Passive-aggressiveness and the boss is always right

About a week ago, I wrote a blog post in defense of passive-aggressiveness, at least on behalf of employees dealing with employers.

To follow up on that, I have a few brief additional thoughts about bosses, and superiors in general, and one aspect of their deploying passive-aggressiveness. 

If you're a "superior" dealing with an "inferior," and you're a Type A person in general, and as part of that, convinced that you generally know the best way to run your business or other operation, that's where passive-aggressiveness comes in. You simply refuse to discuss new ideas, therefore, you avoid having to discuss if old ideas are wrong.


Or, when mistakes happen, even when the "inferior" admits his or her responsibility for at least some of them, but also notes systemic problems, you refuse to discuss that. There's no compromise allowed.


And, not to go too Chris Mooney here, but that probably has certain bosses more likely to have certain political stances.