The martyr boss hostage dynamic
- YT :: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgdNkR-LCDg
- Original title :: How to Deal With a Martyr Toxic Boss
A "martyr" boss isn't saving the team with their weekend work, 3am fixes, and heroic all-nighters - they're making sure the team can't survive without them. Executives see the visible heroics; the team sees the reality underneath: one person hoarding access, skipping runbooks, and turning every fire into proof of their own indispensability.
Don't compete in the "busyness Olympics" - you won't out-suffer someone addicted to it. Instead, validate the effort verbally, then move the conversation to process: document priorities in writing, and force delegation through code review, runbooks, and shared on-call rotations. If the martyr punishes attempts to remove the dependency on them, that's not leadership - treat it as a sign to update your resume.