The call would have gone smoother if the person continued to just say yeah yeah okay sure click.

Nice essay! I like how the author defines what's going on in the conversation. I have a hard time recognizing these kind of things myself.

For me personally it seems like many work environments are toxic because of the people in them. I'm very susceptible to manipulation but not good-natured about it if I feel like someone is doing it to me.

At first it wasn’t clear which person was the psychopath. His refusal to simply call did not help this situation.

You can never win versus a psychopath. In my experience dealing with several as a freelancer is to never give them any conceived power over you. Wether personal or professional. In the future they will use any ammo available to get what they want.

I see it as a game of chess dealing with this kind of person.

Dealt with a narcissistic psychopath who behaved like this. They made a lot of money negotiating big deals.

Don’t understand how you dealt with them. It seems like you just played against them the entire time.

Not buying in to their tricks is only really treading water... he didn't deal with anything. There will be further attempts.

>>But if I point at her and say, “That entrepreneur is a lying, manipulative, soulless psychopath who brutally exploits labor from the eleven-year-olds she employs in her sweatshops in Indonesia,” then you probably think I am insulting her, unless you are a libertarian.

That's a low blow. It's reckless to make these kinds of broad generalizations, that are based on multiple layers of assumptions about very complex topics/phenomena.

Zzz boring, no substance, I would simply not respond or shut the phone