Drama king

I work in a very small department in the Seattle office of a national company. Which makes things difficult on days, like today, when my boss throws himself into the ring of office politics like a boxer hellbent on muscling his way to a victory. And that's not enough...he has to drag his few underlings into the fracas for the instant replays.

It's so infuriating to hear him be rude and almost nasty over the phone to a coworker in another city, then suddenly become all joking and friendly halfway through, as if to say "I've beaten you down, and now that I am clearly dominant, I can extend niceties to you from the security of my lofty position." I want to throttle him, truly.

So today, he sends a few rather combative e-mails to his boss, which he shares with his underlings. Very inappropriate. And then he goes a bit, well, manic, being extra-super-duper helpful and team-playerish to other collegues, as if he realized he'd gone a bit too far. It just makes me tired. It's one thing to be a drama queen, entirely another to work for a drama king. The prospect of working 24-7 to start my own business seems positively gleeful by comparison.