"Trump is behind the desk talking, talking. And everybody is sitting there pretending to listen."

[tanyev]

8. Had a boss like that. Desperately needed an audience All.The.Time.

His office was between the back workroom and the front area where the public sometimes came in to get copies of documents we had. It was also our only exit into the rest of the building where the restrooms and kitchen/break area were. So, lots of reasons for me to walk from the back workroom, where my desk was, past his open office door.

I soon learned to carry files and walk quickly past his door as if there was someone out front I was helping, because if you didn’t, chances were good he would call you into his office on some made-up reason and then you would dazedly emerge a couple hours later after hearing endless stories about himself, his family, people he didn’t like, future plans for the office, etc., etc.—all while I had stacks of work on my desk he definitely expected to be completed.

It was exhausting, and the longer he knew you, the more suspicious he got of you. Every new person that joined us eventually came to the same conclusion about him, though some took longer than others. We had a little good-bye party for him when he left to go work somewhere else, but the real party was after he was gone.

I’d never run into anyone like him before or since. And I’d never paid any attention to Trump before he began campaigning for president. But once Trump was out there 24/7 and stories started coming out about how he behaved in the workplace, I got serious deja vu.