For a friend: help torture my (fictional) boss

February 23, 2015 2:08 AM

The plot of my mystery novel hinges around a "Caine Mutiny" type situation in a public relations/issues management company. The boss in question is a sixty-ish woman whose younger, hipper staff think she is overdue for retirement but who refuses to believe that she is not as good as she once was. She's desperately insecure, status conscious, egotistical, and may or may not be in the beginning stages of some kind of dementia. Here's your chance to unleash your fantasies: If you were a mean, immoral employee, how would you go about undermining someone like that? Have you ever witnessed or been part of a real-life situation like this? If so, what happened, and how did it end? How did the "victim" respond, and did their actions make things better or worse?

NOTE from rpfields: my friend promises me that any ideas/ anecdotes will be used for fictional inspiration only, and that any details of real-life situations will be completely unrecignizable by the time they reach the page.

posted by rpfields to Writing & Language