast link: http://podcast.thisamericanlife.org/podcast/419.mp3

 

[Skyfarmr]

Apologies for the brief intro to the above post... lost track of time and had to get ready and leave for work.

I've had a chance to listen to the first half, and the second half again; here's a brief review of the hour long show.

This weeks feature show on This American Life, tells a story about Steve Raucci, the petty tyrant, who works his way up the ranks in a school district's facilities department. After being elected President of the Union, he is also promoted to a management position, which should, but doesn't force him to step down from his role in the Union as president. This obviously creates a conflict of interest, and fuels the creation of the tyrant who seems untouchable to those under his management and within the union.

Words used to describe Steve and or his tactics included: methodical, temper, fanatical control, manipulative bully, Machiavellian schemer, intimidation, coercive, terrorist, vandal, humiliating high-jinx, untouchable...


A journalist assigned to cover school news asks: How could this have happened?
One answer: "he was surrounded above and below by people who looked the other way"...
Coupled with victims who "needed my job", "nobody would listen to complaints", "no one would do anything about it", and "feared retribution".

Victim and observer responses before/after Steve gets prosecuted and convicted include:
"I blame myself for not doing more to get rid of Steve (out of the union)"
"I'm just doing what my boss/union pres. was telling me to do... with Steve, you're either with him, or against him"
"you have to show him the approval of what he had done (ie. retributive vandalism), or you might be next"
"Steve sees himself on the side of good..."
"You'd like to think that you'd do something different, but to be in it, you'd like to think you'd be righteous, but you don't know till you experience it for yourself."
"It was almost like being in a cult, like being brainwashed"

I found this show to be a reinforcement of what we've been taught through the various material presented in Laura's books, what's been shared on this forum, or may have experienced first hand, of how to recognize a psychopathic "petty tyrant".

Listening to how these people felt after their experience made me feel very thankful for all the knowledge that's been shared so graciously.

Knowledge protects, "but you don't know till you experience it for yourself".... :/

I mean it's kind of like learning CPR, ya study a lot, and practice, pass a test, and then nothing happens...and over time you get less and less sharp on what you learned about CPR, how to recognize the warning signs and whether you can rise to the challenge when needed and because no one has keeled over from a heart attack in your presence you may begin to doubt your skills and knowledge of CPR. I'd like to think that I'd be able to do what's correct(righteous), "but you don't know till you experience it for yourself."
That sort of unknown has always been sort of disconcerting to me.

 

[Buddy]

I mean it's kind of like learning CPR, ya study a lot, and practice, pass a test, and then nothing happens...and over time you get less and less sharp on what you learned about CPR, how to recognize the warning signs and whether you can rise to the challenge when needed and because no one has keeled over from a heart attack in your presence you may begin to doubt your skills and knowledge of CPR. I'd like to think that I'd be able to do what's correct(righteous), "but you don't know till you experience it for yourself."
That sort of unknown has always been sort of disconcerting to me.

I know what you mean. At the place where I worked 3 years ago, I was trained in CPR as a first responder on the night shift in case of an accident, a chemical spill, fire, etc.

The CPR training always began in a classroom with reading material.

I discovered it was very easy to learn the information in the written material and to think "I got it" and could easily do the techniques, just because I understood them intellectually and could visualize myself performing them.

Demonstrating the techniques on a dummy or live person is much, much different. No matter what you understand in your mind, the physical act of doing the work is like learning it again from the beginning, starting with nervousness and a fear you won't get it right.

To learn any skill, whether CPR or dealing with a petty tyrant, the moving center needs to get as much experience as the mind, doesn't it? :)


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Edit: for clarity